groups » Getting started in your placement » Advice, hints and tips for starting your placements

One of the main aspects of this on-line community is to help one another by sharing knowledge and experiences. The new round of fellows will soon be joining our community and will be going through the same processes that you have all been through with your respective placements.

There will be many aspects of the transition to your host institutions that will be useful to future fellows and with this in mind I thought we could use this discussion group to share your advice and tips on this subject.

I’m sure that when you started your placement s it would have been helpful and reassuring to have advice from individuals that have already been through the same process.

Please could we use this space to document some brief points that you think would be useful when embarking on this journey.

Reply

  • tcmarukutira tcmarukutira 31 Jul 2013

    Welcome new fellows. I can understand the frustrations on the first few days of your fellowship. For some these may continue but i just want to assure you that the benefits outweigh the risk you are taking. So be bold and strong and before you know, the one year will be all gone. Half the time you will need to be proactive with what you want to achieve. And for the one at Astellas, USA let me know if you have specific questions. The last discussion i had with Astellas before i left was that i will get an opportunity to mentor you as well. So let me know if you have specific questions.

    All the best and hope to meet all of you.

    Greetings from Botswana

    Tafi

  • rsoatiana1 Soatiana Cathycia Rajatonrina 25 Jul 2013

    I was a bit disappointed by the welcoming when I arrived because there was no or few support. Working for Pasteur Institute in my country I am used to travel, this is not my first trip abroad that is the reason why I was surprised. They arranged an accomodation but I did not appreciated it, fortunately I found by myself and I will move soon. I did everything by myself and alone. Concerning the opening bank account, there was also a problem because the process took time.
    For me this first two months were hard. When you arrive in these conditions I think it is a bit hard to start.
    Currently things start to go well.

  • docnouhoum Nouhoum OUOLOGUEM 17 Jul 2013

    I have been awarded the TDR grant for research capacity strengthening and knowledge management to help improve disease control. I am working with MMV's Medical Team for a six month period to learn about clinical development and Good Clinical Practices (GCP), focusing in particular on how to elaborate clinical study protocols. I will also review the cardiac safety profile of all our drugs in development and provide support to the local teams for the WANECAM and INESS studies regarding the cardiac safety assessment of Eurartesim® (dihydroartemisinin/piperaquine) and Pyramax® (pyronaridine/artesunate) in these post marketing studies.
    I will also spend 3 months with Cardiabase in Nancy, France to learn about the latest techniques used in the WANECAM and INESS studies for assessing cardiac safety in clinical trials.
    I am a cardiologist and have expertise in the interpretation of ECG and Holters. I have trained several young scientists during the previous six years and has helped them to carry out ECG monitoring on clinical trial patients at the Malaria Research and Training Center at the University of Bamako, Mali.

  • rezikamohammed Rezika Mohammed 14 Jul 2013

    I will go to North Brook,IL on August 2,2013 for my accommodation the staffs there are looking for me. I think by then I wont have a problem. Since this is my first time to go to USA,I will be happy if somebody can tell me or advice me about the fellowship or the state.

  • joeovosi joeovosi 12 Jul 2013

    I arrived Basel on the 2 June, 2013. Unfortunately for me, I could not contact the previous fellow before I left Nigeria. I was given a temporary place to stay by Novartis and I am still looking for an accommodation as of now. It is usually better for prospective fellows to make sure that a good accommodation is arranged before they leave their respective countries

  • ariprayitno ariprayitno 11 Jul 2013

    Before I start this fellowship, I contact person who join the same fellowship and same company previously. I asked anything about this programe, including what purposes that I should completely, such as employment pass, possibility to get temporary accomodation, opening the bank account etc.

    To the company, I asked a short term accomodation should be arranged by the company, with the reason that it's impossible to get the new accomodation by myself meanwhile I should work everyday since the first time I arrived. At least, I need one month to look for a new apartment carefully by myself.

  • tcmarukutira tcmarukutira 16 May 2013

    1. Accommodation:

    Hopefully you will be placed in an institution that provides accommodation and if not make sure you start making arrangements in advance.

    If possible hook up with a past fellow who was at that institution.

    Sometimes it is difficult to get the best deal before you have arrived at your host institution and you may want to make tentative accommodation arrangements for the interim.

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