Global Project Co-ordinator CLM CoE Review

I really enjoyed the work within my placement. I was given a lost of responsibility and had the ability to take on and lead my own projects. It has given me a bread of knowledge and understanding of a professional environment and has been a massive learning opportunity alongside my degree. Academically the best decision I've made.

I did feel valued by colleagues, my manager especially was very good at giving feedback and praise. People recognising your hard work is really important to keep motivated and to feel rewarded for the work you're doing. I think in the wider realm of my team though, I could have better communication with them.

My manager was really great at giving guidance and support when needed. I could ask questions when I needed too and Marie was great when I had personal issues with family etc, that allowed me not to feel the pressure of work when I had other pressing things going on. She has given me a lot of guidance for after placement and graduation too.

I believe I have the right amount of work going on. I don't feel too stretched that I feel overwhelmed and have too much to do, neither do I feel lost or without purpose at work. I can communicate with my manager if I have too much on. There are busier periods and quieter periods but overall its been a good balance.

I was given quite a bit of responsibility. I co-managed our tech team based in Hyderabad with my manager, and was given the opportunity and responsibility to go out there to represent GSK at their rewards and recognition evening where I spoke infront of 900 people and handed our awards. I have worked and led a number of projects, including an Augmented reality project. I also run our monthly surgery calls.

I believe the skills I have learnt won't necessarily help with the content side of my degree but I have definitely improved on my oratory and time management. Two skills key in my degree for presentations and to be able to complete all my work on time. I believe just being in a professional environment and having this experience will be a good asset to my CV when applying for graduate schemes and jobs after I have graduated.

The atmosphere in my office was very quiet. I worked within the EMEA side of Consumer Healthcare, and this meant that a large majority of people were normally out due to travel etc. I also didn't work alongside or near any other IPs, this sometimes meant that the job could be quite isolating at times, especially as essentially my 'team' was just myself and my manager.

I believe my placement was set up well. I had a great handover of 4 weeks from the previous placement student, and this helped the transition be as smooth as possible. We had a introduction day which was nice to meet other IPs and SRG created that facebook page to meet other students regarding housing etc. I think it was good

My manager helped and encouraged me a lot with my personal development over the past year. I have had monthly meetings with to discuss my progress and development, and I know I can always ask at any time if there is something I want to do/need help with. I also got to attend a digital marketing course, which really opened my eyes up to a different realms of marketing I haven't done this year.

I would love to work for GSK in the future as I believe the company is great and looks after employees really well. However, I believe the FLP scheme in some areas can be particularly rigid and this can be unappealing to some individuals. I think if there were more direct entry prospects over FLP this would be more appealing.

I think it depends where you are located within the business. I worked within Consumer Healthcare where the social scene is good and I liked the guys over there, but as I wasn't exclusively GB, this made it more difficult to become as involved. I think IP unite was a good idea, but in practice probably wasn't as successful socially wise.

The cost of living wasn't too expensive in compared to other areas of London (£600 per person in a 4 bed house). But the quality and living standards of the house was disgusting and agencies who didn't really care. The socialising aspect was okay, good couple pubs, could be more clubs/bars closer by.

There were a few good pubs and a Turtle Bay in Ealing, but for proper nightlife, you have to travel out further east to have a better evening. There could be more bars/clubs in the area, I think this would improve the social aspect of IPs as well if there was more to do close by.

There wasn't much to get involved with run by work to get involved with outside of work - or that I was aware of anyway. I enjoy playing football and would have joined a team, but the team after work were all men. Something that is quite intimidating as a women joining a sports team