Renal Oncology Marketing Intern Review

I was so excited to come into work every single day. My manager, Alex Garnham, was absolutely brilliant. I loved how focused the team was on my development, and also how the team gave me a variety of tasks to learn from. I loved the increased levels of responsibility that O got as I progressed through each of my projects. Overall, it was an excellent learning experience.

I did feel like I made an impact within my team. I also felt like some of my projects were very useful for the wider Oncology business unit. however, at times, I do think that recognition for projects and achievements could have been better. Nevertheless, I did receive recognition in the form of verbal feedback, email feedback or OWNIT awards, and really appreciate the effort that the team took to send this over.

Support was always available if needed. Even if given challenging tasks, I was able to ask the right people questions to understand things better. My manager, the oncology team and the rest of the business units were extremely helpful and always ready for a chat!

VERY busy, and that is what I loved about the job. I loved how every day and every week felt different. I also loved how I wasn't frantically searching for things to do. Right from the start of my placement, in week 2, I started getting tasks to complete. I thought that this was a brilliant use of my time with the company, and a great learning experience. The company also takes the time to ensure that employees take care of their 'SHED' which is sleep, hydration, exercise and diet. They also ensure that employees have a good work-life balance and allow flexible working hours, which I thought was amazing and really helped with improving my overall productivity.

According to feedback from my manager, the oncology marketing interns were given quite a lot of responsibility that was well above their pay grade. This was something that I really thought was amazing in terms of development. I also felt really valuable to the team and that I was making an impact with my contribution.

I know that a commercial role within the pharmaceutical industry is exactly what I want to do in the future, therefore, this role has been an absolute dream and the perfect starting point for my career. It was also the best learning experience and taught me excellent time management, and organisation skills which will be extremely valuable for when I complete my masters (MBA) in the future.

Generally, people are quite friendly and chatty. It was a very welcoming environment. However, there were times where I felt that team building activities could have been useful to understand how we work better with each other and to make the workplace a more fun environment.

It was quite well organised. what could be better for the future, is if a few members of the HR team could check in with undergraduates every 3 months via a non-anonymised survey to ensure that they feel valued and recognised, and to check whether they are meeting their own objectives and the company objectives of the placement.

I did not feel that the company was invested in my formal training and development. I had to seek out training programs and courses myself and sign up, which was great as there was quite a few. However, at one point I was discouraged from going onto a training course, the reason being that I would be away for a few hours from the office. My view of being an intern is that I'm here to learn and develop, therefore such training courses etc should be encouraged.

They don't open many head office roles for interns. There are too many interns to do this for, therefore it is difficult. They do have a graduate scheme that takes on 5 interns, however this is also quite a small amount.

About average.

About average. for a student it's not as expensive as London, but it isn't as cheap at the north of England!

There was barely any nightlife. I lived in Redhill, and we had 2 pubs, but it was 10 mins away from a town called Reigate that had a lot more pubs and restaurants (expensive!). I was very happy with the quiet town of Redhill, as I spent quite a few weekends travelling back up to Sheffield where I was at university, for the nightlife and to meet my friends. So, Redhill was a great town to wind down!

Yes, they had a colleague engagement team that championed volunteering activities. I was also part of the HBA (Healthcare businesswomen's association), which allowed members to attend several external events. there were also opportunities to get involved with STEM and Science in a box, where volunteers wen tot schools to teach children about the STEM industry and STEM careers.