Industrial Placement Student Review

The work was nearly always interesting, especially when you could observe trends in the data, and there was always lots of variety in the work. Sometimes data analysing can be tedius at times but I cant complain too much!

Even though I felt everyone was a lot more intellegent than me (and they were!) I felt on a par with them all the time and they appeared to appreciate my contribution and on top of that, everyone was very friendly and supportive

Didnt really come into much contact with management that was directly related to me, but my group leader having been a research scientist in a previous life was always supportive when he could be and tried to be a help to his staff as opposed to a hinderance

Normally the days would be fine, I would always have something to get on with and keep me occupied. There have been odd days when due to unforeseen events Ive either had nothing to do all day, or that Ive had to stay in late just to finish a couple of things off

Depends on the project and instrument really, some of the projects already had a set procedure so I was asked just to follow the standards and see what I got. A lot of the time I could choose various parameters to my choosing that would benefit my supervisors/the customer

Waste of time is not the right term to use, Im not sure if anything that Ive learned here will be beneficial to the degree that I am taking, but in terms of how a research institute is run and just attending meetings and brainstorms and such like Im sure will give me valuable experience

It was good because if you were up for a chat then you could quite happily go from office to office and have a chat from time to time, and other times if you would prefer just to get on with your own business then you could just keep your head down and noone would bother you

I suppose from my end it did feel a little bit last minute to sort out when I would be arriving, but that might just be due to the fact that I started in the summer and my supervisors may have been on holiday at that time!

Any piece of equipment that I needed to use to complete my work the technical expert of that instrument was happy to formally train me and also happy enough to let me use the instrument un aided. What I wasnt allowed to do was attend any conferences where they thought there wasnt much point considering I will be heading off back to Uni with the knowledge in my head, not theirs

On a personal level doing a placement here which has no relation to my degree means that its likely I wont pursue it as a career, however I would certainly consider a job at the NPL as a first job after I leave Uni, just to get some quick dosh in!

Not necessarily the students at the start, but there was always a good social scene with some of the younger scientists where often we would head out for either a pub lunch, drinks after work or more special events like a football match or some bowling. Later in the placement there was an influx of summer students and that had a separate social scene, similar to that of the young scientists thing

The town Teddington is a little expensive, as is London itself, but I found that on my Salary I could get by and still do a good bit of socialising, whilst keeping an eye on the pennies

Being on London's doorstep the nightlife is as good as you want it to be, with cocktail bars, the theatre, nightclubs and pubs. Kingston nearby Teddington also had a number of nightclubs although it was infested with underage drinkers so didnt venture that way too often!

There was a year long sports competition at the NPL where teams would compete against each other in various sports in a friendly but competitive atmosphere. The main objective really was to meet other people in the other divisions and have a good time. Coincidentally one of my supervisors was a chief organiser in outside activites so I was always first in line to help out with these!