Synthetic Organic Chemistry Placement Student Review

I absolutely loved my placement at AstraZeneca. I really enjoyed being in the lab, learning new skills and seeing all the exciting work that AstraZeneca are doing. I have made friends and work connections that I will keep after I leave AstraZeneca. I could not think of a better place to spend my final year at university.

I felt very valued by my colleagues, more so than I expected. I was given responsibilities and my opinions were listened to which made me feel valued. My colleagues made me feel very welcome from the beginning as everyone was friendly and helpful. This may vary depending on the site that you are based at.

My supervisor was extremely supportive, he was patient and answered any questions I had. He provided advice and help for my future career as well as development within AstraZeneca. Higher management were extremely friendly/helpful and understanding when needed. I felt supported during my placement and had a wide range of people I could talk to if I needed.

My workload varied a little, but in general it was a good level. The start of the placement was slower (as expected) but once I became more independent, I could juggle my work flow as needed. Some weeks I'd be really busy and others would be quieter but I was never bored!

I was surprised by the amount of responsibility that I was given during my placement. This would probably vary with supervisor/project but I was given important work on my project. The work that I performed was briefly checked but I was trusted a lot. There was a nice amount of responsibility without being too stressful.

During my placement at AstraZeneca, I learnt a lot of skills. I developed my organic chemistry skills in the lab massively. I also improved my medicinal chemistry with project meetings and presentations. Due to Coronavirus, my time in the lab was shorter than expected (currently WFH) but even this has provided opportunities to develop new skills. Working for a large organisation has taught me a lot about how a business works and also soft skills (communication, time management, etc). All these skills will be useful in my future career.

The atmosphere in the office was very friendly. The chemistry department was a very supportive and fun group to be in. There was group coffee breaks, social events, Christmas parties - all of which made the placement very fun! There was cross department socialising as well (e.g. with placement students from other subjects).

On AstraZeneca's side, the placement was well set-up. The background checks took a long time but wasn't an issue. We were invited to a familiarisation day which allowed us to meet other students (which helped with organising housing), to find out what site we would be working on, as well as meeting our supervisors. The only downside of the organisation of the placement would be with my University who didn't always seem very organised.

The company provided good training and development. I was given a lot of opportunities to say what I what I wanted to develop/do more of, and AstraZeneca tried their best to provide me with these opportunities. There were some career workshops which were really helpful as well as practice presentation, etc.

I think my experience as a placement student made me see that AstraZeneca is a great company to work for. I met a lot of people in the company and my placement may be a small help if I apply to them one day. However, a placement year is in no way an open door to a job; I would apply to a future job in the same way as people who hadn't done a placement at AstraZeneca.

I think this depends on the site you are based at. At my site, we were a close group of placement students (12). We would eat lunch together, go on nights out, organise events, etc. I also lived with placement students from another site, and we did loads together and are now close friends.

I worked in Cambridge which is quite expensive. My rent was about £500/month exc. bills. I biked to work so this kept the cost low. Eating out/drinking in Cambridge is also quite expensive (~£4-5 for a pint) but the salary is definitely enough to cover the costs of the placement.

Cambridge is not known for its nightlife. It clubbing scene is very limited and I would not recommend. That being said, Cambridge is very pretty, small enough to cycle everywhere, has nice outdoor parks for activities/BBQs, and some very nice pubs! It's a nice place to live but don't get excited about the nightlife.

For this question, I think you get out what you put in. There's a lot going on in Cambridge organised by work or not but its not always the easiest to find information on it. There's a lot of sports clubs which you can join which allows you to meet non-work friends which I enjoyed.