Regulatory Affairs Student Placement Review

- Liaise with internal departments and worldwide regulatory colleagues to support registration activities. - Facilitate worldwide product registration activities by compiling regulatory submissions and requested documentation to worldwide regulatory affiliates. - Maintain regulatory and registration databases where appropriate, and analysing data to provide reports as required. - Effectively manage regulatory activities and provide regulatory advice to support business objectives. - Provide RA support to other members of the team as required, including the completion of any ad hoc requests. - Establish and maintain good relationships with team members and other cross-functional groups. On a day-to-day basis, the work varied but included at least some of the following tasks. Some days required prioritisation based on which tasks were more pressing. The bulk of the placement included preparing documentation required for product registrations.

Yes - this placement highlighted how important it is to remain organised, and prioritise work based on deadlines, and which work is more urgent. Working under deadlines ensured that I began working on tasks as early as possible, and that I remained as organised as possible. Also, attention-to detail was very important to ensure accuracy and compliance. This was an invaluable skill during the placement, and is something I developed to a high degree. On top of this, an insight into the world of work, navigating professional connections and working within different teams was also eye-opening.

Yes - I was required to help produce some very important documents which were required to ensure compliance and market registrations. Also, maintaining databases required accuracy and upkeep. On top of this, logging RA financial data and ensuring that all data was correct required organisation, maintenance and I had to ensure that I completed this correctly, as various members of my team relied on this information, thus any inaccuracies could have impacts for the whole team as well as the project we were working on.

I completed weeks of training, which was useful and went over various aspects of regulatory affairs. However, a lot of the learning was on-the-job, due to the complexities and wide scope of regulatory affairs. Despite this, the managerial and team support was good, and all staff members were happy to assist when required which proved useful whenever I had uncertainties about the project or any work being carried out. Also, training modules were always available online whenever required.

Everyone was friendly and helpful, and supportive to a high degree. The company frequently carried out staff activities and meetings to update staff members on company progress, which was a good way to see the work being carried out, and how your work fit into the bigger picture, and the company progress as a whole. Johnson & Johnson really do invest into their employees which is nice to see, and are happy to assist when needed. If there are any queries or issues, managers are available and willing to help.

It was a good experience - Johnson and Johnson allow colleagues to work 2 days from home, and 3 days from the office, so they are also flexible. There are also other placement students on-site, so it is nice to have other students around you also. Some days are more intense than others, but it was good to see what the world of regulatory affairs entails. They had an on-site gym also, which was nice to use whenever I wanted to.

Yes

Show a willingness/eagerness to learn and develop your skills. Tailor your cover letter to the role, emphasise your education and academic background and talk about them, and also any extracurricular work. Try to make yourself stand out - do you have anything extracurricular/any volunteering to talk about? Enjoy the process and make sure the role is correct for you. Also, during the interview they will make you do a presentation, so prepare for this when they tell you the topic of the presentation.