Industrial placement student Review
by GSK
This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
3.3
-
The Company
3.4
-
The Culture
2.8
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
The experience of working in such a large pharma company was very valuable. The work I was carrying out was very interesting.
I was welcomed into the group and was invited to all socially events straight away. However I didn't get to interact with other colleagues work like full time employees would do, I was given my own work and kept to myself with that.
My supervisor was often too busy with her own work to pay full attention to mine, and therefore lacked on support and guidance.
I spent lots of my time waiting for my experiments (i.e long incubations) sitting at my desk, filling my time with reading papers
I was given responsibility from the very start and was left to carry out my project on my own early on.
The skills learned from working in a multinational organisation are always going to be valuable in life and any career path. Specific lab skills and journal reading will help me within the rest of my time at university.
The Company
Very friendly and fun, everyone took breaks and lunch together and got on really well. Have lots of celebration within the office so there is always tea and cakes.
Very well structured and organised. Clearly they have had many industrial placement students for a number of years.
There were a large number of compulsory and optional courses when starting and throughout the placemen, mostly these were done online but some were held as a lecture. There were lots of lectures and seminars by scientists throughout the week that everyone could attend if they found the topic interesting or had free time.
Flexi Time
Subsidised/Company Gym
Company Parties/Events
Staff Sales/Staff Shop
Above 25 days holiday
Working from home
Employment within and R&D role would not be possible at this time. However there are a few highly competitive graduate jobs within other areas of the company such as IT and finance.
The Culture
There are about 100 students so there is always things going on. People are usually doing things within subject specific groups however most are very social and everyone seems to be invited to events which happen fairly regularly.
Prices where as you would expect for the South of England near London.
Lots of pubs around but mostly visited wetherspoons. Lack of any other form of nightlife - one bar and one club.
Lots of sports clubs and classes held within the GSK fitness centre. We had many departmental funtiontions. Stevenage has other sports clubs and lots of volunteering opportunities.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
Science
South East
June 2012
