Hi! My name is Ami and I’m a Biomedical Science student currently on placement at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. So far, I’m having an exciting time here in Sweden. Having met some of my colleagues and been given a tour of the lab, I can already tell this is going to be an amazing experience! But my placement did not start the way that I expected.

Making the most of a tricky situation

Due to some delays with my visa, I was not able to travel to Sweden and start my placement on the date that I had planned to. Although I was worried and upset about how this would affect my placement, it really helped that I had effective communication with my placement supervisor who was very understanding and offered for me to start working remotely while I waited for my visa. After informing the International Engagement Office of the situation and confirming that this would be possible, I was able to start my placement remotely!

The first few months of my placement

Even though the start of my placement didn’t happen exactly how I had imagined it, I still really enjoyed the remote part of my placement, and I learned some valuable skills from it. I vastly improved my Excel skills by working on analysing RT-QPCR data to see how different media affected the upregulation of target genes.

I also got to get experience using a software I had never used before called ImageJ, which I used to count nuclei on confocal microscopy images. Although I would have loved to be physically in Sweden working in the lab, I was able to learn new techniques that I may not have been able to focus on as thoroughly if I were. For example, I am now at the point of understanding ImageJ where I have created a macro that automates the nuclei counting process quite well.

The weekly 1-on-1 Teams meetings with my placement supervisor also gave me a unique opportunity to get expert answers on any questions I had surrounding the research I was doing on the project topic on which I would eventually work.

My advice on taking an international placement

If you are thinking about taking an international placement, make sure you research the potential countries you want to go to and what the requirements are for your visit. Of course, make sure you apply for things like visas and accommodation on time!

Sometimes, like in my case, you can do everything right and things still might not go to plan, so make sure you have good communication with your placement supervisor and the IEO team as they can help talk you through options that will make you placement experience that much easier!