Placement Student Review

I really enjoyed my placement. Not only did I get to be involved with interesting work, but the work place environment was very friendly, fun, supportive and most of all made me want to come into work each day.

I felt like just another worker and not looked down upon for being a 'placement student'. I feel it helped me get on with work and get the full experience of a work placement.

Management and my supervisor offered me as much support as needed without 'mothering' me. They allowed me to make my own mistakes but offered me support when needed to ensure improvements for both my own sake and performance for them.

I never felt like I had absolutely nothing to do. Whilst saying this I didn't feel 'snowed under' at any point so never felt under stress.

I was given a reasonable amount of responsibility and allowed to design my own experiments whilst also receiving instructions from management of overall goals and deadlines.

The skills developed at Lubrizol will help me with efficient and safe lab practice when back at university or in the future when I progress my career. My write ups will also have improved to give me further improvements in organisation and help in a future job

The general office atmosphere had a laid back feel whilst also giving a professional, 'work gets done' environment. Everyone got on with their work whilst also having a laugh and chat throughout the day. The office all got along as not only colleagues but as a tight knit group of friends too.

Everything in the placement seemed to go smoothly from the application and interview process, to the final medical and HR appointments.

The company offer various training courses including first aid, fume cupboard, glass handling etc which not only offered help in my day-to-day work here, but also in moving forward to future work. There were many training courses which were offered, both compulsory and not.

I would heavily consider working for Lubrizol when I finish my degree provided a job was available.

Myself and the other placement students became great friends and normally organized a social dinner event for the office every 1-2 months. There was also a Christmas party organized by the company which was a lot of fun and helped build relationships between the students and people in the company, they would not normally be involved with.

Working In Manchester meant there were a large variety of living arrangements and I lived in a student house alongside 4 other university students (not on placement). The house was affordable as was transport and living costs. Social life in the city centry is very good and very affordable.

Manchester has a thriving nightlife which, should you wish, offers a variety of different club night alongside many areas of bars and restaurants.

Being a student area there were huge opportunities to get involved with different social groups, sports teams and different activities. I joined a weekend football club and played frequent football at a local 5-a-side organization near to my accommodation.