Chemical Synthesis Student Review

Enjoyed the placement. The site and colleagues were a huge positive to the placement. My confidence in working in an lab has increased significantly which will definitely support me going into my final year at university and then further in my career.

Made some real strong friendships with many of the other students and full timers in the department. Everyone would always be really helpful if unsure of how to do something. On occasion would not be given as much responsibility as some of the other students despite working just as hard.

My direct supervisor was always very busy and this sometimes could lead to support or guidance I may have required to be put down at the bottom of their pile. This also led to not getting extra responsibility or opportunities some of the other students in the same department were offered.

I enjoy to be busy and was kept very busy on a day to day basis. This involved completing many reactions as well as balancing the paperwork required as well. At some periods throughout the year I would end up doing quite a lot of overtime but this was an independent decision.

Not given as much responsibility of some of the other students in the department and would have welcomed more.

The extent of the lab work really did increase my confidence. This will definitely help in my final year at university and into further life.

Atmosphere was good, everyone got on well with each other and strong friendships have definitely been made. There was enough of a balance of having fun along with getting the work done and taking things seriously when they needed to be. There was never much of a divide between the students and the full time colleagues enabling us to use their office too.

The set up for the placement was well organised. The fact we were able to spend a day with the other students joining the company on a familiarisation day before the placement started was really useful. Training was given within the initial weeks of the placement and the crossover period with previous students helped the settling in process.

The company provided opportunities to grow such as creating technical posters and presenting at both departmental and larger meetings.

After the last year I would definitely consider future employment with the organisation. It seems like a place of work where I could have the opportunity to develop.

Many of the students who lived in Derby would often meet up for nights out/drinks and movie nights etc. There were other events organised within Lubrizol, which were subsidised, that many of the students went to as well. As I was living in Nottingham I didn't take advantage of this as much.

Despite living in Nottingham, I know Derby pretty well and the area is pretty reasonable.

Really good nightlife. A huge variety of clubs and bars to go to and everything is really close together in the centre of Derby. I would prefer a night out in Derby over a night out in Nottingham.

There were many different events organised by the social and sports committee, from horse riding to walking in Scotland. These were also subsidised by the committee making them really affordable. As the company has quite a lot of students in the year these were really good getting everyone together. There were also different sports activities happening most days of the week including climbing, badminton and football.