Industrial Placement Student Review

I really enjoyed working at AstraZeneca. The placement was fulfilling and I got my own project to work on with the support of highly experienced colleagues in the field. The salary was competitive and HR operations were efficient. My relationship with my line manager was fruitful and complemented my experience well. I have no complaints about the application process or placement content

I was immediately made to feel welcome by my team, despite it being a tight knit group. I was encouraged to attend social events organised by the young people's employee resource group to promote networking and I felt like a valued member of my department rather than a replaceable intern, contributing real results to the company's operations. I've grown very close to my department and saying goodbye will be difficult!

My manager was brilliant. After the job offer, she was in direct contact with me immediately encouraging me to read relevant material to help prepare for my start. My first day ran smoothly and I was given all the required training and IT equipment quickly. Subsequently, my manager worked hard to ease me into the project whilst still challenging me to help me grow as a scientist. Her advice and support have really helped shape my independence this year and I am now very confident in my research and lab skills.

My workload was challenging but not overwhelming. I always felt that if I wasn't comfortable with the amount of work I had been set I could approach my manager for more work or support. At the same time, there were some days when acquiring more work wasn't possible and I found myself with nothing to do. This was usually due to an unavoidable reason and gave me a chance to complete university assignments.

After a few months of training and shadowing, I began investigating a new technology which was completely new to the department. I was an integral part of meetings and presentations regarding this technology and became the departmental expert on it. I gradually gained confidence and knowledge and by the end of the placement was giving presentations independently and confidently to large groups and vendors.

I have developed a large array of skills this year. My critical thinking and problem solving skills were put to the test during my research project, which required planning experiments based on literature and making educated changes to my approaches when things didn't go well. This also helped me develop intellectual resilience, an important quality for scientific research. I became more confident as a scientist and can now speak to large groups about my knowledge without insecurity.

My building was a tight-knit community of scientists who engaged in regular collaboration. I never felt as if I could not approach another colleague with a problem and I always made use of the expertise of the people around me. In my department, we organised regular outside of work meet ups to get to know each other which helped build a good team relationship

The work placement programme was organised by the larger company, who select projects proposed by each department to ensure the project is viable and suitable for a year-long placement. This meant you always had a suitable workload. The individual placements were organised by the respective department and I felt my department were experienced in hosting a student and were pre-emptive of any problems I may have

My project was treated like any regular departmental project, where the results mattered and professionalism counted. I was allocated a large amount of funding from external and internal sources to pursue whatever experiments I wanted, with the guidance of my supervisor. I was offered training opportunities regularly as well as opportunities to present my data to internal and external conferences.

I was highly encouraged to go ahead to apply to the company's graduate scheme, a 2-year long scheme to ease you into full time research and development work. In their words, the placement gives a great background to spring-board onto the graduate scheme although it isn't a guarantee you will be employed

The company generously fund a young people's employee resource group, which is run by a committee of placement students, apprentices and graduate students. It facilitates networking with on-site symposiums and also organises exciting and fun socialising opportunities from trips to the pub to international trips to other AstraZeneca sites. It was a great opportunity to meet other students of all ages and departments.

My placement was based in Cambridge so the cost of living was quite high. My salary was appropriate for the cost of my rent, utilities and socialising and I never felt tight on money but housing and socialising prices may come as a shock to anyone who hasn't lived in Cambridge before. The company provided subsidised food and a gym at work which helped reduce living costs

Despite being a student city, Cambridge is not known for its nightlife. There are some nightclubs and pubs but they are expensive and not as high quality as other major cities. However, it is well connected to London which has a higher level of nightlife is you desired. Personally I found the nightlife in Cambridge to be sufficient but students coming from a larger city may be surprised by the lack of nightlife

The company provided lots of opportunities for community outreach. I attended local science fairs for school children of all ages to educate them about science, helping improve communication skills. The socialising between colleagues and students was great and well organised. There are also plenty of lectures and activities offered by Cambridge university open to the public which I attended regularly