Project Manager Review

My placement at GSK was hugely rewarding from start to finish. I was constantly given responsibility and challenging work to help develop my knowledge and understanding of my role and the organisation. As my placement progressed, and my understanding increased, I was given progressively more challenging tasks to stretch my ability. Towards the end of the year, I was also given the opportunity to run my own projects.

Throughout the year I felt valued and accepted by all of my colleagues. GlaxoSmithKline employs a large number of IP Students each year, so all the staff are very accepting and understand what value you can add to the organisation. Alongside this, they also treat you on an equal level to other employees, considering any ideas you present for their merit and value.

I had weekly one to one meetings with my line manager who would often give me guidance and support with my tasks. It also a policy that managers are located close to their placement students, in my case I was assigned a desk next to my manager. This made the support process very easy and meant I was able to ask frequent questions rather than saving all issues for a weekly catch-up. There was also advice and guidance given by other employees in the company who were always happy to offer their expertise in solving issues.

Workload varied from day to day. Often work would come in waves, meaning some days were really busy, but others were fairly relaxed. This sometimes resulting in weeks being quite busy, but there were never times where I felt overloaded with work.

I was given a large amount of responsibility during my placement, work on my own projects and tasks, and even being given a place within a confidential project. The trust placed in me by my line manager and colleagues meant that I was given responsibility from the beginning of the placement until I finished.

The skills I developed on this placement will be used throughout my third year and future career. It has helped me develop my business and non-technical skills which were not focused on in my degree as it's a mostly technical subject. I now feel that I have a strong combination of computer and business skills that will help me progress in my future career.

The atmosphere was quiet and focused, however there was no feeling of tension whilst in the office. In all sites I worked at during the year, I felt comfortable and was welcomed in happily. In my main office, there were other placement students which helped to make me feel comfortable, however all members of staff were friendly and would actively engage with me and other placement students. There were also lots of events organised within the student population of the company, allowing for me to socialise with the other students.

As GlaxoSmithKline employ so many placement students, the entire year is very well organised. When arriving at site, a complete orientation talk is organised, laptops are supplied and desks are allocated. This made the settling in process very easy and let me get to work on the first day without obstruction. There was also an overlap between the current placement students and the new placement students. This meant a range of events were organised in the first two weeks to ensure the new placement students were well acquainted for the year ahead.

The company invested large amounts of time into me as a student, working alongside various experts to get an understanding of a wide range of subjects. Personally, I received no formal training or qualifications, however I believe this was due to there being no requirement in my particular role. There was however internal training modules and regular knowledge sharing meetings which were aimed at giving employees and placement students knowledge on different aspects of the company and to ensure we were trained to do the job required.

There are multiple graduate programmes across the organisation which placement students are able to apply to. The process is slightly different for students, as they are recommended by their line manager, and as such have no formal application to complete. The company also offers the option to be added to the direct entry database, so if future roles are available, they will be offered to past students based on the qualifications and skills of the student.

There was a thriving social scene amongst the placement students, with local events being organised regularly. There were also a lot of informal social events with friendship groups within the placement community. With such a large placement presence throughout the company, it was easy to find people with similar interests, and also meant a large number of events were organised. There was also a placement student union in place, run by other placement students. This union would often organise big events for all placement students, such as Christmas and end of year parties. With a large proportion of students based in West London, the union events were often London based, and as such were not completely inclusive.

The cost of living was reasonable based on the proximity to London, and could easily be covered by the wages paid by the company. There were many bars and clubs around the local area that were very well priced, offering a great social atmosphere. There were also a lot of activities within close proximity to the offices, including Go Karting and Paintball. These were moderately expensive, but this is usual for the type of activity.

There are multiple small towns around the Stevenage site, each with bars and clubs for those who wish to enjoy the nightlife. Each town is within a taxi ride so there is good variation in what is available. There are also many bars and a couple of clubs around the site for those who do not wish to travel.

GlaxoSmithKline offer a huge number opportunities to get involved, mainly with their charity of choice, Save the Children. There are dozens of events held each year in aid of Save the Children, the target being to raise more than £1m in donations consistently each year. These events include the "Orange Days" which are held around sites with activities for staff designed to raise money.