{"id":9585,"date":"2019-03-27T11:22:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T10:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/?p=9585"},"modified":"2021-06-03T12:02:26","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T11:02:26","slug":"my-placement-year-at-gsk-as-a-bu-biological-sciences-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2019\/03\/27\/my-placement-year-at-gsk-as-a-bu-biological-sciences-student\/","title":{"rendered":"My placement year at GSK as a BU Biological Sciences student"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>This is a guest blog by James Fox, a current student studying BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences.<\/h3>\n<p>Unlike BU, not all university&#8217;s offer a placement year and I knew from the outset it was most definitely something I wanted to do, so I could graduate with a degree and work experience.\u00a0 BU&#8217;s placement team are brilliant and were instrumental in both inspiring me to take a placement, and then landing an amazing opportunity to work at one of the world\u2019s\u00a0largest pharmaceutical companies.\u00a0 The placement year is sandwiched in between your second and third year so you go into your placement with two years of teaching.\u00a0 I did a 54-week microbiology placement at\u00a0GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), who have sites across the\u00a0UK and world (and pay well too)! BU encourages it&#8217;s students to get paid work placements. The application\u00a0was difficult, with online tests, video interviews\u00a0and then an assessment centre. The placement\u00a0team provide information and tips on how to\u00a0handle various types of interview along with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bournemouth.ac.uk\/students\/library\/guests-visitor-information\/peer-assisted-learning-pal\">PAL\u00a0sessions<\/a> that gave me the opportunity to talk\u00a0to students returning from their placements; all<a href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/files\/2019\/01\/James-Fox-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9646 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/files\/2019\/01\/James-Fox-2-271x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"271\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/files\/2019\/01\/James-Fox-2-271x300.jpg 271w, https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/files\/2019\/01\/James-Fox-2.jpg 664w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 271px) 100vw, 271px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nthings that I found really beneficial. My year at GSK was hugely valuable. I worked on\u00a0several projects ranging from biotechnology and\u00a0microbial fermentation of antibiotics to genetic\u00a0engineering. I spent a lot of time in the lab,\u00a0improving general technique and working with\u00a0devices that I wouldn\u2019t have had the opportunity<br \/>\nto work with elsewhere. I also noticed a massive\u00a0improvement in my soft skills from presenting\u00a0results to my team and external collaborators, all\u00a0of which is translatable into any future career. My\u00a0main project aimed to downscale an industrial sized\u00a0fermentation into a small, lab-sized fermenter and\u00a0then test my work. The work that I developed is now\u00a0an important project within the department and is\u00a0being worked on by my replacement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a guest blog by James Fox, a current student studying BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences. Unlike BU, not all university&#8217;s offer a placement year and I knew from the outset it was most definitely something I wanted to do, so I could graduate with a degree and work experience.\u00a0 BU&#8217;s placement team are brilliant&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2019\/03\/27\/my-placement-year-at-gsk-as-a-bu-biological-sciences-student\/\">Read more &raquo;<span class=\"sr-only\"> about My placement year at GSK as a BU Biological Sciences student<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":9646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[507,12,1638],"tags":[1140,323,1138,337,313],"class_list":["post-9585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-environmental-sciences","category-student-blogs","category-undergraduate","tag-biological-sciences","tag-bu-placement","tag-bu-student","tag-placement","tag-work-experience"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9585"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9648,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9585\/revisions\/9648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}