Industrial Placement Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my industrial placement year at GSK. I found the compay culture and ways of working very nurturing and set up to enable individuals to reach their potential, the global scale and wide scope of functions at GSK made it a fascinating place to work and I learnt a lot, enjoying it along the way.

I regularly asked and provided feedback to and from my colleagues and their feedback was insightful and made me feel valued. The team celebrated success well and recognised individuals for going above and beyond.

I was supported very well at GSK, my line manager was extremely supportive and used a coaching style to great success with me. She was not overbearing and left me to get on with things but was there when I needed help.

I worked on a broad range of areas and took on work streams and projects outside my main role, thus I was constantly busy and challenged - stretch is good though!

I was given a rewarding level of responsibility which grew as I proved myself throughout the placement. I owned talent programmes and work streams and was accountable and responsible for many areas.

I would not say I have developed technical skills over the course of this year, it has by far been transferable softer skills such as communcation, leadership, coaching, prioritisation, analytical skills etc - all of which will help me in my future career and studies.

GSK is a large corporate firm and I was based within the Finance function so it was professional and work orientated but it was also friendly and open. It is entirely open plan, operates hot desking and everyone wants to help each other.

Industrial placements for some programmes at GSK are not a direct feeder to the graduate programme and this leads to some demotivation and feelings of being underappreciated. Fortunately mine was a direct feeder and the conversion process was straightforward. The cenral HR team that organises the recruitment of work placement students play little to no role in the work placement once you are there, it is just your line manager.

You will obviously engage in a lot of the 70% on the job training as you learn through your role and learning from others is well encouraged. The company and line managers try to provide you with opportunities that you can take on to develop yourself but you are not an employee of GSK as a work placement student, you are a contracted work employed by a third party then assigned to GSK so there are limitations associated with this, one being investment in development.

Strong, I am one stage away from securing a place on the graduate scheme.

Yes there was an IP community called IP Unite that all IPs around the UK were invited to be part of. There were also more function specific social activities.

High, GSK is based in London.

The very local area is very quiet, moving more into central London gets a lot more vibrant.

If you have any hobby outside of work you can find somewhere that will cater for it in London.