Systems Analyst Review

I really enjoyed my work placement. At the start, I had difficulty settling in to my job and understanding what was expected of me, but by the end of it I had become a subject matter expert in many technologies and systems. I travelled on business twice to other countries in Europe and delivered training to hundreds of different people. I got to do technical work but also get a really valuable insight into the pharmaceutical industry, allowing me to really broaden my skill-set and potential.

I felt really valued by my colleagues. The culture was one of the best things about working there. I got along really well with my manager (I had 2 whilst on placement one local and one remote). There were some times I did feel undervalued but not often at all - the amount of appreciation I got for the work I did especially by the end of my placement was really great. If I ever worked a lot of overtime, I was offered time in loo effectively.. and when my night flight was really delayed I could always come in late the next day... never had any issues with feeling valued and treated fairly.

My manager was quite hands off but that really worked well for me, and I got a lot of support from everyone around me working on the projects so rarely did I feel like I didn't have enough support. There was always someone I could speak to if I had a question, and everyone was extremely knowledgeable and open to explaining or training me as needed.

I was pretty busy but for me this is exactly how I liked it to be.

I was given a massive amount of responsibility - put on one of the largest, most important global projects that was going on at the time and put in charge of one of the most important, crucial coggs that needed to turn - dealing with flows of large amounts of money, leveraging global business partnerships... I felt there was nothing I couldn't do if I put my mind to it and had the right people helping me.

It did assist me, a lot going forward in my degree.. my placement helped me decide what final year modules to do, it helped me manage my time in final year so I got the best exam results I'd ever received even though I had some of the most difficult modules I'd ever done!

It was OK... we had a lot of reorg going on, so it was a bit tense at times unfortunately..

7/10 for this, but I'd say that on the way out a lot of improvements were being made. Overall it is very well organised from what I can tell in comparison with my friends' placements.

A bit but there wasn't a massive amount of external training/investment - it was more colleague's time and coaching/hard work that was invested in me.

Pretty appealing, I definitely wanted to work there after I had done my placement/come back.

Uh, I'll say yes because I know there was a scene - I just wasn't part of it so I can't exactly comment.

Pretty good ! Loved living in Basingstoke, paid £600 pcm living with my boyfriend.. It was really great I rolled out of bed and in to work pretty much it was pretty easy, and I loved life during that year.

Basingstoke nightlife leaves something to be desired, so if you're more of a party animal I hear Reading is better but obviously this was not a problem for me I was more introverted.

Yes but some more would have been better - it depends a lot on which team you are in as a lot of events are per team interests.