Microbiological Technologist Review

I enjoyed my placement overall. Having responsibility at a company was a very rewarding feeling, and has allowed me to expand my network, gain confidence, and begin forming the type of person I will be after I graduate university. Without a doubt it has been the best year of my life. However, I did have some issues during the year, including fairly poor management and a lack of support. Industrial placement students should not be used as 'heads', but I was, which was great, but it gave me no time for development or placement activities. I was also restricted to doing the same job all year as I was given permanent staff work.

The majority of my colleagues became like a family to me. I got on with everyone very well and have formed life long friendships which will be very difficult to leave behind. I did not feel valued by my manager however, but he was the only person that put a downer on my year. Otherwise I am truly heartbroken to be leaving such an incredible, caring team.

I was given very little support from my manager. He talked to me like a child but expected me to work as a permanent employee, including doing unpaid overtime, addition project support, and prevented me from attending some industrial placement activities. I also received next to no credit for my work this year from him, which caused a lot of upset throughout the year.

I was constantly busy as I was given the responsibilities of a full time employee. This was great as it gave a 'real feel' for what industry is like, however there were times where I was overwhelmed with work and burned out. I think that managers should be briefed on stress management, as work pressure and the pressure of 'a patient at the end of the supply chain' is difficult to manage at times, especially if this is the first real job a student has had.

I was given the responsibility of running a whole bench in the lab I was working at, this included managing my testing, extra work, other people's requests, and external requests for additional testing. I was treated as a full time employee as I took over from a permanent staff member.

My placement will not help me with my degree as I was doing routine work which forms a very small part of my degree. I was however able to improve my numeracy, communication, presentation, networking, and problem solving skills as I was involved in many investigations and lab simplification projects (some of which I ran and coordinated), and therefore there has been value added to my skills set.

The laboratory I worked in was very jolly and fast paced. During busy times the atmosphere became very tense, but due to the nature of the friendships I formed with my colleagues, this didn't last very long. However, conflicts between our team manager and the team did ruin the mood a lot, especially during the end of my placement, as the lab was going through major changes that were very impractical and increased everyone's workloads. People (including myself) were denied holidays and use of flexi-time due to the tense atmosphere and the amount of work that needed to be completed.

The placement scheme in general is well organised, however, GSK Barnard Castle is very far from other GSK sites, therefore the IPs at this site did not get equal opportunities to students down south. Additionally, despite this issue being isolated to GSK Barnard Castle's microbiology department, I don't believe IPs should be given permanent staff roles as this prevents development and the levels of stress can be unmanageable.

I was trained on the bench I was working on i.e. culture control and growth promotion testing, but due to lack of staff and resources, I was not given the opportunity to develop my skills. I understand that I came to the lab during a period when there weren't enough heads for the jobs, but if this was the case, they should not have taken on IPs who come to industrial companies to develop.

I believe I would like to come back to industry as the only negative part of my whole placement was my manager. I would still like some experience in academia to make a more informed decision, but industrial companies have a lot of perks. It is also a wonderful feeling knowing that your job is making a difference to someone's life.

I formed very close friendships with permanent staff, we do a lot of activities outside work together. I lived very far away from other placement students therefore I didn't form as close friendships with them and my interactions with them in work was also very minimal as I was a lot busier than other placement students because of the nature of my work.

Living and social costs were minimal. I was living well and still managed to save a lot of money as well as pay back my student overdraft. However because I don't drive, I had to get a year bus ticket which was approx. £700 for the full year, which was the only thing that was shockingly expensive.

I have lived more of a student life on my placement than I did at university. I lived in Darlington, and the nights out themselves aren't the best, but alcohol is cheap and the company is fab! There are plenty of different places to go, plus Newcastle and Durham were close by for additional locations for nights out.

I did activities outside work with work friends, but they were not work-organised events. This was only made possible as I formed very close friendships with my colleagues at work. This is what really made my year and helped me unwind from a very stressful job. I am definitely coming back to visit.