Early Talent Coordinator Industrial Placement Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement year, I have completed a massive range of projects working with colleagues from across the business at varying levels of seniority. I have had a massive amount of fun, learnt more than I could have imagined and been stretched and challenged to achieve great things. The open and friendly culture has meant I have made some great friends who I hope to keep in contact with in the future.

My role has allowed me to integrate and work with people from all over the business. The positive feedback from the work I have done over my year has made me feel truly valued by my team and my colleagues. It is a great feeling when colleagues have been surprised that I am a placement student on my first year of business and they happily recognise the importance of Industrial Placement students and Early Talent coming into the business as open minded individuals to drive change and performance.

My manager and team have always given me great support over my year. At the busier times, when we have been more stretched this might be less but it has allowed me to develop a ‘get on and do’ attitude and have confidence in my own decision making. We have worked well together as they encourage me to openly ask questions, aware and open about individual development areas and always making sure I feel part of the team.

My placement year has been full of different projects and events. It has strengthened my organisational skills and has allowed me to develop techniques to manage and prioritise my work. My work has varied day to day: attending meetings with colleagues from across the business, working individually and in teams, and organising and leading events. Due to the cyclical calendar of our work, quieter times have allowed me to catch up on the admin tasks and reflect on what I have learnt. Also to sit down and talk to people from across the business, in order to expand my knowledge of the business and help with my future career choices.

I was surprised about how much responsibility I was given. From leading multi-day events for 50-70 people, to facilitating recruitment days and working with senior leaders, it has all given me the opportunity to stretch and challenge myself and work on my transferable skills.

Studying a Business degree I could see how some of the theory I had learnt translated into a real life business. However, the transferable skills such as communication, leadership, teamwork, problem solving and many more are the skills that will be so valuable heading back to University and beyond. The experience and skills I have gained will allow me to think differently about my students, ask clever questions and challenge the status quo. Looking into the future, my experience will be an asset to continuing my career as a graduate.

The atmostphere was really friendly and open, we hot desk in the office which gives you to chance to sit next to a different person every day. Everyone I have worked with has been really open to sitting down and talking to me about their job and GSK. At the same time, they are busy people so it has taught me to get my head down and work really hard.

GSK has a well established placement programme, which allows over 300 placement students to network across the business. There were some areas that could be improved to ensure all placement students get a consistent placement year but overall it has been really good.

A did a lgood amount of training that was applicable to my role as well as organising and attending sessions on presentation, problem solving and leadership skills. Through regular meetings with my manager and my team I have been able to develop my transferable skills over the year. I have also worked with colleagues who have become mentors and coaches which is brilliant for a placement student early on in their career. There is certainly more training I could have done but everything I did assisted me in my role this year and beyond going back to University.

Very appealing, we are told about both graduate programme and direct entry opportunities when we graduate. As a global business there are endless opportunities and it will be important to keep in contact with my colleagues when I go back to University to ensure I can keep interested.

Yes, there were often drinks or evening events organised. As well as that I have made some great friends, who I will definitely keep in contact with in the future.

It was quite expensive to live and socialise and there is no differentiation between London placement students and others around the country. Saying that I have been sensible with my money and it has worked well!

There is so much to do in London and it's where do you start that is the difficult part. I would definitely recommend living around work and London on your placement year to get the most out of it.

My team didn't socialise a lot outside of work, however we did organise a number of smaller gatherings over the year. Luckily, with some many placement students it wasn't a problem.