Clinical Statistician Review

I loved my placement! Having done a placement I cannot understand why anyone wouldn't want to! At GSK in particular, there is a great balance between work and social activities. The student society at GSK is huge so as you can imagine there are many things to get involved with on top of your day-to-day work.

As I progressed throughout the year I was given more responsibility . I genuinly believe that my input on the projects I was involved with was valued. I acted as the statistics point of contact for a Physician on a study where we met regularly on a 1:1 basis and discussed statistical analyses and summaries that would need to be produced. It was my responsibility to research statistical methods in order to carry out the analyses and produce these outputs.

I felt extremely supported by my manager, mentor and team. I had regular meetings with my mentor whilst on placement, usually weekly. My manage and mentor kept up to date with the tasks I was working on, offering guidance when needed and ensuring that the projects I was involved with were both stimulating and challenging. My team were also very supportive, always available should I require assistance with a particular task. They also offered to sit with me and give an overview of any statistics topics I didn't feel comfortable with.

Work load varied from time to time with my busiest period being the middle section of placement to the end. The initial few weeks consisted a lot of training and small tasks, as expected. As I gained more confidence and a better understanding of my tasks I was given work with more weighting and deadlines so as a result I was a lot busier. If I had a quiet spell I would talk to my mentor/ other statisticians and ask if there is anything that they would like me to do - however this was a very rare occurence that I had little to do!

I was given a good degree of responsibility. As an undergraduate in Statistics, understandably you do not have enough statistical knowledge to be the sole statistician on a study however I did feel that my skills were utilised and I was given important projects that were soley down to me to complete.

Whilst on placement I used SAS (Statistical Analysis Software) on a daily basis. I now feel confident in my ability to programme in SAS which is extrmeely beneficial not only to my final year computational module but also my future career since SAS is a vital tool used widely across industry. Also, I was exposed to several statistics techniques that I will study in my final year and other techniques that are beyond the scope of an undergraduate course so will assist me in studying for an MSc.

Since the office is open plan - it is a quite a quiet office but everyone is very friendly and will stop and chat to you at the coffee making facilities. I like the open plan office since it seems more informal and relaxed.

Very well organised - I had projects set up in the pipeline when I first arrived at GSK. In my first few weeks I also listened to presentations from staff all over the bussiness so I could develop a good initial understanding of the pharmaceutical industry - this set me in good stead!

I had the opportunity to not only attend training course ran by GSK but also external conferences and courses that GSK funded and encouraged me to go to. They also invested a lot of time in teaching/training me how to carry out various tasks.

Extremely. I would require an MSc if I would like to return to GSK. Currently there are no graduate schemes for statisticians, only direct entry and options for post doctorate students.

Yes - this is one of the best things about the placement. I lived with 5 other students so felt very connected with the student scene. There was also a lot of opportunity to mix with students from other sites. IP Unite, the student society at GSK, ran events such as a christmas ball, boat party, paintballing and many more.

For London, it was quite reasonable - I think I was quite lucky with what I paid but on average you can expect to pay £500 a month for accomodation incl. bills. Since there is a University in the area, the drinks were not too expensive and in London there are a lot of free events that you can go to.

Since there is a University in the area there are a few bars and a club however for better night life London is preferred which is accessible by train/tube.

Yes, mainly with the other students... not so much with people in my team. However I did attend a few birthday meals and also the annual Christmas Party which was great fun!