Drug Product Design Undergraduate Review

I really enjoyed my time with Pfizer. I felt like I was encouraged to develop academically and personally as I was stretched but not too stressed to the point where I couldn't enjoy it. My colleagues were lovely and supportive and the company really seemed to care about my wellbeing.

I felt like my input was always valued in meetings and I was respected enough by my peers to be given an input into some important decisions. I was made to feel like a real member of the team and was invited to many social events to help develop good team dynamics.

My manager was very keen to help me progress my career and really supported me with helping to organise meetings and visits with people in a variety of roles and departments to give me the best overview of the industry possible. I felt comfortable to talk to him about whatever I needed but I was trusted enough to manage my own working style provided deadlines were still met.

My commitments were very heavily project dependent but generally I felt stretched yet not overworked. I was happy with the level of work assigned to me and felt able to communicate with the teams I worked in around whether I felt I could do more or was working at my maximum. I was supported to drive my own learning and worked independently, managing my own time.

My work required me to work independently in a laboratory environment with consideration for safe working procedures. I was regularly trusted to use high value equipment and material, following extensive training and with support frameworks in place to make sure that I always felt confident, comfortable and pushed but never out of my depth.

As my placement was heavily academic, a lot of the content I have learnt this year will be directly relatable to future modules and research projects. Additionally, the professional skills I have developed such as communication, teamwork and time management, will be applicable to any role I take up as I progress my career.

Our office had a very sociable atmosphere with an emphasise put on developing as a team. There were many events organised to help us socialise as a group for 'team bonding' and schemes were in place to encourage people to give positive feedback to one another on a regular basis.

As the placement has been a long running scheme, there was a lot of support available for on-boarding and getting established within the department. Training was well organised, there was good communication from HR before I began and I felt supported in all aspects (eg pay or holiday arrangements) for the full 12 months I was here.

The company where highly supportive of helping me to investigate my future within the wider industry rather than restricting my learning to my one role. They supported me to visit external conferences and site visits to see where my skills could fit into the industry and they encouraged me to get training in as many areas I was interested in as possible.

The company have been really good at keeping us updated on how recruitment works for them and have been very open about prospects for available positions in the next couple of years given the position of the industry. I have managed to organise a joint Masters research project with the company so I'm very hopeful but due to project and budget timelines, no employment positions at the time of my graduation could be confirmed before I left the company.

As there quite a few placement students in the area, we were able to organise a lot of social events in the evenings and weekends ourselves and I still feel like despite not having many readily available clubs or bars, we still had a very full and fun life outside of work.

I found that the general cost of living in the area was relatively low compared to my expectations. It can change dramatically in only a few miles so rent for different students varied a lot depending on where we chose to stay, but there were options for all budgets. Public transport was cheap, as was petrol, but as everything was quite spread out in the region, it was something that I regularly had to spend money on and that should be taken into account.

Unfortunately, my area was quite rural so it was quite a change from University life. Luckily, as there quite a few other placement students in the area, we were able to organise a lot of social events in the evenings and weekends ourselves and I still feel like despite not having many readily available clubs or bars, we still had a very full and fun life outside of work.

As the area is heavily residential, there were a lot of clubs and activities that were available, they just often required a bit of travel. Three are many gyms and sports centres and a lot of students were able to join clubs for the sports they had taken up at university. There seemed to be availability for all abilities and levels.