Summer Intern Review

Have had a fantastic time working at GSK. The summer internship scheme is well organised and structured with great support and development opportunities throughout. There is a good community feel with the other interns as well and the Stockley Park site is really friendly with a great work ethic, no complaints!

Team was really supportive and felt like I’d known them for much longer than 11 weeks by the end of the internship. Was able to fully immerse in team meetings and discussion, and was even able to chair a monthly strategic planning session. Similarly, everyone I worked with cross-business were supportive and respected my opinion/objectives.

The internship is clearly structured over the 11 weeks with milestones and regular review/feedback sessions, meaning there was always ample opportunity to flag up any issues I was having. In addition, was able to have weekly 1:1s with my manager (who I’d work with every day anyway) to ensure I was getting the support I needed.

As the project I was given was quite open-ended, the workload was entirely dependent on myself and which direction I went with the project/how successful I’d been with it. That said, I never got to a point where I ran out of things to do and felt quite busy most of the time.

I had a project given to me for which I had full ownership, with my deliverables and key performance indicators set by myself and agreed with my manager after having spent the first couple of weeks gathering insights and deciding on the direction I wanted to go with the project.

The training offered is also brilliant – with regular ‘Lunch & Learn’ sessions giving insight to various areas of the business, as well as 2 project planning workshops, a presentation skills workshop and a 2-week induction into the business. Feel far more accomplished in marketing and general business skills now than I did at the start.

The atmosphere in the office is great, I was based at Stockley Park which is a relatively small office mostly used by one business line but it is always easy to find key stakeholders around and there’s a real community feel. Similarly, my team was always up for a laugh which definitely helped the atmosphere.

The internship was well structured with clear milestones and targets to work towards - as well as regular review and feedback sessions. The induction is run really well with a full week's learning then a second week split between your team and additional learning sessions. Further, there are learning opportunities throughout and the final review process is clearly communicated and easy to follow.

Had the opportunity to shadow, including travel, as well as visit the other main GSK office regularly and we were constantly encouraged to reach out and find more about other areas of the business in order to guide our development and career progression. As mentioned before, we also had a 2 week induction and ongoing learning session right until the end of the 11 weeks.

Have to undergo final review process in order to be offered a place on the Graduate scheme - however have spoken to manager who is willing to provide a positive recommendation for me and this is definitely something I'd be interested in looking into further.

Came in an intake with 5 other interns, all of whom have been very social and have been on nights out with them, and other socials with our managers and teams. Also see them every day around the office and make an effort to go to lunch together. The only issue is location - as being quite far out as an office we tend to have to meet a couple of hours after work in Central London instead, rather than being able to go straight to a pub after work.

There isn't really much to do around the office itself, but transport links to London are decent enough so it's not a major issue. It cost me about £7 a day to commute in from Islington/Camden area, occasionally more if I had to get the tube. There is a free shuttle that goes from the train station to the office every day and then back again in the evening though.

There is none.

Most of the activities involved in outside of work we organised ourselves.