Commercial Channel Management Industrial Placement Review

During my time at GSK I was got the opportunity to work on some fantastic projects, with some great people and many opportunities to take part in conferences and events that made the year absolutely brilliant!

The working environment in the office was superb and I made many friends and built strong working relationships with a vast number of people. I was also recognised for my work on a number of occasions by, not only my team, but others around me in other departments too, which really gave me that confidence boost to push on with the work that I was doing.

My manager, team and the people around me from a variety of different departments were fantastic in giving me all the support and guidance I could possibly need whilst making my way through my placement year. Regardless of the work load they were dealing with at the time they were always so friendly and willing to help.

The work I was doing was very much project based with a few that were monthly maintained. So, this led to my work load fluctuating from time to time being awfully busy at some times to having a reasonably relaxing day with a very achievable to do list.

At GSK they do not waste any time whatsoever in giving you proper responsibility with work that does affect business critical decisions made by the senior leadership team. I felt very empowered and for a great deal of my placement was managing myself and my workload without the need for regular catch ups with my line manager.

The skills I have developed and gained whilst working at GSK are invaluable! I will be able to apply them to many different situations throughout my life especially during my career.

The people at GSK and the atmosphere in the office is great. It is a very pleasant environment to work in and there are always friendly faces around the office to ask questions, ask for help and have conversations with.

The work placement was reasonably well set up. Upon starting I had had parking on-site booked for me and received my laptop and pass within the first couple of days. There was also two weeks worth of handovers set up with the numerous departments and people who I would be working with and that would help improve my knowledge of the company.

The GSK policy works on a 70-20-10 basis i.e. 70% of experience is gained on the job, 20% is gained through other people, and 10% is gained through training. There have been numerous work shops, training programmes and conferences that I have taken part in this year and I certainly feel that GSK have invested in me as an individual.

In GSK they do not offer you a position from the placement itself, but the job itself has been highly enjoyable and the prospects within GSK are very high making working there again very appealing to me.

There are 30 of us just in Consumer Healthcare and we are all very close friends with many nights out and socialising between us.

Being in London the cost of living and socialising isn't exactly the cheapest in the country. However, with the salary I am on it was reasonable enough to have a good time as well as work hard, you just need to have good money budgeting skills.

Central London is a fantastic place for a night out. Enough said.

I was part of a charity team that organised events outside of work for the organisation, which were a lot of fun. I also got the opportunity to play football at the Emirates and play in a touch rugby tournament for charity with some work colleagues.