Technical Support Review

On the whole, the work placement was good. There were times throughout the year where I enjoyed the job and the work that I was doing, and also times throughout the year where I didn't enjoy it. The placement was made a lot better due to their being other placement students also on site and therefore the social aspect outside of work was enjoyable.

During my placement, I did feel valued by my colleagues, especially by the members within my team and also the managers in my department. As I developed throughout the year, I was given the same difficulty of tasks as a regular member of the team, and completed a lot of this individually.

Throughout my year there was a lot of change in the managerial positions of our team, meaning that there was no consistency in 1 to 1 review meetings which other placement students on site were given frequently. Whilst there was support available, this was infrequent due to the workload of managers / supervisors.

There were periods of time throughout the year where I was really busy and had a long list of tasks to complete, but also periods where I didn't have much work to do. The first few months were incredibly slow and I did not get access to important software until 3 months in, towards the end of the year I found the workload drastically increased and occasionally I had too much.

As I developed throughout the year, I was given the same difficulty of tasks as a regular member of the team. I was required to attend daily performance meetings on behalf of the team, lead various projects across site and support other areas of the site in day to day tasks.

Whilst the placement helped develop transferable skills such as effective communication, data analysis and stakeholder management, the placement was not directly relevant to my degree. I would not like to pursue a career in Engineering and therefore this was good from a personal point of view. The transferable skills developed will be useful but for someone looking to develop knowledge in engineering, this placement wouldn't be as beneficial.

The office was open plan and did have a good atmosphere at times, for example during our daily team meetings, but throughout the day, the office was often quiet with a lot of empty desks. The layout of the office meant that the team did not all sit together, this was particularly difficult for communication since I was not in the same area as my manager.

Overall the work placement could have been set up a lot better, there was a week handover period between myself and the previous placement student which was useful, but after that week, I didn't receive the support required. It took several months for me to access the required software, limiting the amount of work I could contribute to. That being said, I did get the opportunity to lead various projects across site.

There were a few training courses throughout the year for the work required on site. I was also allowed to travel to other GSK sites around the country to enhance my personal development, where all travel expenses were paid by the company. As a group of placement students, we were also given tours of the different areas on site to further our knowledge on how the site operated.

There is a lot of opportunity for future employment with GSK, during my placement year, I had support to apply for the Future Leaders Programme, the GSK graduate scheme and was able to be fast tracked to the final stages due to a manager recommendation. There is also opportunities for direct entry roles, which we were encouraged to register for.

There were 14 placement students on site during my year, as well as apprentices and graduate students. GSK have a group called IP UNITE where each site gets an IP UNITE Rep and are responsible for organizing social events. There were 2 events throughout the year for all students within the UK and then also smaller socials which were organised for the students on site.

The cost of living was expensive and a lot of the money earned during the year went on rent. It was also relatively expensive to go out and socialize. That being said, there were good transport links to London and with a student railcard, the train was affordable for day trips.

I was based on the Worthing site, the and nightlife within Worthing was not the best. There were a few bars and clubs, but often there were quiet. We were about half an hour away from Brighton so the nightlife there was better, with it being a student area, but it was also more expensive with getting there and back.

There were not many opportunities available outside of work, as mentioned in a previous answer there was the IP UNITE group for all students across the UK which meant that we organised social activities by ourselves, but this was driven by the students and the opportunities organised by the company were limited.