Assistant Chemist Review

The company under went internal restructuring during my placement, meaning some of my colleagues were potentially facing redudancy. Hence there were times when morale was very low, and office politics was certainly at the forefront of everyones minds. That aside, my placement was an incredible experience, one that I won't forget. I learnt an awful lot, both technical skills and industry knowledge, developed as a person and generally became a better person.

I was always involved in meetings with our department, including those that did not really relate to me (i.e. in regard to the 'restructuring' process (see above)). I was always thought of, I was always considered. I respected my colleagues and my colleagues respected me.

I was given enough tutoring and support to not feel unwanted, but I was encouraged to 'think freely' on occasion, either by finding myself work and jobs to do, or solving a problem for myself.

Initially there were issues with not enough work coming my way, however I was limited by what I could do; I was not considered experienced enough yet to do some of the jobs, and there always had to be someone supervising me whilst I learnt. Despite this, towards the end of my placement our department lost a few staff (through retirement and being moved to a different company site), meaning the work did pick up, and occasionally there was a great amount of work to do in not a small amont of time. That said, I personally enjoyed having lots do, having the pressure on and going home exhausted was very rewarding at times.

This answer will relate somewhat to my previous answer, in that initially I had to be supervised whilst I 'learnt the ropes' and understood the internal workings on a daily basis. However, again, this changed when I became more experienced and the afforementioned staff departed from our section. I was then trusted with carrying out several day-to-day routine jobs on my own. Occasionally they were menial tasks, however some tasks carried a large amount of responsibility and needed great professionalism in order to deal with them.

Overall my placement was a definite success. The tecnical knowledge needed may not have been as great as I was anticipating, but I did not account for the other skills I learnt. Skills that I did not expect to develop include personal skills (how to present and communicate to my peers and senior company members, how to deal with 'office politics', etc), legal and legislative subjects (both in terms of industrial law, Health and Safety and environmental regulation, etc). In addition to these, my placement further developed my willingness to work hard and succeed in life, which I can relate directly to my University course in working hard and pushing myself when it comes to revision and exam time.

The atmosphere could change on a daily basis. Generally the atmosphere was alright and people seemed jovial and happy to help one-another. However, when the afforementioned 'restructuring' began and several people faced potential redundancies the atmosphere changed; people very much began to look out for themselves and this was did not help the working environment. That said, no-one was ever deliberately rude to myself or to any other of their colleagues, and there were never any arguments or desputes which got out of hand. I feel that I can definitely take positives from this though, despite it sounding like quite dire at times; it has shown me to remain professional at all times, remain calm and keep a cool head even when things look bad.

The placement was well set-up. After my interview, my (then potential) line-manager got back in contact within the week to offer me the job. This person did have to prompted occasionally to respond with fine details (contract, etc), but I believe this was issues with inter-department communication breaking down at times. On my first day people were expecting to see/meet me, and I was immediately given all the basic training needed.

I was invited along to basic training or refresher sessions for the other staff and recieved 1 form of formal training. However, as with most things on site, experience was the key; hence when some training takes 2/3 weeks to complete and 6 months on the job post-training, the company decided that I shouldn't be included on these courses as there was little 'return on investment'. This is understandable, but I still feel I could have benefitted from at least trying, especially when things got very busy towards the end of my placement when people in my department began to leave.

The higher members of staff at the site have said they would take me back. You're never sure whether people genuinely mean that, or whether they are just paying lip service. However, I do believe them that they would take me back; the question is now once I've graduated, do I apply to that specific site for a job (and hope a role is open), or do I apply more generally to their graduate scheme and hope that I get posted back at the site I worked at.

There were no other placement students working with me. However, there were some younger members of staff on site, and the social scene never seemed to not exist. Every now-and-then a department day or night out would be arranged. Fortunately, my 'landlord' also worked in the same department as myself and he would encourage me to go out with him every so often.

About average with everywhere else in the England. Not cheap, but not expensive either.

The town near where I lived was a little rough, and there wasn't too much going on. However, we weren't that much further from a bigger town and there was always somewhere to go there.

Plenty of sports teams around where I was living; plenty of half-empty teams rolling up on Saturday afternoons looking for people desperately to play for them!! (A great way of playing 1st team sport!). The area I lived was also very scenic and beautiful, and there were plenty of outdoor activities to be found when you didn't want to chase a ball around all day.