Talent Acquisition Associate Review

I really enjoyed my placement- I have got so much out of it and learned loads of new skills

I was part of a global team but naturally worked much more with the UK guys than the others. As a result, I feel like I have been highly valued by the UK guys but not so much elsewhere.

My manager was great. He dedicated a huge amount of time and effort to my development and making sure that I had all the help and support I needed with everything. I really appreciated this given how busy I know he is.

I was fairly happy with the level of work I had to do. I am quite proactive so was always on the lookout for things I could do and so was rarely bored. On the few occasions when my work level dipped I reached out to my team to see if I could help them with anything as I had capacity and following that my activity always spiked again.

I was given a lot more responsibility than I was expecting as an Industrial Placement student. My team were very good at letting me be very independant and so as long as I met my deadlines it was up to me how I got there.

I am not sure how much they will help with my degree because practical experience is very different to academic experience but I don't doubt that they will definitely help in future jobs.

I was lucky enough to be based at the company's headquarters so the atmosphere was really buzzy. There are also lots of Industrial Placement students here so always a great, young atmosphere.

I would say it was moderately well organised. My role really developed as the year went on due to me shaping it and the nature of the projects I was involved in but initially there was no real plan for what I would be doing. The contracts and behind the scenes aspects of the placement were owned by an agency called SRG who were quite on the ball with all the paperwork that was needed prior to the placement starting.

The organisation were willing to pay for any training or development opportunities I requested. I attended multiple training workshops etc. because I suggested that I would benefit from going to them. They also paid for me to spend 6 weeks in Belgium to run a project which was really key to my personal development within the year.

I would like to work for GSK again in the future.

Yes, there are lots of placement students here so I built up a good group of friends who I socialised with but then there were also special events organised for all placement students at key events e.g. Christmas and end of year. There were also lots of social events amongst my team which were great fun.

West London is expensive- rent was just over half of my salary and going out is quite expensive. There are universities nearby though so student nights and bars you can find.

Brentford is poor for things to do- there is one bar along the canal which we sometimes went to and then a few pubs. We usually went in to Central for big nights out.

No there weren't any real sports clubs or anything like that at work