Work Placement Diary: Charlotte Istance-Tamblin – blog post 2

Student experience 1st November 2019

Third year Chemistry with Industrial Experience student Charley discusses learning on the job in her latest placement update. 

How far into this am I now? Six weeks I think, no wait, 7 weeks! Oh my!!

The training has been quite tough, mostly because there is so much information being thrown at you and you must do your best to stay on top of it! I’ve looked over so many variants of chromatography; liquid, gas, ion, plasma… each has its own use, and each has a different way of setting up the system!

Anyway, I was given some LC work to complete; now it’s up to me to actually remember what I had learned and put it to use. This proved to be more challenging than I had hoped, you see, I could remember certain bits of the various processes, but I had several blanks in my memory! This meant that I could get myself so far and then I had to check in with a colleague to step to get to the next bit. Here’s where the old fear of mine came in to play; I was feeling so ridiculous asking again and again for help on what felt like the same thing that I got quite upset. I eventually asked my supervisor for a little bit of time to talk… Here’s a valuable lesson to remember – part of a supervisor’s/manager’s remit is to ensure their staff are all properly trained. She was really nice about it and suggested I speak to a colleague who was a “super user” (highly trained member of staff for a specific system), so I did. I got the help and support I needed and was able to move forward. I could have kept quiet but what good would that have done?!

I still have no idea what they will be assigning me for my big project, I’m told that it’s normal because I only started in September to get the project in January. That’s fair enough I suppose.

I had hoped to have more to tell you at this point but as analysts, we must be trained more on the various systems. I suppose the take home message is that it is folly to compare yourself to others! I’m a lab rat, the lab is where I am happiest, and the lab is where I belong. It is so frustrating that I can see some of the other students who are here as synthetic chemists in the lab, running reactions and getting their hands dirty. I know that is where I’d rather be, but it’s not why I came here! I said last time that I came here because my analytical skills left a lot to be desired and I’m here to improve them.

So, I should stop comparing myself to them, I’ve got plenty more time to hone my synthetic talents and thanks to my summer in the research laboratory I already have developed some of those skills.

Till next time, Charley xxx

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