Process Engineer Review

When I first arrived from university, I was dithering over whether engineering was really the job for me. But after my experience with GSK, I’m totally convinced that it is. Despite a lot of dull work and some difficulties (especially in the beginning) it’s been a worthwhile year for me and I’ve learned a lot.

I’ve been in a good team and everyone at the Worthing site is usually very helpful. A lot of people will take the time to explain things to you, and I’ve never done a job without getting a thank you from the people I’ve worked for. When I’ve had to stay very late, I’ve been given the time back during the week. When I’ve made mistakes, people have taken the time to help me sort out the problem. Overall, I’ve felt a part of the team and never felt awkward about asking for help.

To a certain extent, I was left to fend for myself. However, I always knew support and advice were available from my manager if I needed it. Overall it was quite sufficient. I’ve also been allowed the time to do the work I need for uni, which has been an enormous help. Also, I once volunteered to work at the GSK stall at the Brighton Science Festival. A few weeks afterwards, we all got an award and an unexpected £ 50, so you do get appreciated when you do something for the company.

I worked on a sterile manufacturing plant, so getting your work done around aseptic conditions means that sometime you’re very busy if you’ve got a window in production, and sometimes there’s nothing you can do but wait for a plant shutdown. Steriles is excellent in terms of developing your organisational skills, but you’ll always be oscillating between bored and too busy. It’ll even out in the end.

Given the limitations of my technical knowledge (I came in after my second year) I think I’ve been given as much responsibility as I can handle. Occasionally I’ve been shoved into the deep end, and sometimes I haven’t quite had the confidence to convince someone that I’m correct about something, but again, overall, I was satisfied.

I do feel that I’ve learned a lot. I’m far more practical than I ever was, and I pick things up a lot faster than I used to. I can work on something now with no previous knowledge or experience, and learn on the job. I’ve become a lot more confident at asking a people to do things for me, which I was very shy about at first. On the whole, this was probably the most useful year of my life, in engineering terms. I’d recommend it to anyone.

Everyone’s nice and seem to get along all right. The atmosphere, both in the office and down in the plant, is very friendly.

We were managed centrally, and did get asked for feedback after a few months. I went into the job not having much idea what I’d actually end up doing. However, that’s been fixed because my replacement was put in touch with me, and asked me all he needed to know. Plus my predecessor stayed on a couple of weeks to do a handover for me, which was very helpful.

There’s a certain amount of training required by the law, which I had to do. However, my training was not limited to that; if the course was helpful to me I was given the chance to go on it. Also, if I felt I needed training or access to any specialised software in order to do my job, I did get it.

I’d personally like to try another industry when I graduate. However, we are encouraged to apply for the GSK graduate scheme. I don’t feel I have the required criteria or the personal inclination for it, but having said that, GSK medicines do save lives, and the company does try to help poor countries get access to medicines. So you do feel like your contribution is worthwhile in some small way. So I might want to come back someday if I can, but in the meanwhile I’d like to try something different.

There were two of us on site, and we didn’t see each other much except for saying hello in the canteen.

Prices were reasonable, and for about 10 - 30 pounds you can actually have quite a nice evening out in Worthing or Brighton (but I’m not a big drinker and neither are my friends). There’s nice towns and places to visit, which is cheap, but very nice way to spend a day. Countryside is great, shopping is quite good and you can find nice shops in Brighton that don’t belong to big chains, which is quite cool and prices are good. Second hand book shops are particularly brilliant. But it depends on what you’re into, really. If you find friends near you age who earn about the same as you, that does help!

You do get a bit of everything in Worthing. Clubs are all right, there’s a theatre and a cinema, some nice restaurants, etc. But Worthing’s a bit dull compared to Brighton, so you can always go there (20min train ride) for a night out. Brighton’s pretty lively at night, and it’s personally my favourite city in England.

Don’t know, really. I’d rather relax or go out than look for activities in my free time, so I haven’t really looked.