Name of Student: Hateem Rafeeque
Degree Subject: Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery
Type of Internship: Access to Internships (A2I)
Company Name: University of Exeter, Biosciences
Job Title: Research Assistant
What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?
I discussed and planned projects with my team members to determine future experiments and tasks. I performed immunohistochemistries, counted cells and compiled data.
What outputs and outcomes did you deliver for your employer?
I provided data that compared two methods to see if they were interchangeable or not. This would allow a larger data set to be compiled together. I also double-checked other students work to increase the reliability of their work.
What was your biggest achievement on your internship?
I was able to bring together various projects together. I counted cells that were treated in slightly different ways to see if the outcome was still the same. I compared data from different projects and found that the slightly different methodology did not make a difference. This allowed the data to be combined to form a much larger data set.
What did not go so well on your internship? How did you overcome any challenges?
I needed to go into the lab to take pictures of brain slices for cell counting, however, once lockdown started, I was unable to go into the lab. This put a halt to my project, so I discussed this with the rest of the team, and they arranged for me to complete other parts of the project that I could do from home.
Skills Learnt:
- Ability to Work Under Pressure
- Organisation
- Decision Making
- Researching
- Time and Work Load Management
Attributes Developed:
- Initiative
- Perseverance
- Professionalism
- Confidence
- Motivation
Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?
“This experience enabled me to gain numerous practical skills whilst studying. It was nice to be in a work setting related to my degree so that I could see other perspectives of what I am studying. I am glad that I was able to work with wonderful people and develop connections for the future.”