Industrial Placement Review

My Placement at GSK was in the research laboratories, and I really found the work I was doing was both interesting and enjoyable. It was often challenging, but I got to try out a lot of different techniques and work on several different projects. Occasionally it got a little repetitive, but that's part of the nature of research, and I was never doing the same thing for very long.

I really felt like part of the team, and everyone was very friendly during meetings and out-of-work social events. I definitely felt that I was more valued as a team-member as I gained more experience and independence, but equally everyone was very understanding and helpful whenever I came across things that I didn't understand.

My direct supervisor was very supportive, which I appreciated because I had several university assignments to do alongside my placement work, and he helped me to fit everything in. My supervisor was also great as a calming presence whenever I got stressed. He'd made a lot of the same mistakes that I had, and he really helped me to learn from my mistakes, then move on to the next attempt!

My workload definitely varied from day to day. Some days I did struggle to find things to do, but at other times I was very busy with multiple experiments that all generated lots of data to analyse and report on. I don't think this could have been avoided due to the nature of my work, and I was able to work on some of my University assignments during the less busy times.

The responsibility that I was give gradually increased as I gained more experience. While I was never left to just get on with things on my own, I was increasingly able to design my own experiments, although I'd often need to run things by more experienced scientists. I had more responsibility when it came to carrying out experiments and interpreting their results, and so I had to make sure that I was careful and accurate to avoid misleading anyone that might later want to rely on the data.

The laboratory experience was very useful, since I'm planning on continuing in research after graduation. Practical techniques are of course valuable, but the most useful skills were in designing and planning my own experiments. My placement also taught me general office skills, and my confidence in asking colleagues for their assistance or opinion definitely improved and will definitely be useful in the future.

It was a fairly serious environment, which was helpful whenever I had work to get on with, but talking and socialisation were still encouraged, both at work and outside of the office. Meetings were generally quite informal and so they were actually very useful when it came to getting to know my colleagues.

It was obvious that there had been placement students in my department before, and they organised an introduction week to ease us into it. My supervisor hadn't had a placement student before, but there were plenty of more experienced people that we could ask for advice whenever we needed it.

I had a lot (possibly too much!) mandatory training to start with, so that I could get to know the rules and practices of the company. The main training I received was hands-on in the lab, which I really appreciated. There were plenty of opportunities to learn more about what was going on outside my own department, whether that was in terms of research, finance, or just changes to the company structure.

I know some people who have decided to stay on at the company, and they have a specific graduate training program that they encourage people to apply to. I decided that I'd rather not go for that opportunity, but I may decide to return after my PhD.

There were a few organised events, but I think my fondest memories of the year will be of chatting to other placement students at lunchtime. I definitely didn't feel like I was missing out on being with other people my own age while on placement. I also got on well with older colleagues, and I definitely had some really enjoyable conversations with them.

Stevenage (were I was living) was a pretty cheap place to live in, and I had plenty of money left over at the end of the4 month. It was very well connected by rail to London and Cambridge, and so I had no trouble visiting friends and family at the weekends.

I was informed that there weren't any good nightclubs in Stevenage, but that wasn't really what I was looking for anyway. There were plenty of pubs where I could spend time with friends after work, but that didn't happen very often.

There wasn't loads on, but I was often too tired by the end of the day for socialising anyway.