Service analyst Review

I have enjoyed my placement at GSK as everyone was very welcoming and helpful when I had first started. I was also able to experience working as part of different teams and if I wanted to develop any particular skills I was provided with that opportunity which was very beneficial.

In the specific team that I was in, I was considered as one of the team and not seen as a placement student. However, I think that it depends on the sort of work that you are doing and whatever team you are in as it will vary for everyone.

My manager and others were always very helpful and would always ask if I had specific skills that I wanted to develop or if I wanted to get involved in any particular areas of work. You are also able to go to your manager with a placement/development plan to help you get the most out of your placement.

At the beginning I did not have a lot of work and therefore I was not very busy and tended to be quite bored. But after moving to a different team I was given more work which meant that I had things to do every day but things can unexpectedly come up and make you busier than usual for a day.

I feel that for my particular placement I was not given that much responsibility. The work that I was doing was fairly easy but I think that if I had asked for more responsibility or harder work then my manager would have worked to find something for me to do.

I was able to greatly improve my excel skills as I worked with excel every day. Through doing the metrics for my team I was able to practice executing different formula. I am now able to use excel for a variety of tasks. Also being in a corporate environment and having to be disciplined will help me during final year and in the future.

GSK has a large office in Brentford which has a lot of amenities. The atmosphere around my team was always welcoming and fun as everyone got along very well and we would constantly talk between us during the day. Overall I would say it is a fairly calm and relaxed environment.

The application process was very straightforward. There were a number of forms that you had to sign and return after you were offered the role which took a bit of time to complete however the actual placement could have been structured better as the beginning of my placement I felt that my manager did not have a concrete idea of what specific work I was going to be doing.

I had multiple training and development opportunities. I went on a three day ITIL course and also went on a two day project management course. Both of which have an exam that you need to pass. There is also mylearning which allows you to improve things such as your Microsoft application skills e.g. excel

If you choose to apply to the future leaders programme (the graduate scheme) then you are able to apply early and have a slightly fast tracked application where you manager can recommend you and then you do a video interview. If you want they can also add you onto a direct entry mailing list so if any roles that suit you should come up they can contact you.

The placement students have a group called IP Unite which is run by students who organise things such as a Christmas ball and boat party in the summer. These were good to get all the sites together but at my specific site there were barely any events as the people who were in charge of organising these didn’t so it will depend on your site organisers.

I lived at home so did not have a high living cost however it did mean that I had to travel into work which was slightly expensive but you can get a student Oyster card which provides cheaper travel. It is in London so going out and drinks are more expensive than in other parts of the country.

There was no sort of nightlife in the immediate area unless you went to one of the local pubs and stayed until it closed. However, it is quite easy to get into central London which has a huge range of nightlife and clubbing places which is really good and fun.

There were always some activities such as sports like netball and football and rounders which you were able to get involved in after work which was organised by other placement students. However, with regard to other activities I do not think there were very many opportunities to get involved in things.