IP Student Review

How busy I was depended on what day of the week it was as well as what time of the year and the project I was helping with. Some days I would be in the lab for hours and others I would only be catching up with reports. It all managed to balance out really well. There was always something that I could be getting on with and I was never bored.

Atmosphere was really good. Worked in the SMARTlab which is a completely different environment to any other labs, very open and friendly. There were a range of people with different disciplines working together which worked really well, very cohesive. No real divide between students and permanent staff, as long as you do your hours people are not bothered about when you get in/leave.

Good to begin with, all of the general training meant we were able to work in the lab pretty quickly. I came across issues half way thorugh my placement due to my project being given to a different team which meant I had no project. Some people were not quick to help but luckily the people in charge of hiring for the department were really good about it and gave me lots of work to get on with. I think that the department as a whole could have been quicker to give me a project as 3 months of my placement was spent reading papers.

They were very keen for me to shadow other IP students in different departments which was very interesting, held lots of conferences and seminars which I was able to watch. They were really good at asking if there was anything they could do to help me get what I wanted out of the placement and then they helped me to find a way to make it happen by doing stuff such as setting up meetings for me to speak to people about jobs I was passionate about pursuing.

As I do not want a career in this industry, I did not really look into this but many of my friends have applied for grad schemes which GSK do which are meant to help you gain experience working with GSK in the hope that this will help you secure a full time job. Also, I have seen a few old IP students gain full time jobs in my department after they have gone back to uni and completed further education i.e. PHD.

I have heard mixed reviews from other years but this year the social scene has been really good. We have socials with our department every couple of weeks and there are over 100 IPs here which means there's always something going on at a weekend. The IP committee also put together a few events which are really good fun such as Christmas and leaving parties.

It is a lot more expensive living near London than where I am from in the North, housing is more expensive for the quality you get and the drinks are expensive but the wages which you get are enough to keep you living comfortably whilst you are here as well as paying for you to socialise multiple times a week.

Nightlife in Stevenage is really poor, there are a few pubs but there are no real bars and clubs as you are used to at uni. There are other places which you can visit for nights out around Stevenage such as London or Cambridge, the train links are really good which makes it easy to do so.

There are lots of sports which you can take part in such as Netball and Basketball. The students will regularly do things altogether outside of work but it depends on your cohort of students. Depending on where you work, the full time staff will sometimes join in but in our departments this was very rare. Other sports clubs near GSK too such as hockey clubs which you can be a part of and also volunteering opportunities at the hospital and care homes.