Support Engineer Review

I worked in the steriles value stream engineering department. While I was there the team was understaffed and the plant had many major issues and such I was given lots of responsibility. I enjoyed this year because I was treated as an full employee and trusted with project that I would never expected to be leading a the start of the year. I have developed greatly in leadership, communication and business knowledge.

I was treated as a ful employee and given tasks with real consequences if they did not go to plan. This would be a 10 if it was not for one or two employees not taking you seriously and don't listen to you because you are an IP. However 98% of people treat you the exact same as everyone else.

My manager and I had a 1 to 1 every month where I was given feedback and gave my thoughts on the last month. However if there was anything outside of this he was always happy to give me time. He encouraged me when I was facing difficulties and stepped in when I was not being listened too. Allowed me to take time out of working to do attend s self development training.

I would say sometimes I was overworked and overrun. At times when deadlines were approaching I was stressed. Some days I was able to get on with my project work at my own pace and some days were a mad scrabble to get approvals or work completed. However towards the end it didn't seem to slow down and was stressful.

This would be the ideal placement if you want responsibility. As I said before within a month of me arriving the team of 6 (including me) was down to 4 resulting in me being effectively taking on the role filled by a employee who had worked there for over 5 years. Not only that but I was given the project lead of a regulatory commitment project as everyone else in the team was also swamped with work. This project was subsequently audited at the remediation audit however I did not sit in front of the auditor.

This may be the weakest area of this placement. I rarely used any mathematics, there was no CAD package or designing. There is a great focus on quality here so I was able to apply my skills learnt in my quality management module. Furthermore the tools such as FMECA and RCA leanrt in my Design module I was able to apply to real problems.

It was always busy. However the people are very friendly and make the work much easier to handle. There were regular sweepstakes, a fantasy football league and charity raffles. The atmosphere was sometimes a bit down but quickly changed with good news and information from the managers.

The placement itself was well organized, Induction was though, the goals clear and the use of metrics helped focus on issues before they arose. Every morning you are updated on the status of the plant, if there are any looping tasks, priorities for the day and if there has been any health and safety issues. However my interview at GSK house was badly organised. I arrived on time but the gatehouse had not been informed and such was not allowed in. I had to wait for 30 mins in the rain until the gatehouse was able to get hold of someone and let me in. The rest of the day went smoothly however we were expected to pay for our own food at lunch.

Constant training in procedures that allow you to do your job better, however very few educated you but merely instructed you to carry out an operation or work to a system. There were a few very useful personal development instructor lead training, such as train the trainer and Root cause investigations. However these were generally not requirements and instead had to be requested.

I was encouraged throughout the year to apply for the GSK graduate scheme. If you apply stright after your placement year you skip the video interview stage and go stright to reasoning tests. This alone makes you apply as you are getting a benefit compared to normal applicants. I have applied and hope to get called in for an assessment center. While at GSK there has been lots of employees moving around. There has been a new Value Stream Director, New Validation Manager and even within my team a autoclave specialist. GSK try to promote form within wherever possible and only add new employees when a position cannot be filled from current employees.

This year there are 20 placement students at Worthing, an increase from 17 from last year. I lived with two other placement students on the coast. Five other students live together in a house with a POOL. Nevertheless we visited their house at least once a week in the summer, having BBQs, Parties and meals all the time. There is a placement student group called IP unite that aims to bring all the GSK IPs around the country. The group mainly focuses on the London sites such as GSK House and Stevenage but they have put on a Christmas ball and boat party that we attended.

I paid £266 per month with two other placement students for a unfurnished, no bills flat in the seafront. We thought this was about average compared to other placement students and thought it was a good deal. The cost of living is about the same as Im use to in bucks so didn't bother me but if you go to Brighton it is about London prices. There is a new leisure center just 5mins walk from my flat, supermarket behind, the site is a 5 minute drive away and there are some bars/pubs along the coast.

Worthing is ok there are bars along the front, one club (called one club) and pubs in and around the area. However the real attraction is Brighton, only 20 mins on the train, 10 mins by car and 30 mins by buss down the coast. There is always something going on in brighton, we went to vegan comedy festivals, foreign food festivals, music festivals, the pier and there is a multitude of bars, clubs and pubs. There is truly nowhere better to be living near than Brighton for nightlife.

There is a new leisure center, many watersport clubs and sports teams to join in worthing. If your interested im sure there are clubs for just about everything.