Industrial Placement Review

I enjoyed the variety of work at GSK. I enjoyed working in a team environment with colleagues, something that is important in the Device Engineering department that I worked in. I was given the freedom to do a lot of desk based modelling work, which I prefer, so GSK were very good at accomodating what I wanted out of my placement.

I enjoyed a good relationship with my colleagues. I regularly went for social events with some of my colleagues, and I really felt like an important member of the team environment. Despite being younger than most of my colleagues, I never felt that I was any less valued than anybody else. People were always keen to hear my ideas and my opinions in meetings.

I was given assistance where appropriate, but not too much as to take away any sense of individual importance. I was allowed to be innovative towards problems, but then given guidance if I encountered problems.

Very rarely did I find myself not busy for the entirety of the day. In the event that I was up to date with all of my projects, I was always able to source more work from my manager.

I was given responsibility of working with other internal GSK workers, providing them with modelling calculations to support important clinical study work, which is very important in GSK. I was also allowed to provide all design work for a new packaging design for another group within GSK, and had an important part to play in those meetings with colleagues in the US.

I spent a lot of time working on computational models, which is highly applicable to both my degree and in my future career in engineering. I attended training courses for modelling, which were extremely useful, so my development was highly encouraged at GSK.

The offices are generally quite small, with 4 people in my office. The atmosphere is very relaxed, and breaks are encouraged. People are very polite to each other, and managers operate an open door policy, so it is always easy to get their time if you need it. There are also meeting rooms available to book for more formal discussions, although a lot of work is carried out in the less formal style of just approaching people in their offices.

I was in a small time of five at the start of my placement, so my manager could easily manage what activities I got up to on a daily basis. Within a given project, the roles are usually well defined, so work is allocated easily and quickly. Rarely did days go past without me being busy for its entirety.

They invested in training days for software, as well as actually purchasing a software package at the request of myself and 2 other colleagues. I feel that the company invested in me well, and they were always encouraging about training events. If I ever wanted to attend these, or go to a conference, say, management were always very positive about this.

Working at GSK is something that I would definitely consider, if they can provide a similar role to that which I had during my placement. The department is currently taking on full time members of staff, so there is a reasonable chance that there will be a vacancy in the department that I could apply for, potentially in a grad scheme capacity.

There was a group of people my age in my department that made a good effort to be sociable with each other, in and outside of the work place. We always had lunch together, and went out probably every other week.

I worked in Ware, which is somewhat expensive, and there isn't a great deal to do in the area. I lived in london, but rent here is about £500 a month.

There is no nightlife at all in Ware itself, but the train to London means that a night out is not too far away.

Work offers lots of social activities with its sports and social club. There were gym classes, as well as pitches for football, cricket and tennis, which you can book.