Undergraduate Discovery R&D Laboratory Scientist Review

My role involves providing laboratory performance testing to help support the development of new products and current projects within the Discovery team. This involves the generation and interpretation of data, usually in the form of written technical reports. As well as this my role also involves general scientific and biological research to troubleshoot protocols used in the laboratory testing. This research includes protein analysis, DNA/RNA extraction and microbiological cell cultures. General laboratory admin is also part of my role, for example updating the chemical inventory, decanting the liquid nitrogen and calibrating laboratory equipment.

I have learnt many new skills as well as strengthening existing ones. For my role problem solving skills are very important and something I use regularly, this is because if an experiment or test isn’t working in the way I expect it to, I must consider why this might be occurring and change the variables. This requires problem solving. Communication skills are also important in my role both in written communication in the form of me writing reports on the testing I have been doing and in verbal communication with members of the team. Organizational skills are also important. I find that I have a lot of different testing to do during a working week so it is important that I organize my schedule so I can maximize my time and get all the tasks I must do, completed. This requires me to prioritize tasks and so I tend to make lists of everything I need to do and write in order of importance, that way when I have completed a task, I can tick it off and move on to the next one

I was given more responsibility than I expected to before I started. I got to directly work on and provide testing for ongoing projects within the team. I also got to write reports on this testing that will be used for future testing and for the development of the projects/products. My direct team consists of only me and my manager so I feel like the small nature of the team made me have more responsibilities within the lab.

Support and guidance during my placement was always there if I needed it. I got given a buddy who I would have 1:1 meetings with where we would catch up and I could ask questions to. As well as this I also had guidance from my manager who taught me various lab techniques and how to use the equipment. I also would have 1:1 meetings with my manager that worked in a similar way to the buddy meetings.

The general atmosphere was a friendly and supportive environment to be in. The nature of a lot of jobs now is that they are remote or hybrid, within my role this cannot be the case because the majority of my time is spent in the lab. So a lot of times it can be quite quiet within the office and there is a certain disconnect with a team when it comes to that but overall I enjoyed working with all the people on the team as well as the other undergraduates.

I have really enjoyed my placement. I have learnt so many things about how a research laboratory works and different laboratory techniques. I have learnt more about how the industry world works and it has made me surer about what career I would like to have in the future. The majority of the work I do has been independent, although I do enjoy this I think it would’ve been good to have another scientist on the team rather than just me and my manager. I would’ve been able to ask for advice and get a different perspective on certain things. It is always good to be challenged by other peoples ideas and work collaboratively.

Yes

I would say to be genuine and honest about yourself during the application process. The application process for me involved submitting a CV and and then that was followed by a formal interview. It helped me to be prepared so I just googled standard behavioral and situational interview questions. Even though the style of interview might be different depending on the role that you are applying for, it always helps when answering questions to have examples in work or life of when you showed a certain type of behavior.