Overall the placement was enjoyable. The work I was involved in was really engaging, and the fact there were so many other students on site also made the year enjoyable.
I felt very valued by my colleagues. They allowed all the students in my department to present work to other departments in meetings which were important to the company. Any ideas I had were also welcome and valued.
There was a lot of guidance and support. Monthly supervisor meetings helped me to see where I was doing well and where I needed to spend more time working on. Other full-time lab members were always on hand and happy to help at any time.
I was very busy, but this was just because of the high responsibility I had. This allowed me to build my time management skills quickly.
I was given a lot of responsibility.
The skills developed will be very useful, the ability to do independent research, and present findings to an audience are important in the science industry, both of these skills were developed to a large extent at Lubrizol.
The atmosphere was good in my office. It was a student office which made it comfortable from the beginning. The main office where full-time colleagues in my department was also friendly.
It was well organised which allowed me to begin work in the lab immediately.
I was given a lot of responsibility, which allowed me to carry out lots of different tasks in and out of the lab. This maximised my personal development. Any additional skills/tasks I wanted to carry out were open to discussion with my supervisor also
Flexi Time
Subsidised Canteen
Sports and Social Club
Financial Bonus
Company Parties/Events
The work was engaging and there was lots of opportunity for personal development. The colleagues were friendly and the site is in a really nice location, so future employment prospects would be very appealing.
The social scene was good, the students would often sit together at lunch as a group. Nights out and other activities were always being organised.
Socialising was about average price as far as things go.
Nightlife in Derby in my opinion isn't that great, however if there's a big group out it's always going to be a laugh. Nights out to Nottingham are also possible (20 minute bus journey) which is a lot busier and has more to choose from.
Frequent emails would go round about activities going on outside of work and students were always included.
Placement Year (10 Months+)
24th September 2018