HR Data Analyst Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement at GSK. I have never had a day where I have felt bored or felt that the work was too easy. I have constantly been challenged and have looked forward to going in to work every day to see what challenges I will have to tackle.

Very valued. Throughout this year I feel that I have become an integral member of the team, leading some projects single handedly as the representative of our team. This has meant in catch up session I would provide feedback to the team about those projects and I feel that when I leave there will things needed to replace all my work.

Constant support. I was always sat near my direct manager who has a wealth of experience in the work that I was doing that and he would always spare time to answer my questions if I had any. Not only that but the team has varied knowledge and specialisms and I felt comfortable with reaching out to these individuals if I had any questions.

The majority of the time I had a well balanced work schedule. There were the occasional weeks where I would have more work than usual. However I think this was a good thing as it challenges you and teaches you to prioritise the more important pieces of work. I don't think I had a day where I was bored.

As mentioned above, I was a lead representative from the team in some of the projects which meant I had full responsibility on how it worked. Not only that but the teamed allowed me to work how I wanted and to be as creative as I can be. Not only that but working in Analytics meant I had access to sensitive data and it was good to see that GSK Trust their employees with this.

Academically the placement year was not very related to my degree, apart from having a slightly mathematical logic to it. However soft skills I have developed such as organisational skills and communication will definitely come in handy in my final year at university and also in my future careers. Having said this, I do think it my placement would help peoples degrees providing they were similar (computer science maybe).

The atmosphere in the office was very friendly. There was barely ever silences and there were always things to get involved in apart from the work. I took part in a lot of bake sales, and external events so every one was very friendly. The ability to work closely with other Placement students as well was great.

The overall set up was fairly organised. I did feel I had to go to email a few times with certain queries etc. but overall it had a good structure and I always knew there was someone I could speak to if I needed it. There were also many information sessions I could join to get a better understanding of things like Tax, P45's etc.

There was not really any investment from the overall company for development in myself/other IP's. This would have been good to have as I have heard from other placement students else where who have got the opportunity to go to other places for a week to learn from them etc. However I do feel that within my own team I did have the freedom to do my own personal development if I wanted to. The team recently provided me a membership to Data camp for example.

So firstly, due to the change in the graduate scheme, I am unable to defer a year as I would like to travel. However within my team I have had discussions about a short contract job when I have graduated from university. Until after travels, I do know know whether I will go back to GSK.

As mentioned above, I got to work closely with other placement students on certain projects which was good as we both felt we had huge responsibility and at times we would be leading meeting with just employees and ourselves. I also got involved in the social parties that took place. The majority were organised amongst the placements students ourselves but we did also have a summer and winter party set up by the IP committee.

I was lucky to not have a too large cost of living due to it being a newly built place. However I knew placement students who were paying a lot for living and bills. Socialising was again expensive, this is probably due to it being in London however and so I did not expect anything different.

Awesome! There was always something going on and I knew I could always go somewhere if I wanted to. I lived with 3 others also working at GSK, so we always went places in the evenings and weekend in central London. It is expensive but it is definitely worth it.

Yes definitely. I took part in different charity events including a tough mudder that raised money for Save the Children. This was so great fun especially since I enjoy fitness as well so it combined two great things. I also went to local schools to teach them about career building as well which was also really good.