Biomarker discovery student Review

I enjoyed it alot, there was a lot of interesting and exciting new oppurtunities and learning experiences both in the lab and out. I learnt about a large spectrum of diseases through lectures by various experts, learnt techniques with equipment not available university labs and also improved my knowledge of statistics hugely. The team i was placed with were extremely friendly and there were plenty of oppurtunities to socialise with other students on the same site.

I felt very valued, I had some medical problems throught out the year and they were always very accomadating to my problems, helping me to find work rounds and making sure i was in good condition. They mentored me in the lab and we ate lunch as a group most days with occassional pub visits for celebrations.

They were always spot on, after i had settled into my placement i would have a supervisor meeting every friday to discuss my lab work and university work. I would be offered advice on both and any questions i needed further guidance on answered. If i needed additional help during the week there was always someone on hand to help.

It varied, at the start i was less busy while learning new techniques and completing training. As i became more independent i would run a lot of my own experiments and write up lab reports, i was very busy during the middle of my placement where i was placed on a high priority project. Towards the end i was able to focus more on my university project allowing a calmer period of work.

I became very independent, designing my own experiments from scratch according to the needs of the team. I would run at least one experiment every day at the peak of my placement and always had lots of data to analyse.

They will be of great assistance for my final year project and my future studies and work. I have gained lots of confidence in the lab learning new techniques and using new equipment, i have improved my analysis and interpretation of data and frequently presented my work in front of an audience. All skills which are very important to develop in a scientific career.

Generally very friendly and relaxed, there is a culture of sharing biscuits and cakes and anything home grown. It is a very inclusive atmoshphere which means anyone can be approached for a chat and cup of tea, work related or otherwise.

I found it to be very well organised, I felt like I was always given objectives and a direction with my work, there were a few hiccups but only because my supervisor had to go on sick leave, issues were quickly resolved though and within a week I had a step in supervisor to help me. I nearly always had a firm plan in my mind for what i would be doing each week.

There were alot of training oppurtunities presented over the year, from presentations of new machines, to organised work shops, group learning statistics and learning new programs such as eLNB and the stats programme R. Every week there are outside speakers on various subjects meaning there is almost always an oppurtunity to learn something new.

I would say it would be driven by the student themselves, throughout the year lots of jobs within the company/masters and phd oppurtunities are presented to IPs first so that we can have applications in early. However we would go through the exact same interview process as all other candidates to keep it fair. Although I really like this company, all of the research centres are in the south. I would prefer to work further north in the future to be closer to family, so it doesnt appeal to me. Although i know plenty of others who have applied!

Yes, there were plenty of activities organised by our social team IPunite. They had socials which involved pub nights, bowling, cinema, museum visits, laser quest, paintball and night outs. They generally tried to include all types of people and tried to keep the spectrum broad so everyone could get involved.

Living i found was a little more expensive than york with rent, food and activities were also notably higher. All social activities were generally more expensive and drink prices were shockingly awful for someone whos come from a place with 75p drinks. However having a job that pays certainly helped to get over the shock.

The house parties were better than the clubs which were shockingly expensive and filled with lots of middle aged and slightly scary people. Not to mention small and awful music that no one can recognise or enjoy unless drunk. There was solace in london being only 20 minutes away by train, where there was a much better quality of nightlife, if your willing to save up a couple of weeks for a much better night that is.

If you were willing to look for them, i went to the gym regularly to play badminton, and also regularly played games with work mates. But not much past that other than IPunite activities.