research associate

research assistant

postdoctoral research associate

researcher

research fellow

Imperial College London

Every day was different and the same for the Projects. The College has a commercial management focus for both value for money and being at the cutting edge of end user requirements, design and delivery.Success was motivated and rewarded.  
Whatever you did or planned would also impact on others. Therefore cross campus  team work and communication was very key.
Being in a place of learning, the right  day to day behavour was expected and there is encouragement with  easy access to academic materials/courses. This Ensured there was also opportunities to develop, so one day you are a student the next back to being a professional service provider. 
The College environment provides great time for fun, key college events and great team building. 

I would say the hardest part of the job was .... communication. Effective communication was essential both in terms of H&S to all but also from design to completion of any project.

Testing human samples such as blood, tissue, urine or cerebrospinal and faecal material for enzymes, hormones, and other constituents.

Making up chemical solutions, labelling and sorting samples. Responsible of loading and operating Analysers, inputting patients data into the computer system, i.e. Mysis system as well as preforming maintenance, diagnosis and troubleshooting of analysers with senior biomedical scientists. I was also responsible of preparing and analyzing quality control material, maintaining stocks, disposing of chemical or biological waste as well as -Answering telephone enquiries and keeping and filing records.

Working with colleagues and coordinating our efforts, by dividing up roles and tasks to address certain issues helped me develop confidence, people skills and to communicate more effectively when help is needed.

What i like most about being in a lab setting is the ability to make a huge difference to someone's life, through the  extensive research and studies offered by the hospital in order to make the correct diagnosis and help medical team establish the most effective treatment.

Typical day – supporting chefs , helping food preparation before service starts , making sure all food counters have enough food backup ,Basically food runner responsibilities. keeping kitchen at standard hygiene levels including deep cleaning. supporting events doing set-up by the plan.
What I learned - able to organize yourself time, work fast and efficiency, mentoring the new starters.
Management- you can't progress from your position.
Workplace culture - One of the best part of this job everyone is friendly , helping each others at any time, you don't feel pushed away or different. everyone appreciating people at work .
The hardest part of the job - our kitchen supports events and junctions of which can be included more than 800x people. per week we have 3-4 times events. before events we receive the set-up plan which we take kitchen porters to help up and giving basic training about lifting heavy stuff and all about hazard.
The most enjoyable part of the job - you get meet good people and make friends quickly , working for a while makes learn lots of things.

I am a current employee. 

At Imperial College London I have seen some of the worst people management in any organisation that I have ever worked for. The problem is that bullies are not only tolerated here, but appeased or even actively rewarded for their behaviour. There is such a bizarre and toxic culture in some Departments that anyone who is regarded as a "celebrity research star" is supported by the College  no matter how appallingly they behave. Don't take my word for it - the College has a whole string of legal actions against it in employment tribunals - read the press reports and make up your own mind. Then remember that this is only the tip of the iceberg, because the vast majority of people who have bad experiences here don't sue - they just leave.

I don't know who is writing the other reviews on this site, but if they are genuine, the authors are very lucky indeed. Perhaps they worked in Chemistry, which has a great reputation ...... it is reputed to be a shining light in this otherwise pretty grim environment.

I knew I was in the wrong job from day 1. My line manager spoke to me for less than 5 mins, I was introduced to just 1 person (out of a group of over 15), there was no guided tour of the site and I had lunch on my own - not a great first day! Communication was very poor: there were no group meetings for the first 11 months, and no meetings to plan out work. The Ph. D students arrived any time they wanted between 9am and 1pm and had regular temper tantrums when they did not get their own way. There was no teaching structure put in place: if you needed to know a new technique/procedure, you had to look on the internet or waste a lot of time trying to figure it out. And to top it all, there was a clique of postdoctoral chemists and Ph. D students who thought they could do they liked, say what they liked, and treat all others badly  - and so they did. All in all, the worst experience of my career to date.

Good management, friendly co-workers.

Job duties were- 
•	Operating smooth running of Main Restaurant, Events Bars, Sports Café, Theatre Bar and venue in Royal College of Music
•	Training and development of staff, One to One meetings
•	Creating Operational User Guides for main Bar/ Restaurant and the Sports cafe
•	Till operations, cashing up, Daily Sales Reports, Timesheets for over 30 members of staff
•	Daily stock control/ stock requisitions and full monthly audit
•	Report defects, repairs and maintenance issues, kitchen equipment
•	Monitoring and supporting the requirement for the venue team to conduct all their working practices in accordance with the Food Hygiene, Health and Safety legislation, The Colleges Financial Regulations and Fire Procedures and the Catering Department Policies
•	Being responsible for the safekeeping of all keys, passes, passwords and codes and to ensure that proper security measures are in place in order to prevent unauthorized access to restricted areas

My work life experience while at Imperial has been positive, facilitating for a good working experience. Our recruitment Clinics have provided a high level of skill testing, namely autonomous practice and working under extrem pressure in a busy enviroment. The patient cohort that l have been recruiting to the studies i am aligned to, are also a population that require a lot of emotional support and attention, and maintaining confidentiality at all times.

Most of the studies that l have been involved in have been observational, and therefore not giving me much experience in the way of Phase1 or 2 clinical Research. this has been the downside to this Job role. However, i have gained a lot of experince for the fundamental skills of research.

Imperial College is a developing institution ranked 9th in the World via the Times Higher Education  World University Rankings. Alongside this, the institution currently places 1st in the London and South East for Sport, and 18th Nationally. 

Students are diverse and ambitious, leading to a strong environment for change and improvement when it comes to the advancement of student sport. Daily interaction with the student body highlights challenges, and solutions to overcome these improving the student sporting experience. 

The most challenging aspect of the Sports Partnership role is communication with ALL students. Due to the sheer size of the institution and it's multi site set up, interacting with students across London can be difficult, but rewarding when achieved.

The environment is not research staff friendly and the facilities you get for your research depends on how rich your lab is. There is hardly any shared equipment. They don't care for their employees. You won't feel a sense of community and the HR system is super slow with a lot of bureaucracy. Most of the postdocs there are frustrated and stuck at the same position for years.The location of the Hammersmith campus is really bad there is nothing nearby and it's not safe at night. The labs are not well maintained. If you are joining as a researcher you will end up doing a lot of admin work. The professors and senior leaders are not approachable at all. The environment is not friendly and is rather hostile (if your PI is great then you might be better off).

The role offered valuable exposure to a fast-paced environment; however, I found the onboarding and support lacking. Administrative processes were unclear, system training was only provided upon request, and there was limited guidance during the initial weeks. Suggestions for improving efficiency were not meaningfully considered, and overall I felt the priority was filling an operational gap rather than investing in a new employee's development and long-term success.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Research associate 78 salaries reported	£50,831 per year
Research assistant 38 salaries reported	£42,902 per year
Postdoctoral research associate 14 salaries reported	£48,932 per year
Researcher 13 salaries reported	£37,231 per year
Research fellow 11 salaries reported	£58,926 per year

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