Marketing Placement Student Review

My placement year has been one of the most valuable and enjoyable experiences I have ever had the opportunity to undertake. It has been a busy year working on a variety of cross functional projects and I have learnt so much throughout my time at Johnson & Johnson.

I have felt incredibly valued by my colleagues at all times. Having a mentor in addition to my manager has really strengthened this feeling. From my experience of being a placement student, I have been really treated as one of the team and my thoughts and opinions have always been listened to.

The support and guidance I have received from my manager and team has been fantastic. I have had the opportunity to report into two managers throughout my time on placement and both have been so invested in my development.

This year has been very enjoyable but also very busy but this is partly due to me pushing myself to make the most out of my placement year and be involved in as many projects as possible. Whilst being busy, my manager has always been there to help support and push back on tasks if needed.

I was given more responsibility than I ever thought I would be given. From driving the social media strategy, deploying a series of experiential events for a new launch, planning the marketing strategy for professional conferences, budget ownership and leading a project to find efficiencies gives an example of the responsibility I have experienced. All of these opportunities have helped me learn and develop.

I really feel like I have learnt a variety of skills that will be useful throughout my final year of University and my future career. For example, presenting to our field sales force at National Sales Meetings has provided me with an opportunity to develop skills in communicating cross functionally.

I really liked the atmosphere in the office. It was a friendly and positive place to be.

I think the entire work placement has been very well organised. We also had a day where all placement students across the various sites got together to learn about the consumer, medical and pharmaceutical divisions that make up Johnson & Johnson which was interesting.

Time was invested into personal training and development and the mid and end of year reviews helped work out the current development areas.

Working for Johnson & Johnson in the future is an incredibly appealing prospect and I have recently been informed that I have successfully achieved a place on the Graduate Scheme in the Consumer Division.

The office I was based at is in a lovely area of the country but not in a city and therefore made it difficult at times to socialise a lot. Having said this, effort was always put into a social event where possible, particularly in the evenings if we were out in London for external meetings for example. I lived with fellow placement students at Johnson & Johnson and other companies which was great!

I was living in Reading during my time on placement and I would say the cost of living is higher there than where I go to University in the North of England but I was able to live comfortably.

The office is close to Reading and I lived with a few other placement students in Reading where there are a variety of bars, theatres, cinemas and clubs to go to.

There is a gym on site and outdoor courts which is a great place to get involved in activities outside of work. Around the office building there is a woodland walk which is a great lunchtime activity. I have also seen emails with discounted theatre tickets. For some of my placement I was working from home all week due to COVID-19 and the team were proactive in setting up virtual activities to keep everyone connected.