Materials Division Review

I enjoyed it greatly. The tasks that I was able to do was very enjoyable and I was able to interact with other students on the placement frequently. The management team organised some activities for us to do as well which were fantastic.

My colleagues were very good; those running the program were always enthusiastic and involved, and my supervisors and fellow placement members were also good to talk and I felt appreciated around them.

The information that my supervisor provided was very good. He explained the basic theoretical concepts of my project before I began work, and if I had any questions or queries he would do his very best to address them. While I was doing the tasks they very rarely looked at progress and allowed some freedom which was also good so that I wasn't over reliant on them.

I had a fair amount to do each day and so I could always keep myself occupied. However there were some periods in the day where I completed work faster than expected and as the employee I worked with had to go to meetings I was sometimes without work to do.

I was given a reasonable amount of responsibility during the placement as I was working with a real project and expected to complete work to a deadline for a computer program which meant there was some expectation placed on me.

The whole experience and being a part of the organisation, even if only for a brief time, was definitely worth it. The knowledge you gain of the work place and what it is like to work with science as a career, as well as skills such as IT and presenting that you develop are invaluable and will last for a long time.

Most of the people in my office were very work orientated and bust but occasionally they chatted and had a couple of jokes which helped to liven the mood.

The transition between various activities was very well done, there were a lot of things for me to do on the placement and things like timings and

If you are interested and science and would like to work with the subject in real world applications, then the National Physical Laboratory offers an ideal opportunity for employment.

It was only a week long placement so there was no social scene since we didn't have enough time to get to know each other. The only thing we did was go out for lunch everyday.

There were several nearby food outlets that were cheap to eat at for lunch etc. It was a daytime placement for 1 week so there wasn't a great deal of socialising and no need to pay for accomodation.