Work experience, interships, placements as Biomedical Science Student

Hey folks, I was curious to find out how did you go about to find work experience, interships or placements while you were in your 2nd year of Biomed degree, especially from those who doesn't have any experience in this field at all?

Reply 1

1582

Volunteer Team

I did a year in industry with a biotechnology company. My course leader sent an email out to say there was a placement available and I was one of three students who were put forward to interview for the role.

It delayed graduation by one year but it was absolutely worth it. I ended up going back to (briefly) work for that company again after I graduated. The experience I gained with them then led to me landing a graduate job (with career progression opportunities) within a much bigger company.

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 2

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

Original post by Judithly92

Hi @Judithly92

I came into university knowing I wanted to do a placement year, so I applied for a biochemistry degree that included one. The department had its own placement careers team who gave us support on CVs, cover letters, interviews, psychometric tests etc. I'm always over prepared so I pretty much had my generic placement CV written before the start of second year and I just edited that and wrote custom cover letters for each placement I applied for. I was incredibly lucky that the placement team here at Lancaster sent out a weekly email with all potentially relevant placement opportunities that launched each week throughout second year - I actually never would've known about the role I got an offer for without this email! However, all these placements will be advertised either on the company website and on job listing sites. Opportunities start to appear from September/October in second year. Some will have very early closing dates (I think GSK closed super early) so it's good to be prepared, but there are still some placements advertised much later in the year.

I applied for an internship advertised by my department, and applied with pretty much the same CV with a few edits again. I think the internship was advertised January/February and closed in March or April? A lot of universities offer internships in their labs, so it's definitely something to look out for.

There will also be a few summer internships offered in industry (e.g. at Pfizer https://www.pfizer.co.uk/careers/summer-student-programme) but in my experience these are likely to only be advertised on the company website as opposed to on job search websites, so it's worth googling some big pharma companies to see if they offer anything.

Also, some biology societies offer funding for internships. You'd need to have someone currently doing research at the university labs, who is a member of the society, who would be willing to be your supervisor. You'd then need to come up with a research proposal and apply for funding. Here is an example from the British Society of Cell Biology https://bscb.org/competitions-awardsgrants/studentships/

For both placements and internships, I'd recommend sending out lots of applications as they can be very competitive. I applied for probably about 6 placements. I only applied for one internship as I already had a placement secured and wasn't really planning on doing one, but the university advertised a really cool looking one so I went for it.

These opportunities won't expect you to have lots of experience, as they'll recognise you're an undergraduate. I'd recommend highlighting any relevant skills you've gained through university (e.g. have you used literature databases to search when writing an essay, have you used bioinformatics or modelling software in a workshop, what lab skills do you know from practicals) and mention other skills like communication, flexibility, and teamwork from any part-time jobs or volunteering roles you've held. I think it's also useful to highlight scientific interest when applying for roles with little experience, so mention any optional online talks you've attended, or if you're part of biology society at university etc.

I hope I could help, if you have any questions please let me know!
Rebecca (Lancaster Student Ambassador)