Industial Student Placement in HR, TL&OD Review

This is my 6th week of my placement at GSK and so far I am extremely enjoying my job. I have found that at GSK there is also a focus on the social aspect and not just the work. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming which makes coming to work more enjoyable, along with the wide scope of work.

When starting my placement I was worried I was just going to be viewed as an Industrial Placement Student and given mundane, basic tasks. But that's the complete opposite the work I'm doing influences my colleagues work and I am delegated real projects/tasks that actually contribute to the success of my team. So I do feel highly valued by my colleagues!

The first 2 weeks of my placement I had my old IP student [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] to help guide me through. This I found extremely valuable and would encourage next year IP to try and join whilst their old project IPs are still there. I found it easier learning through [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] as she explained it through real life tasks which gave the work abit more context. Although, my project managers always help me and constantly tell me that no questions are stupid questions.

I would say for me personally this varied. I am a project IP in HR which means I was given different projects to get a sight of a few areas in the TL&OD area. So therefore, I didn't have constant work streams everyday it completely varied. Some days I would be extremely busy and others a-bit more quiet, which was natural for this stream of work. On average, I was full most the time, although when I first joined it was slow due to my projects starting up.

Again, I would say for me personally this differed due to my different projects. For my main project, I was given a lot of responsibility even in my first few weeks I was given tasks that influenced my managers work. I was also asked to make Agendas and schedule meetings which is quite a lot of responsibility. I would just of liked a-bit more structure to my work so I could specialise in one area.

I feel like the work experience will extremely help me in my working life after studies. I am unsure to what extent it will help with my final year, due to my projects not being extremely academically challenging, not included any maths/statistics. But I feel like the skills of how to communicate and work with different colleagues in the working environment will come in very helpful.

Generally the atmosphere was very quiet. I found this quite challenging at the beginning as I personally like chatting to my colleagues and working in groups. But the office was usually silent which hindered that group work. But the atmosphere was always very friendly and inclusive. Everyone was always helpful and approachable when facing challenges.

So far after 6 weeks I will have to say the placement hasn't been organised very well. I didn't have much of a training period with my manager and I found this really difficult at the beginning. I would of liked a-bit more structure in my first 2 weeks instead of just being thrown into meetings which made no sense to me. I found this very intimidating. Also after the 6 weeks I still haven't been given my second project (but this is due to needing to employ my manager). So I understand this is out of my project teams control, but maybe I could of been given a-bit more structure on what to do to help me prepare for the project?

I would say training was very independent. I didn't get given much formal training which at the beginning I found very intimidating and I personally would of preferred abit more. But it does force you to spend more time on your own development and training. So I wasn't spoon fed I was told to go research and try find out on my own which helped my own development and confidence to communicate with different people.

So far very appealing, but again I would have to highlight I have only been at GSK for 6 weeks. I would love to work for GSK I find the working environment very inclusive and a place I share values with. Although, I am aware that the graduate scheme is extremely hard to get with only 2 places so I doubt I will be able to compete with the other very strong candidates. But yes it is something I would love to get involved in.

Yes!! GSK employing many IP made the placement much more enjoyable. It also took the edge of the intimidation of joining such a large corporate organisation. It helped you realise others were in the same boat and also I found whenever I faced challenges I often went to the other IP to help me. Often the social events were planned amongst ourself but it made work really enjoyable and inclusive at lunch breaks etc...

I was lucky enough to live at my family home so it was fairly cheap for myself.

Not very good!! Brentford is a small area and where GSK is based there isn't much around the office. But this is okay! As often us IP would arrange to go out in central London on the weekends. But Brentford itself was fairly quiet and pubs was quite overpriced and always busy.

Would be unable to answer this question yet, as I have only been here 6 weeks and so far there hasn't been anything but I am sure there will be more opportunities in the future. Although, so far other Industrial Student Placements have arranged a charity football tournament for all IPs which is interesting but personally not my thing.