Micronising Technical Review

I enjoyed my placement moderately. I felt that the support from my manager was lacking at times throughout the year and my workload often went through ebbs and flows. The year gave me a good opportunity to build my soft skills and network.

I feel that the people I worked with valued me greatly. My direct team and I were very social on engaged in some activities outside of work - including team sports and going out for food. The people I worked with within my value stream (e.g. production) were very keen to help me and ensure that any work I completed was to a high standard etc. Whilst I did feel valued by my manager, I often felt less valued by my manager than others in my team, especially when compared to students in other teams; an example of this is when I completed work for another team in order to ease their workload as requested by management. Another placement student did the same and received a greater level of recognition than myself. Whilst I was not expecting a high level of recognition, I just think there needs to be a standard across all functions/teams.

I feel that initially, in my placement, I did not receive a great amount of support from management and my supervisor. Management changed within the first few weeks of me starting placement and I feel that for the first third of my placement, I felt very lost and didn't have a lot of work. I wasn't sure who to speak to in order to increase my workload, and despite asking for support, I didn't really get much. As my placement progressed and I started to gain a better understanding of the company/my colleagues, I obviously feel like I need less support and now feel that the level of support is sufficient. Whilst I appreciate that management are busy, I feel that future placement students would appreciate a greater level of support when needed.

I feel that over the first third to half of my placement, I did not have sufficient work to complete to keep me busy. I often asked members of my team for more tasks but did not receive any; I, personally, feel that this is because my team felt I was not competent to complete some of the tasks required, which left me feeling quite disheartened. Now, I have more work and am feeling more fulfilled at work.

I feel that over the first third to half of my placement, I did not have sufficient work to complete to keep me busy. I often asked members of my team for more tasks but did not receive any; I, personally, feel that this is because my team felt I was not competent to complete some of the tasks required, which left me feeling quite disheartened. The level of responsibility I was given did increase over the course of my placement, but towards the end, I either felt like I had been given too much responsibility with little support from my manager, or too little responsibility.

I feel that I did not develop my academic skills at all throughout my placement. The soft skills I developed will be very beneficial to me going forward in both my studies and future career. I do not feel that any of the training I received will be relevant during my degree or the future.

The atmosphere in my office is generally really positive. I have built a strong relationship with members of my team, but feel that the atmosphere is often less positive in the presence of my manager as the relationship I have built with her is much weaker and therefore sometimes awkward.

The placement was not organised well. In terms of the contract etc from SRG, the organisation was very good, but upon arrival at GSK, the organisation was nowhere near as seamless. In my team, there was a change in management, and my current manager really struggled with the organisation of the team as she had never managed a team before. During the first half of my placement, I felt like I often had very little work, whereas the other placement student in my team had a lot of work to complete due to the area she was focusing on working on. I think that the organisation of the placement students on a whole is very inconsistent - many students need a project for their dissertation and I have found that when speaking to them, potential projects are often not considered, despite having been discussed before starting placement.

I feel that I was not invested in during my placement year. During catch up with my manager, it was explained to me that there is no training budget for placement students and that I would not be able to go on a lot of development events as it would have to be justified to management, and the company were not willing to invest financially in placement students.

GSK as a company, and the Ware PSC site in particular has a very strong potential for networking. Additionally, SRG worked with TalNet to set up a mentoring/buddy scheme, which has been very helpful in networking. For me personally, my buddy was from a site that I would like to work at in the future and has been able to provide me with links for the future. There are also lots of opportunities for social events which I have attended.

The social scene during placement was as good as you made it. At the start, most of the IPs socialised a lot as they didn't really know anyone else and had travelled to live in the local area. As the year progressed, people made friends in their teams/outside of the IPs, so many people socialised with people other than the placement students. I had a great relationship with my colleagues and we played some sports outside of work/socialised together.

The cost of living in Ware is fairly high. Flats for rent are approximately £500-£600 a month excluding bills. Living costs otherwise are reasonable.

The nightlife in Ware is reasonable if you are looking for bars/pubs but the local nights out leave much to the imagination. Hertford has a few nightclubs (PopWorld, Blackbirds) which are decent. It is quite difficult to go out in London because the trains back to Ware stop fairly early (around 12:30am).

There were some opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work, but nothing that particularly appealed to me personally. Lots of the boys play football or cricket.