Industrial placement research scientist Review

Item: Industrial placement research scientist at AstraZeneca
Rating: 4.5
Author: Anonymous

at AstraZeneca

Placement (10 Months+)

Pharmaceutical

Cambridge

Review Submitted: August 2022

Overall Rating

4.5 /5

The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!

5/5 - Overview of Role

4.8/5 - Skills Development

5/5 - Support and Guidance

3.5/5 - Company Culture

5/5 - Overall Experience

5/5 - Future Career Prospects

Overview of Role

Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.

I was allocated a lab based project to complete over the year. This involved planning and carrying out my own experiments, and then analysing the data and drawing any conclusions. I was given opportunities to present my data to my team, and able to gain experience with many different lab techniques.

Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?

I was given lots of responsibility, and able to plan/order reagents for my own experiments and carry these out independently in the lab.

Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was

5/5

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?

I have been able to develop a variety of different lab based techniques, including gene editing technologies and flow cytometry. Outside of the lab, I was able to improve my organisational skills, and communication whilst collaborating with other scientists and external companies. I have been able to improve my data analysis and presenation.

How would you rate the training provided during your experience?

5/5

How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?

5/5

How would you rate your development of personal / soft skills during the experience?

4/5

Please rate how these skills have helped you in your career development

5/5

Support and Guidance

How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?

I was well supported by my supervisors and line manager throughout my placement, both in and out of the lab. Other colleagues were also very willing to help.

How would you rate the support and guidance from your line manager?

5/5

How would you rate the support and guidance from the wider team?

5/5

Company Culture

What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?

Collaborative work environment, friendly and positive atmosphere. Colleagues seemed happy to work at the company.

How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?

4/5

How would you rate the social opportunities?

3/5

How would you rate the diversity initiatives?

3/5

How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?

4/5

Overall Experience

To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year, it has given me an insight into the pharmaceutical industry and I have decided to apply for a PhD after finishing my final year of university.