University Industrial Placement Student Review

Item: University Industrial Placement Student at AstraZeneca
Rating: 4.8
Author: Anonymous

at AstraZeneca

Placement (10 Months+)

Pharmaceutical, Research

Cambridge

Review Submitted: July 2026

Overall Rating

4.8 /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!

4/5 - Overview of Role

5/5 - Skills Development

5/5 - Support and Guidance

4.5/5 - 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 have a research project to complete over the course of the year, which involved lots of lab work. On average, I would spend 3 days a week in the lab running experiments and then the rest at my desk conducting data analysis or making presentations.

Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?

I was given responsibility of my own project, but no real time projects. However, my project was linked with future work and company needs so my work was still important.

Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was

4/5

Skills Development

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

I have learnt many new lab skills, including Electrophoresis, Assay Development and Chromatography methods. I also learnt Automation, Design of Experiment and Coding (R Studio) skills around my project.

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?

I had my line manager overseeing the direction of my project, but then a buddy and multiple technical points of contact for different parts of my project. I was therefore well supported during my time, and I knew who to go to for different queries.

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?

My team is very social and sits close to each other even though the building is technically a hot desking environment. The department I am in has a work hard play hard culture, so its very fun to work with my team while trying to achieve a high quality of work.