Industrial Trainee - GMP Analytics Review

I did come to enjoy my placement very much. Although it started off slowly, and at times the progress of my project was frustrating, I enjoyed the combination of having an individual research project to call my own, in addition to getting involved with performing more regular day-to-day analytical testing, contributing a substantial set of important results to the department.

Although my colleagues were friendly and supportive, I did feel as if I didn't quite fit in; I was much younger than most of them, was coming from outside and had been educated to a different extent. Nonetheless, I became close to some of them and I felt at ease working with them. Much of the work performed in the department is very collaborative, so I enjoyed interacting with a variety of different people.

My supervisor was excellent. She always had time to answer any questions or provide support. At the start of the placement, she put in a lot of time for training me on various techniques, making sure I could start my project etc. Over time as I became more confident in carrying out these techniques, I was given less guidance by my supervisor, but the support was there as appropriate. I enjoyed working independently whilst knowing that if I did have problems I had someone to go to. I felt supported by the group leader but he had much less direct involvement.

Dismissing the early months of my placement, I had a decent level of work to do. Once I could properly start on my project, I was able to invest as much time as I could on that, whilst I also had more routine testing to perform. Sometimes this completely took over my day and I would find myself feeling overstretched, or frustrated that I couldn't spend time on my own project. Depending on this routine work, at times when my project was held up by something out of my control I struggled a little to find things to do.

I was given a good amount of responsibility. My project was significant for the department, and I was trusted to work on it more or less by myself. I was also given some significant pieces of testing to perform, and again trusted to perform these as any other analyst would have been.

Although my analytical chemistry placement was most definitely a diversion from my straight chemistry degree, I found most value in developing my confidence/technique working in a lab on a variety of projects at a time, and also working as part of a team. Much of the actual knowledge from my work will not be transferable to my studies, but my studies will definitely have benefited as a result of doing this placement.

My office was full of friendly people, and there would be regular conversation, but I wouldn't describe it as a fun office.

The initial months of the placement were a bit of a struggle, as I couldn't properly begin work on my project, and I received training on some techniques but this didn't mean I could perform many tests in the department. Things move slowly at Pfizer, and it did seem a bit as if I couldn't jump straight in to my placement.

My supervisor invested a lot of time and effort on me in terms of my development, and she would always push for me to try new opportunities and explore new avenues. Sometimes I would have to push myself, for example suggesting I wanted to present to the department, or wanted to be trained in a new technique, for which she would be very supportive.

Although I was explicitly told to get in touch with the department in terms of looking for a job, because of Pfizer's current position they are not hiring very many new people at all, so it's not the case that a job is readily available. Potentially if a job was available in my department I would like to work there, but only for a short period of time. Other groups at Pfizer might be more interesting at this stage of my career than my placement department.

Amongst the placement students, a good few were keen to socialise with each other. A lot of us would meet for lunch every day. Outside of work there would be regular activities.

Compared to London, where I had been studying, working at Sandwich and living in Ramsgate was very cheap.

The nightlife in Ramsgate is poor (compared to London) but if you embrace it for what it is it can be ok. Canterbury is better. Standards of nightlife probably lower than any university city.

The placement students were very keen to explore different areas of the business, so we gave each other tours of our departments, and presentations on our projects etc. I became very involved with running STEM activities, so working with school children to encourage a scientific career. I also supported several work experience students. There were various volunteering opportunities, e.g. gardening. We had 5 allocated days for these outside of work activities.