Chemistry Placement Student Review

I enjoyed it on the whole. I think that the AZ approach to coronavirus was not very well formulated however and this impacted on the placement. For example, they should have bought in reusable masks or even visors for the labs as we could often not see well due to fogging up of our goggles. This could have been a danger when working with high-risk chemicals. The placement itself was good in that it provided support by our peers, yet the balance between work and uni work was really tricky to manage throughout, however this reflects more on the workload set by my university rather than the company.

I would say that I felt valued by my team and my supervisor. I feel like although I often made mistakes as a student, I could always laugh at my mistakes and learn and grow from them which made it a positive experience. I would regularly contribute to team meetings and detail my science and findings which helped with feeling like a true member of the team. My manager was supportive as to my thinking and problem-solving which further helped with this.

I was given a good level of support at the beginning of my placement due to lack of experience from previous studies. I was talked through and shown multiple different techniques which was really helpful. However, at later stages in my placement I had times where I felt somewhat unsupported and was expected to be completely independant. Although I was striving for that, it was not a realistic expectation based on the experience gained on placement.

This varied. Some days I had loads of work to do which could be overwhelming as I tried to meet project deadlines. Some days would have much less work based on chemistry and not being able to complete it within the timeframe required. Being able to work from home was helpful because I was lab-based and didn't have much time normally to complete write-ups. Working from home helped to ease the workload by being able to complete a lot of writing then.

I was given a high level of responsibility from the start which I think was good in the long run. I was presenting at team meetings from early on in the placement and leading particular areas of chemistry on my project which was a good experience and enabled the development of my skills well. Sometimes this was a lot of pressure and mistakes would be made but at least I learned from them to a good degree.

This placement has prepared me very well for my future studies based on the variety in chemistry I carried out. Working in industry has given me the edge on other students applying for positions that do not have such experience. My university studies did not help in this regard, yet the experience gained from the placement itself did help a lot. I feel that the work carried out, although confidential, also enables the ability to present on some work carried out.

The atmosphere was good and we had our own desks in the office at the start of the placement. However, management made a poor decision (in my opinion) by switching to a shared desk approach which didn't make much sense to some of us. Lab-based people were in every day and in my opinion should have their own desk assigned to them. The fact that people now have to book their desk in advance seems a silly system that doesnt fix issues with space in the office.

It was well organised and the people organising did a good job. Everything was communicated well and clearly to us students. The downsides were that it would have been useful to know about our work/who our supervisor is etc before our first day as this would have given some clarity to us. Additionally, being employed through a recruitment agency (Hays) was problematic at times since they did not always communicate things well to us, it would have been much better for students to be employed directly by AZ.

They invested a lot in me I would say. I was put at the helm of some great chemistry and I focused on spearheading pieces of work which gave me great training in different pieces of kit and enabled me to develop my practical chemistry skills. I think this was really helpful as it also gave me a lot to speak about in interviews etc for the future and I really appreciated this aspect to work.

I think progression should be based more on ability and skills in the profession rather than your relationship with management. It feels sometimes that career progression within the company requires a focus on building a relationship with managers, which I personally disagree with. However, there are often jobs available which is a positive aspect to it. I will definitely consider a job in the future but aiming to start at a higher position in AZ.

The placement students were a great group of people and we regularly had social events weekly to enable us to enjoy our group outside of work hours.

The area the site was in was affordable and accommodation was affordable by a students standards. Additionally, there were many bars and a couple of clubs in the local area which provided a good social life if students wished for it. The downside was the lack of variety in social events/pubs etc in the area, which led to the focus on visiting the same places every week for example. But the places we visited were affordable which is positive.

Decent nightlife with lots of bars and pubs in the town, but not too many clubs so variety was somewhat limited. But that didnt impact us negatively and we enjoyed ourselves socially.

There were some but not as many as I would have liked. I think a big negative aspect as to out of work activities is they were coordinated and communicated about on workplace website rather than facebook. This meant that I would not see it as I did not use workplace. It would have made more sense to me to have the activities broadcast on personal facebook accounts as this would give much greater reach.