Summer Student Review

I had a mixed but overall positive internship at GSK. The reason for this being that I had a happy working environment with nice colleagues and was able to have some extremely useful conversations about career paths. The work itself was of a high standard and testing, but I felt as though it was not frequent enough and I would often find myself with no work to do.

As a member of the office I felt valued and got on very well with my colleagues, but I have given this rating due to the fact I felt slightly more like a burden which was shared around than a useful extra pair of hands. On some occasions I was able to be useful and really help out, just not as often as I would have liked.

My actual supervisor had very little to do with me and palmed me off to other colleagues, who were actually brilliant and went out of their way to help me a lot. When working, these new people supported and guided me as they taught me complicated new techniques for use during the lab and was very grateful to them.

This one was tough to score as it varied so much. When I was helping out, I might have had full days in a row which were extremely busy (in a good way), but more often than not I found myself without any work. I would try to use my time wisely and read relevant pieces, but felt like I had more to give

As I was working in a serious professional environment with software/machines I had never encountered before, there was a long period where I had to be taught how to use each new thing. Once I (and my bosses) felt happy with how I was managing the equipment, I was given total freedom which was brilliant.

Much of the lab work which I did on my placement was far more advanced than the stuff I was used to doing whilst at university. The chance to get to do stuff above my comfort zone was invaluable and will certainly become more useful as I further progress through my studies.

Really pleasant and enjoyable office (and laboratory) environment. The layout was very open and there was no real seating plan as to the hierarchy of the office, which meant that one would randomly sit next to senior members of staff who were happy to answer any questions I may have had.

This was the part I was most frustrated by. I felt as though, with much more planning and organisation, I could have had a far more productive 3 months than I did. I felt as though I had to seek out a lot of the work myself whilst at the company, which although useful, should not have fallen on my shoulders to do.

There was the compulsorily training videos and documents which had to be read which gave me a better understanding of the responsibility I was undertaking. When I was assigned to a new project, a member of staff would take the time to demonstrate how it should be done and would then check I had taken in the information correctly. Was really pleased with this!

Could definitely see myself working with them in the future, and was invaluable to get a first person description of an industry I have thought about working within. Many people join the company as contract workers, and being hired by the company itself is rarer, but I would definitely consider it once out of university.

I ended up making some quite good friends who gave me lots of advice for working in the company. They had all already been there for 9 months as part of their year long internship, so made me feel very comfortable as soon as I arrived by inviting me for lunch and other activities.

There was not much socialising done by me as I was living at home and then commuting into work but I was told that it was very cheap to live in. On the site itself, food was slightly expensive but I mainly brought in a packed lunch every day to counteract this.

I did not get the opportunity to partake in any of the nightlife due to living at home and commuting daily. I was told the options were limited to say the least, but that there were some nice pubs in the area. I was told that being not too far away from London meant if you wanted to do something you would just journey in.

There were lots of opportunities which I personally did not get involved in, but felt that if I were there for longer I certainly would. There was a wide range of activities ranging from many sports to less active events such as being part of religious groups. I was surprised about how good the options were.