Industrial Placemet Student Review
by GSK
This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
4.7
-
The Company
4.1
-
The Culture
3.6
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
I really enjoyed being able to experience the corporate life and being able have an insight into life as a scientist.
They made sure that we felt part of the team and were included in all the meetings. It definitely helped me settle in better.
My supervisor supported me throughout my year. If ever I needed clarification she would help me, so would about anyone within my department. It was definitely fantastic.
My usual day involved doing mostly lab work and spending some time in the office writing up my experiments and/or analysin results. It was a really good balance.
From the start I was given a lot of responsibility. I was trained for a few weeks but once they were confident in my abilities they treated me as they would any other senior scientist and I was the only one working on my area of research.
The techniques I learnt weren't just lab skills, it was presentational skills, people skills and just having the knowledge of how the drug discovery process works. They are all going to stick with me for life.
The Company
It was an open plan office so it was always rather fun to be able to see everyone you worked with.
Because of the number of students GSK take up every year they are quite organised. An familiarisation day is organised for all the placement students before they start which is a good time to meet all your future friends and possibly even housemates.
They sent us on training courses, they made sure that we were trained to an utter high level. It was definitely beneficial working at a large company.
Flexi Time
Subsidised Canteen
Sports and Social Club
Subsidised/Company Gym
Company Parties/Events
Staff Sales/Staff Shop
Above 25 days holiday
Healthcare from home
There are some jobs, but graduate job at GSK are quite limited at the moment.
The Culture
Because of the vast number of students it was always really nice being able to find lots of placement students at work in the office or during lunch. All the placement students organise meals cinema trips and even a house party for the birthday ones.
It was based in stevenage. It was therefore really low cost of living and all the shops were rediculously cheap in town.
Because of stevenage being more of an industrial town, the night life is pretty limited. There are however still quite a few nice cocktail bars in oldtown. (Cinnebar).
Outside of work there really wasn't much. Stevenage didn't have that much to offer. If we wanted to do something then we would end up going to london. However most weekends people would travel to other cities visiting friends.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
Science
South East
November 2011
