Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement for several reasons. Firstly, it was a great opportunity to spend a year out of university and experience what it's like in industry. Many aspects of work cannot be taught in academia but can only be learnt on the job and it was good to get this experience before actually starting work. Moreover, I also gained experience in other aspects of being an adult and working such as independence, paying bills.

Everyone was very friendly and welcoming from day 1. They didn't see me as "just an IP" but was willing to listen to my ideas and opinions. It was daunting initially to join an already established team of over 20 people with an average of 20 years of experience. But I never felt that I was excluded.

All managers/supervisors are extremely busy and sometimes it feels like they have no time for you. This is what I felt at the start, but then I realised that if I needed help/guidance it was up to me to ask. No one will know that I'm struggling if I don't voice it. After learning this, I started organising catch up sessions with my manager every week. As time went on, I didn't need a catch-up but I knew that there was a free slot in her calendar if I ever needed assistance.

At the start, it was dull and repetitive- a lot of procedures to read. But eventually, after organising a few catch-up sessions with my manager, I got few jobs to do which eventually grew into projects. Alongside work, I also had tons of university to do, so it was a good balance of academia and work.

After completing a few tasks and starting to get the hang of how it works, I was given responsibility for it. I believe this is the same everywhere. However, I wouldn't say I was given a lot of responsibility. This is understandable as in a pharmaceutical company, everything could lead to patient impact. So they need to see that you are fully confident in completing your task before letting you do that on your own.

A lot of laboratory equipment and processes that I used at university, aren't used in industry. Many are simplified and automated. So in terms of laboratory work there isn't any overlap between uni and work. However, this does not mean they were not helpful. Team work, leadership, confidence, ownership - these are the skills that I developed whilst on placement and will assist me in my university and beyond.

A mixture. It was serious at times but most of the time it was fun. It wasn't all about work- usually colleagues broke into random conversations just to make work exciting. I was part of a very large experienced team. Everyone in the team worked at GSK for years and years so knew each other very well. So there was never any arguments or strive.

It was chaotic at the start, with confusion with the start and end dates. Some IPs had work aligned for them or an idea of they'll be doing in the year. However, it wasn't the same for me. For a quite a few months, I wasn't doing anything, except reading procedures. But eventually I did get work do to.

In the work area, all training was done almost immediately. I had to get access to a few networks but that was quickly sorted. However, in terms of the general industrial placement scheme, we didn't have an IP budget so we didn't get many opportunities (for example attending career events, STEM events) as the apprentices or graduates received.

Extremely appealing. GSK is a fantastic company to work for- they look after their employees well. I can't speak for all sites, but barney is a great site. There are tons of benefits and opportunities for self and career development. Even if something concerns you and you can't talk to your manager about it, there are helplines to call or email anonymously.

All IPs this year, got along well. I never personally had any issues. But we were scattered around site, so didn't see each other that often. We did have placement meetings every month to catch up and raise concerns. Few of us would also met outside of work for dinner or drinks.

The cost of living is moderate. Its better than other areas and definitely better than down south. Although my apartment rent was really high and most of my pay check went towards the rent. Barney is extremely quiet (which I liked). But, there weren't a variety of restaurants or pubs around the area so we had to head to a different town to get a decent meal. But on the whole it was a good experience.

Not every exciting. Barney is extremely quiet and peaceful (which I liked) but it wasn't for everyone. You had to travel to darlington to have a good night out but that was difficult if you didn't have a car (many of us didn't). Buses aren't frequent and stop after a certain time. The journeys are also long. Having said that, if you are looking for a nice meal out there are decent restaurants in barney.

As I said before, we didn't have a budget so we couldn't get involved in many activities outside of work that were paid for. But IPs did organise a few night-outs and meals. Apart from socialising with IPs, I did go out several times with work colleagues. But these were treats from the company and therefore paid for.