Transfer Pricing Analyst Review

Overall I found my placement really enjoyable, it definitely gave me a great insight into the working life and gave me the opportunity to explore different options of finance. I really enjoyed working with people inside and outside my team as well as meeting with other placement students outside finance.

I felt highly valued working with huge amounts of money on a daily basis, I felt I was making a difference to the company. I was also made chair of a biweekly team meeting, which included creating the PowerPoint for each meetings and choosing people to present for each week.

Great support by my manager with weekly catch ups, objectives and help with all types of issues. Constantly was given constructive feedback on all pieces of work. GSK also have a great online system which you can call to talk about anything going on which may be affecting you mentally.

It depended on the situation, at times I was way too busy and on other times I didn't have too much work on. However half way through my placement my manager decided to set up an excel sheet in which I could track my tasks which helped to overcome this.

I was given tasks which involve quite a lot of responsibility. I was the person to go to for any issues with SharePoint (online document management storage system) and was responsible for creating the site as well as adding peoples permissions to the site. Would of been nice to been leading major projects but as an IP student its not expected.

Hopefully the skills I've learnt from note taking, improving my Microsoft skills as well as presenting skills will help me in my final year of University. My job involved a lot of Microsoft excel work and has helped me develop a passion for speeding up processes by formulas. There are a lot of training online to improve Microsoft skills.

Overall it was really great office to be in as everyone comes from a different background and everyone is generally really fun to be around. Every couple of days someone brings in snacks to the office and we have regular office meet ups after work to the pub or other social venues.

It was the first time my team has had an IP student and overall they made me feel very welcome. As an IP student working for GSK you are employed by a company called SRG, it isn't a great company to work for as there was a lot of confusion early on with timesheets.

The company invested a lot of time and effort into improving me throughout the year, with regular catch ups and trying to improve my skills by setting objectives relevant to this. Overall if I wanted to go out on a site visit or to visit another site my manager was happy for me to go, which overall was a great experience to learn the operations of GSK.

There is a graduate programme called the future leader programme (this is a three year graduate programme, which involves completing the CIMA qualification and three rotations) and from getting a recommendation from your manager you can skip part of the process (online tests), you can also apply for direct entry as well.

Overall a great social scene to be around both colleagues and students. There were regular meet ups with other placement students within the organisation, we had nights out, boat parties and trampolining sessions! With colleagues we had a great social activities with monthly activities such as Christmas dinners, trips to the pubs and karaoke nights!

Obviously in London its a bit too expensive (£5 pints!!!), however overall the cost of living just outside of London in the Brentford area isn't too bad. If given a placement in Brentford (GSK HQ), I would recommend living in Brentford or Ealing as otherwise the commute itself can be a bit expensive.

There isn't too much nightlife in Brentford and over the course of a year I went out in central London around 3 times, compared to University I went out pretty much every week! The nightlife in central London is pretty good and it can be pretty easy to get home via the Piccadilly line.

There were many opportunities to get involved in, we have a lot of volunteering opportunities with GSK's partners charities such as running the London Marathon, collecting money outside tube stations during the Christmas period as well as getting subsidised for tough mudder activities. Its London at the end of the day so there are lots of opportunities to get involved with fantastic transport links.