Summer Masters Student Placement Review

My internship with GSK was fantastic, especially at this point in my studies and career. Working with topological data analysis, and having the opportunity to do so at a large company and working with real data, fit in wonderfully with my background and interests in the relationship between pure maths and practical data analysis. It was also great to experience working with a large company in industry after doing a theoretical masters and before embarking on a PhD.

I have felt extremely valued by my colleagues -- they have made the time to meet frequently with me, have developed a project for me that plays off of the strengths and weaknesses of their ongoing work, and take very seriously the tools and methods I'm developing and their applications going forward.

My supervisor has made herself very accessible for support and guidance, and has helped me to take advantage of the larger support structures within GSK. For example, one thing that made it much easier to get the ball rolling at the beginning of the summer was the suite of related software tools that the management had configured (following a recent review article in the field) and had documented with regards to pros / cons and usage.

I have felt quite busy -- always a todo list, but nothing that was a cause of much stress. The only deadlines I have been up against are presentation deadlines and the inevitable end of the placement. Presenting frequently has been good for keeping me focused on communicable progress, and my management has helped me develop a reasonable plan for allocating my time and resources as the internship progresses.

I was given complete responsibility for my own time -- I have had a large say over the direction my project has taken, as we choose which ideas to pursue further and which to call dead-ends. In addition, I was given responsibility for some intellectual property -- a hard-earned dataset which has been extremely interesting to analyse.

I have improved soft skills (communication and presentation) and also hard skills (mathematical and technical). Presenting this frequently has had an immeasurable effect on my confidence as a public speaker and presenter. Furthermore, I have gotten to learn a lot about topology (as it pertains to data) and the tools and software that is useful for data science.

The atmosphere was very friendly but also focused. I feel very comfortable around my coworkers and management, but I also feel like everyone is very driven and works to the best of their ability towards solving whatever problem(s) are facing them at the moment, while keeping in mind the big-picture end-goal.

It has been very well organized. My one complaint is the (probably necessary but extremely excessive) paperwork required by the company GSK hired to organize the placement, SRG. Other than that, I have had no problem with the systems in place for streamlining employee experience and workflow.

The main resource I have been given is the freedom and time to read and study and learn about the state of the art independently. I was very fortunate to have a practical problem and real-world data, but at the same time have the freedom and support in pursuing interesting ideas and methods to learn about further.

I would love to work with GSK in the future. I am currently also interested in the possibility of being a professor, but it is good to keep these options open and be able to reevaluate towards the end of my PhD.

I have been part of a group of three placement students working on very closely related problems with similar methods; this has been fantastically helpful in terms of making the learning curve easier for me. We enjoy each other's company, and enjoy talking on the train, although we haven't done much yet outside of a work-related context. However, we all enjoy discussing math with each other.

I have lived in Cambridge student housing, and the cost of living there is fair.

I haven't tried to participate in the nightlife.

I'm not sure if this is what the question intended, but since my work has connected so well with my academic research interests, I have had many opportunities to develop my own interests as they relate to the methods I use in this placement.