DMPK Scientist Review

I really enjoyed the work overall, as it was fairly challenging but simple to grasp. The student experience on site was really great, and added to my enjoyment. There were always events or parties happening, and we all became quite close with one another. The only thing that would improve my placement is if my colleagues in my department had been a bit more fun, as there was not much social interaction, and I often found it very awkward.

As the year went on, I felt more and more valued by my boss, as I was becoming more independent and able to work confidently in the lab on my own. I received praise where it was deserved, which I felt was very fair. I think if you’re good at what you do here at GSK, you’ll usually be recognised and valued for that.

In the first 6 months or so, there was a lot of support from several student coordinators and my supervisor. However, this was only because we were all new and weren’t sure what we were doing, and required lots of training. It is now about 10 months in and I hardly see my supervisor, but luckily I don’t really need him to supervise me much anymore, unless I have a problem. The only thing I’m disappointed about not being supported with is my university work, as I’ve heard other students have received a lot more support from their supervisors.

This really depended upon whether or not the work was there; unless we had a study planned, and had samples to be analysed, we wouldn’t be busy at all. I did experience massive senses of boredom often, and had whole weeks where I just focused on university work. However, other supervisor’s would sometimes give me a bit of their student’s work if they were extremely busy, so it’ was good for lending a hand here and there, or if you wanted to shadow somebody else in another department.

I was given quite a bit of responsibility once I had proved to my supervisor that I wasn’t a complete idiot and understood what was to be done. I can now organise and carry out experiments without having to ask questions, and usually my supervisor is happy with the results. It’s about building trust, and this can take a while, but it’s worth it when at the end of your placement, you’re basically like a full time employee!

This is actually quite the downfall of my placement; I study chemistry and, although the placement was based around analytical chemistry, it will not help me in any way with my other chemistry studies. It was very biology based, and it was interesting to learn new things, but it hasn’t contributed to my learning at university at all. However, I think the people skills and confidence gained outweighs this, as I've gained new life skills that will stay with me forever.

It was very quiet most of the time, there would be the odd fun conversation, but the full time employees tend to keep themselves to themselves. Some of the students were a bit like that too, but generally they were friendly, and the students in my department were a lot of fun when we were in the lab (office was too quiet to have a laugh!)

The placement wasn’t well advertised at my university, so I only applied after receiving an email from a tutor. The whole process was really good, applying and being invited to the site after you got accepted was really nice. The only thing that could improve is the communication with the people who pay us (SRG), as they could be very difficult to get hold of via email when you had payslip enquiries or holidays to book.

Personally, I don’t feel like anybody invested anything in my ‘personal’ development. I received little to no help when I was stressing about university work, and my boss regularly put me down about the littlest things. I feel this has made me a stronger person overall, but in the beginning this was really not very nice.

I would like to return to GSK to work full time, but not under my current management. Also, I’d like to do something a bit more challenging, or maybe a PhD within the company, which is also an option. However, the location of my site was not great, and so I would potentially move somewhere else for employment.

Yes, when there were events organised, such as our boat party in summer, the social scene was great. We set up a Facebook page so that events could be posted on there, but as people formed their own little groups, this fizzled out towards the end of the year. Because there were so many of us, there was always something happening each weekend.

The area (Stevenage) was not great, but it wasn’t the worst either. It’s a very short train ride from both London and Cambridge, which are both expensive but so much fun. There were a few bars in the town and usually you’d meet people from work there on a Friday/Saturday night.

We would usually just go to house parties, so the nightlife was alright. There is one club in the town, which is your average club that everyone ends up in but immediately regrets due to overpriced entry and drinks, and rubbish music! So stick to house parties if you can do that!

GSK has a sports centre where there are all sorts of classes and games on at lunchtimes or after work. Also, some offices run their own sports teams, so you can go along to those if you want to. Other than that, there wasn’t much on offer unless you went out and looked for things to do in the area.