Polymers and tulips

A year in industry

Many university chemistry courses offer students the opportunity to spend a period of time abroad or working in industry, and some give you the chance to do both at the same time. But what is it like to leave the familiar surroundings of your university to be plunged into a new environment? We asked Mary Wood to give us a personal account of her experiences living and working in the Netherlands

FOTOLIA

Interested in a career in chemistry? This Encounter shows one of the options available to you if you take it at degree level. You can also use it to help you revise polymers and catalysis.

Pursuing a year in industry had not even crossed my mind when I first arrived at university, eager but inexperienced and ready to get stuck into 4 years of chemistry. Therefore it was with something of a sense of bemusement that earlier this year I found myself, clutching a large backpack stuffed with euros and emergency tea supplies, at the station in Sittard, a small town wedged between Belgium and Germany in the south Netherlands. I was about to start a 12-month placement at DSM, a life and materials sciences company.