Global Operations Associate Review

The placement itself is enjoyable as you're given a good degree of autonomy to pave your own way and to take on projects that you find interesting, making it easy to tailor the placement to your interests. In addition, AstraZeneca early careers promotes a social environment across interns, apprentices, placement students and graduates, typically hosting social events for new starter inductions and after work socials.

I’ve found AZ to be typical of a meritocracy, whereby your value is dependent on your approach, effort and how willing you are to involve yourself, being proactive through supporting colleagues and taking on responsibility will naturally cause your colleagues to hold you in higher regards. That being said, employees appreciate the emphasis on learning for new starters and even senior people will put time aside to help and support if asked.

There are multiple support networks on the early careers programmes that you’re automatically enrolled into, which include a placement buddy, manager, mentor and the early careers programme lead. All of the above provide support, some more proactively i.e. your manager others provide support on your own terms when and where needed i.e. buddy and mentor.

Very dependent on the individual, opportunities are presented to you and you have a good degree of autonomy to decide which tasks are of most interest and benefit. Your manager will help you to manage your time so that you don’t take on too much or too little. Alongside my immediate project work I’ve found myself spending time networking across the business, shadowing colleagues in other departments and attending development trainings, the extent of these depend on how proactive you are to seek them.

Again, very dependent on the individual, opportunities are presented to you and you have a good degree of autonomy to decide which tasks are of most interest and benefit. Your manager will support you if you express a desire to take on more responsibility. I expressed an interest in project ownership early on, so was given autonomy over fewer projects as opposed to supporting elements of many. At AZ, you really have the ability to shape your experience with them, so being proactive will enable you to take on more responsibility.

The programme is great for preparing you for the world of work, giving general insight into the daily tasks of working life. You also develop transferable skills that can be readily applied at university, both technical, such as Microsoft Office and personal, such as research, reporting, presentations and working in teams.

In all AZ offices everybody hotdesks, including senior staff, so despite usually sitting with your team it’s also a great way to meet people from other areas of the business. The offices are really nice across the board, with break out spaces, quiet rooms, great canteens and importantly free coffee machines.

The set up and structure is well defined by the programme lead, but it’s flexible as to accommodate the different business areas that the placement students are in. Prior to starting, there were frequent calls to help understand how to best prepare yourself for the upcoming role and during the placement there are induction events which set out general expectations, which are then refined with your manager so appropriate for your business unit.

Personal development is a high priority on the programme, early on you identify personal and technical skills that you want to improve. From this plan your manager will identify opportunities for you to develop, these being work related or training workshops. For example, I identified negotiation as an area of improvement, so was given the opportunity to attend a week long workshop on negotiation and influencing.

Future employment prospects are very appealing, for a global company like AZ there is great variety in the Operations space that accommodate a wide range of roles and the placement programmes prepare you to transition into them. For me, the pharmaceutical industry is one of great interest and while I do not have a scientific role, drug development is widely publicised on the internal networks which give exciting insight into the final output of the business.

Each business function has their own induction event, but none are opposed to new starters from different disciplines joining in. From that I’ve developed a network with fellow early careers colleagues not only from operations, but across science, finance, HR etc. The social scene in Cambridge is good, we usually go out for drinks on a Friday and meet once more mid-week in the evenings, this is all ran by the current cohort so is very much dependent on your colleagues at the time.

Cambridge is a small, but great city and only a stone’s throw away from London. However, it is only relatively ‘cheap’ by London standards, and even then you don’t get much bang for your buck. Renting accommodation is expensive and from what I saw when looking £500-700/M seemed standard. But, AZ support you with this, introducing a group of us placement students and we went on to get a house share together which cut the costs.

Luckily for me, good nightlife has always been dependent on who I’m with. There are two main ‘clubs’ in Cambridge a Weatherspoon’s and a Revs. Locals will try and justify the quality of the night to you be recounting how many floors each has… But, if pubs are more your thing then Cambridge is the place for you, and if you do fancy a club night, London is 40 minutes away on the train.

Plenty of opportunities, like in any city, you just need to google it. I’ve joined a rugby club, squash league and try my hand at yoga each week. In addition, the internal network at AZ gives information on local activities in your area if you’re ever in need of inspiration.