Cell Biology Placement Student Review

Item: Cell Biology Placement Student at Unilever
Rating: 5
Author: Anonymous

at Unilever

Placement (10 Months+)

Research, Science

Sharnbrook

Review Submitted: May 2026

Overall Rating

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

5/5 - Skills Development

5/5 - Support and Guidance

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 maintaining cell cultures to use within experiments for toxicological risk assessments. This involved lots of cell culture basics, thawing, media changes and passaging, as well as office based skills such as writing a literature review and writing experimental protocols.

Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?

More than I was expecting. I was designing experiments and making decisions about which assay kits to use.

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 had very little experience in cell culture beforehand, so learnt a lot practically, but also got to hone existing lab techniques such as aseptic technique. I got put on lots of training courses, including safety courses, as well as had the opportunity to attend a conference which taught me a lot about scientific communication. Communication between departments was really key as I worked a lot with the chemistry team, involving planning experiments to suit everyone and sharing data.

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?

5/5

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?

A lot. Everyone was super helpful and always willing to help/answer any questions I might have. I had a lab supervisor assigned to me who I could always count on, both in and out of the labs, but everyone was super lovely.

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?

Everyone genuinely cares and wants to help each other out in any way they can. The people here are super friendly and make it a wonderful place to work. You are also really encouraged to give back to the wider community, further strengthening the team spirit.

How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?

5/5

How would you rate the social opportunities?

5/5

How would you rate the diversity initiatives?

5/5

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

5/5

Overall Experience

To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?

I have enjoyed my time here more than words can express. I would be delighted to come back and work here again. To be honest, this year has gone far too quickly and I'm not ready for my time to end. I have had a far better time than I had expected.