Tech Business Partner Review

Extremely grateful to land a placement with GSK - they are an excellent company to work for; offering support and opportunities at every turn. I never dread coming in to work and the GSK team are always supportive in helping you learn and develop yourself which means I am more successful at my job in supporting them. The overall culture here is a great one and is definitely the reason why we can help patients do more, feel better and live longer.

I am giving a lot of responsibility in my role. My colleagues don't see me as a student but as a fully fledged team member who they can rely on which is great. There is no mentality of the student fetching coffees in GSK; you are a key member of the team.

Both my managers are excellent coachers and mentors. They understood the best way to get their teaches across and wouldn't give you the answer. Instead, they would coach you to find the answer yourself which is better in the long term - it means I can grow and be more independent and if I did have a problem that I couldn't complete myself I knew my coaches/mentors would be there to help support me.

It was slow at first and frustrating but in hindsight that is to be expected. You aren't going to be given every opportunity straight away because the start of your placement year is to develop yourself and learn the culture and processes in place at GSK. When that was nailed towards 3 months in I was given a lot more responsibility and even had my own application to own in rolling it out to sites around the world. As you progress in your placement your capacity increases but so does your workload.

Once I understood the company and the processes in place my responsibility increased massively. I would work independently and take the lead on numerous projects at one time - particularly in deploying a tech solution to our manufacturing sites and helping them drive value from it. Responsibility is given at GSK when you are ready and it can be a great thing in furthering your own development.

If there's anything I can take away from this placement it is the confidence it has given me. I am a much better public speaker and have even started seminars for the early talent on our Ware Manufacturing site. This confidence will be critical in helping me with my degree studies since it means I can give better presentations, get my point across clearer and ask the right questions in furthering my own learning and development.

It was excellent - a healthy mix between professional talk about tasks/projects we were working on but also on general discussions about life and things that aren't related to GSK. We always had a laugh and despite not sitting with my team (since we're global based) I still managed to connect with the extended team.

I can sympathise with my managers because a placement can be hard to plan in advance. You need to ensure the student is capable of taking on what work you have at the time and it isn't necessarily clear what's coming your way in advance and can happen in a moments notice. That being said my managers made a good effort to allocate me work regularly and we had structured 1-2-1s and team meetings to ensure that work was given in a structured way.

GSK Adopts a 70/20/10 training model when it comes to learning and development. 70% is on the job, 20% is independent and 10% is formal training. It's amazing how much you can learn on the job and actually 'doing' tasks/activities. It also helps having a good team to bounce ideas off and learn from; which is everyone at GSK! That being said, GSK does invest on formal courses for their IPs. In November I was sent on an ITIL Practitioners course and now have a qualification in it.

Very appealing and I have an application sitting with GSK for their grad scheme whilst typing this. I am keen to get back into the GSK Tech team as soon as I finish university because I can truly relate to the values and expectations of the company. I know that with the larger GSK team and with each individual working together we can make a difference to our patients.

It is difficult to say since we're based at a small manufacturing site but that doesn't mean we didn't go out regularly. We tried to organise an outing once a month at the least - even if it's a meal. To ensure that we were connected outside of work and this helped make some great memories through my placement!

It's expensive to live in Ware but I would say it is worth it. I wouldn't do a placement to earn financial benefits but to get the development and growth from it. Placements offer so much more than money.

It is lacking in the home counties and could have been better. However, this all depends on who you go out with. If there's a good crowd of you then you can make your own entertainment and can have some memories that you'll cherish forever.

If you keep an eye and an ear out then there's always something going on. Whether it's for charity or just for entertainment.