Student Intern Review

I very much enjoyed my internship, it was a great office experience, working on frontier research. Great site as well with loads of facilities i would've liked to use even more. There was a good balance of workload with a bit of stress and time constraints which are essential to drive forward.

I did not get as much contact with my colleagues as i would have liked but met with some of the important people which is the main thing. There were other students around me which made it a lot more social and interacting. During the little contact with my team, they still valued the work I was doing and were genuinely interested in what I had to say.

I met with my official supervisor twice across the 6 weeks and the first time was quite late into the internship so didn't have a lot of guidance in the beginning. Another intern helped me along for the first couple of weeks and acted as my nonofficial supervisor which was still great.

I have never had a day where I had strictly nothing to do. Some days were busier than others. It was especially a shame that all the work started coming in at the end. And i also realised how slowly I was working during the first weeks, probably because I knew I had time for the assignments I were given.

I was given a fair bit of responsibility , writing a part of a paper. So i definitely like I was important and that my work would be evaluated; I definitely had to up my standards which was a great challenge. A part from that I wasnt given much responsibility.

I developed a lot of skills in the working world which will definitely be very useful later on. Referencing and writing in a scientific manner, communication (in oral as well as in written), using skype and attending conference calls, as well as interviews which gave me an idea as to what it would be like when i am in that situation.

it was usually very quiet, people got in the office later than i did most of the time but then others left later as well so a bit of both. I didn't communicate with most of the people that were in my office as they were part of another team but the tea breaks were nice with other students.

I know organising placements is not easy so I was surprised how fast I started working. There was sometimes a little of lack of organisation on my supervisor's side but I was quite independent and managed myself well enough. Some days out of the office were organised and those were great and exciting!

I had a whole week more or less of e-learning courses to complete in accordance with the company and had a day of quick training but it was kept very succinct. I kind of self-trained myself because people around me were already very busy so didn't want to be an extra load.

Future prospects were quite appealing, although Id want to move around and try out other places before settling down with the same company. They did offer for me to come back next summer for a longer internship which is always nice to be wanted. This is my second time at gsk.

We had coffee/tea breaks everyday with fellow placement students. We had lunch all together as well which is always a nice break. Social events outside of work were organised and i got to know the other students quite well after only 6 weeks. Everyone was very social. With colleagues it was always a little harder but we did a few things.

I still lived at home during the internship so cost wasn't an issue; i had to pay though for a car insurance and petrol for me to be able to drive there everyday which was quite expensive. I didn't do a lot of socialising therefore in the area since I had to drive back but it was mostly slightly cheaper than London, still quite expensive.

This didn't apply to me since i went home every day, we went out for drinks which was nice but the area is very small so there is so much you can do. I know a few other students managed to go the cinema. But you would have to go to London for any proper nights out.

There was an on-site gym and classes 3 times a week. i tried out fitball once, but because of the long drive home I didn't participate in a lot of these activities. We also had a team lunch once outisde of work in a pub which was very nice and other social events after work with other placement students.