Pharmacy intern Review

The pharmacy internship with Astra Zeneca was a great experience to learn about what pharmacists do in the pharmaceutical industry which you often don't get as a part of the uni course. The internship was really fun and you got to mix with other interns from different degrees and unis.

As a part of the internship you individually work on project. This project is supervised by colleagues at Astra Zeneca. The project allowed you to give you to apply insight and knowledge to problems that came up and you were helping to find the answers. The work was very independent but help was always proved and your input appreciated.

Your project that you worked on was supervised which meant that when ever you needed help or didn't know what to do next there was always someone you could ask. You were also eased into working completely by yourself in labs-you only did this when you felt confident to do so

The first two weeks consisted of a lot of training which meant you were always busy for weeks 3-10 you were working individually on your project so some weeks were more busy than others. The 10 weeks went really quickly week 10 where you had to present a presentation of your finding came around very fast

You were able to work independently in the labs once you and your supervisor thought you were confident enough. This was a big responsibility as you had to know what to do. You were also in charge of when you completed sections of your project for so had to manage your time well.

I kearnt lab skills tbat i had never learnt at university and how to run experiments from start to finish completley by meyself. I also learned alot about what work to prioritise which helps going into final year of study. I had never had to run and organise meetings before so that is a skill that i will be able to use in the future.

The general atmosphere was really friendly and welcoming in my office. You were able to talk to anyone in the office and they would be more than willing to help with any problems that you might of had. Someone in my office brought in cake every Friday which meant that the whole office had a coffee break and a catch up on that day

The internship was very organised as you started training and looking at your project on day 1. All the presentation took place in the last week so ypu had lots of time to prepare for it For pharmacy we had interviews for the pre registration year that fell in the 9th week which was well organised and we were told how and when the interviews would be well in advance.

At the end of the pharmacy internship you are offered the chance to interview for the pre registration positions at Astra Zeneca. This would allow you to do your pre-reg split between AZ and a local hospital. Throughout the time on the placement you were able to organise meetings with lots of different people at AZ who all did different things giving you an insight to lots of different areas

There are pre registration positions offered to the pharmacy interns at the end of the placement. These will be split with a hospital so give a good insight to the pharmaceutical industry. Also Astra Zeneca run a couple of different grad scheme programmes which all look really good and are worth applying for

All the summer interns got on really well. Many of the interns were in the same office or same buildings as each other so would often see yeah I other. We ate much together each day. Of an evening we would sometimes go to the pubs or AZ would put on an event in the evenings that we would all go to.

I commuted into the area each day so the costs of getting to work during the placement were relatively low. Those that rented in Macclesfield found the rent wasn't to expensive compared to other cities. There were lots of bars and quizes that you could go to in the evenings.

There were several bars in Macclesfield that you could go to also you could go to pub quizes on the week nights. Manchester was also only a short train journey away so you were easily able to go out in the evenings in Manchester to the bars and get back to Macclesfield.

You were able to complete a voulenteerimg day with your team at Astra Zeneca where you would be able to volunteer for the day doing some sort of activity. Also there was a subsidised gym that you could use which was onsite and offered classes at various points throughout the day. Also AZ put on several socials whilst we were there.