HOW YOUR PLACEMENT WILL ENHANCE YOUR CAREER


I began my Forensic Science degree with no intention of doing a placement. Less than two years later, I’d bagged myself the job science students were fighting over – a year in the Analytical Chemistry department at GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies.


JAY FULMAN


Here’s why I changed my mind...


1.It shows you can hold a job in the industry you want to get into.


A job at the corner shop is better than nothing, but being able to say that you’ve already worked for a company when you apply to their graduate scheme makes you stand out from the first line of your CV.


Here at GSK, the placement students are invited to presentations where we can learn about applying for the Future Leaders Programme - taking advantage of things like this could get you one step ahead of the competition.


2.You can be sure that you’ll enjoy the work you will be doing as a graduate.


Accepting a place on a three- year graduate scheme is a daunting prospect, but handing three years of your life over when you don’t really know what the work is going to be like is even worse. Whilst I’ve been on placement I’ve had the chance to see what it’s like to work in different areas of science and learn scientific techniques I had never even heard of at university. This has widened my view of how my career could pan out in the long-term and taught me that lab work at university is not the same as lab work in the real world!


3.It’s the best chance you’ll ever get for networking.


The opportunity to meet lots of important people in your chosen industry isn’t something you get at university. I had a lot of trouble networking at first, constantly feeling like I was about to embarrass myself in front of people who were the top in their field.


But I soon learned that everybody started somewhere, and pushing myself to talk to new people could mean they remember me when I apply for the graduate scheme in a year’s time – even if it is for saying something ridiculous.


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