Industrial Trainee in Publishing and Product License support Review

I have enjoyed my time working at Pfizer. I have a good working relationship with my manager, i have good flexibility over the work that i pick up in order to progress the specific skills i want to improve. I think this is very valuable in a placement environment as it gives benefit to both the employer and employee.

I felt very valued. Many of the poeple i had contact with were not in the same office as myself, so they didnt realise i was an intern and treated me as an equal. This meant the responsibility i was given over tasks was very high. I was given high visibility task and direct access to higher colleagues which was great. This was championed by my manager who would alyways ensure the tasks i was completing provided value to the business.

I had two supervisors who represented different areas sof the business. Both gave excellent support to my woking life and even persoinal if need be. We had weekly one to one sessions to discuss work, learn more about business processes and generally chat about the job and life. In a general sense it seems like everyone at Pfizer has a decent relationship with their managers which makes the job that bit easier and more enjoyable.

My workload was good, i had a steady flow of tasks, some long standing (whole time i was with pfizer), some medium (lasting a few months) and some would only take a few days/hours, this was good as it meant things didn't stagnate and i got a veriety of things to do.

I was given a large amount of resonsibility in my job, i had some very high visibility tasks that would be reviewed and used by colleagues far higher than myself, i realy enjoyed this aspect of the job. Some task would be handed off to me to solely manage, this was great as id have free reign over how i'd complete the tasks.

In all honesty the content of the job i do, has little connect to the content of my biology degree. However the soft skills that i have delveloped such as time management and general self confidence when public speaking etc will be very valuable in the future. Ive also learnt some computer skills and basic coding, this isnt for everyone but it something i was keep to learn, i'll be able to use this in the future.

The atmoshpere in the office was quiet, the evergae age was closer to the 40/50s rather than 30s. I think this was partly due to the location of the site. The intterior was revamped while i was at pfizer so this made physical environment pretty nice. Where the site fell down was the general atmospher created by the location and slightly 'slow' days that appeared to be had my many.

Organisation wasnt bad, the process seemed pretty slick when i was an applicant, however when i became involved in the process from the other side of the table i realised it wasnt quite as seemless. Although it was fine, nothing was late and nothing was 'unorganised', things could have just been abit faster at times with admin stuff.

The company was great when it camp to persoinal development.The company has many internal schemes and programs that aim to develop you as an individual. Secondly, they company offered some external training courses with the costs covered such as yellow belt continuour improvement courses,management courses etc. A nice touch, as these are very expensive to do privatly.

Future prospects are okay, there is a recent graduate scheme which offfers two year schemes with a 6 month rotation around different areas of the business. This is somehting i may look into in the future as its based in walton oaks (the lodon office) which is a better location than down in Kent. Although this is a fairly small scale scheme with only 6/7 places at the moment.

I gave this an average score because the social scene is great and poor at the same time. I get along great with my housemates and we go out, do stuff at the weekends and just generally get along well, this is great (if your lucky to find housemates that you click well with). However the social scene with the rest of the office isnt quite so great due to the older generation. Although i have been on some team meals/nights out and they have been good, just not the same as going out with housemantes.

Ramsgate is very cheap to live, rent is low, drinks are cheap compared to Bath (my uni) anyway so in that sense it's good. Socially its okay, Couple places in Ramsaget to go out but nothing special, if you want a better night out, catch the train to Boadstairs and go to the Dolphin after 10pm ish. Overall its average.

Nightlife in rasgate is poor, there are a few pubs and bar/clubs but they're nothing special. For a better night out head to broadstairs on the trains where there are some better pubs and a the Dolphin which gets pretty busy post 10pm ish. It comes down to who you go with, luckily we had a house of 5 who all had similar ish personalities so it didnt matter where we went.

We got involved in some stuff outside of work, such as charity runs, beach trips etc. these were organised by people from the office but were not directly connected to the company. But in general there wasnt much, unless we were at the office, wew dint have much contact with the comany or colleagues. But i dont treat this as a bad thing, its nice to be able to separate.