Chemical synthesis placement student Review

I hugely enjoyed all aspects of my placement.

Throughout my placement all of my work was greatly appreciated by other staff (not just my immediate supervisor). On numerous occasions I was personally thanked and rewarded for my work. The whole department treats the placement students as a crucial part of the department. The head of department in particular is very fond of the student programme makes the students feel very valued.

My supervisor was incredibly supportive of both my work for Lubrizol and my university obligations. I do not recall a single instance throughout my year placement when I required support or guidance and was not helped. Despite this, at no point was the supervision overbearing and I was left to my own devices as much or as little as I desired. If my supervisor was ever absent for work or holiday, the head of department as well as other full time staff members were extremely helpful if I needed help.

Due to the nature of the work my workload varied somewhat depending on the status of the projects I was working on. At certain stages in a project I was very busy (but not too busy), at other times the workload was a lot lighter and I somewhat struggled to keep busy. However, overall it provided a nice balance.

Throughout my placement I was given a lot of responsibility and treated with a lot of respect. The findings from my work were trusted without questions and used to progress significant projects for the company. I was always given the responsibility to manage my own time and my thoughts and opinions were taken into account when making decisions.

During my year I have gained a huge amount of experience conducting my own lab work. This will be very helpful as I continue lab work both in my future studies and career. Outside of the lab I gained experience presenting my work through powerpoint and poster presentations which will help in my future.

The placement students had their own office separate to the main office of full time staff members. The student office was often very quiet when others would be doing lab work, but was good atmosphere when it was busy. The main office was usually a friendly and chatty place to be especially during tea breaks.

Organised very well. The company is clearly very experienced with having placement students and as such know how to organise the programme well. There was a good handover period between new and old students both at the start and end of the placement which helps the new students to settle and get to grips with things.

The vast majority of the training provided was to help with specific systems or protocols within the company. Whilst these were very helpful at the time and appreciated, they will be off little benefit outside of the company. In terms of personal training all I can recall is there was a short course on putting a poster together for a presentation.

I would extremely like to come back and work for the company in the future. It is only my own personal ambition of getting a PhD which has stopped me from already having a job with them. At the end of the placement they also put on an event detailing options of future employment within different departments which is useful.

There is a relatively decent social scene between other students in Derby if you desire. I got on very well with a number of the other students and colleagues and would often meet up outside of work.

I commuted from an area which no other students would live in so I can't really answer this question personally. However, my friends suggested Derby is a relatively cheap place to live and socialise.

The nightlife in Derby is decent enough with a few good places to go to which aren't too expensive. The university is pretty small though so there's not exactly a huge student nightlife scene which a lot of other cities have.

There was a lot of stuff to get involved with through the sports and social club. Every week there is: 5 a side, badminton and rock climbing. The company puts out corporate teams for number of running races as well. There are quite a lot of one off and yearly trips for other things as well such as: go karting, laser quest, touring cars, ice skating, bowling, munroe bagging and coach trips to London, york and Liverpool. The society is always open to suggestions for new events as well.