Industrial trainee Review

I overall really enjoyed my year at Pfizer. There were some amazing aspects to my internship including the chance to travel overseas and attend some really interesting conferences and meetings in my therapeutic area. I have had the opportunity to meet a huge variety of employees and customers which was really useful in terms of experiencing a corporate working environment. There have however been times where I have not been challenged to my full capacity; often there were days whereby I was left to my own devices and support was limited.

In terms of my immediate team, I feel like I was valued for the most part in the tasks that I was assigned. The tasks that I was given were much of the time quite basic so I was easily able to complete these when given a full set of instructions. Towards the end of my placement, I was given more responsibility and was involved in much more which in turn made me feel much less like an intern and more like a member of the team.

I was given ongoing support throughout my placement from various members of my team, some more than others. Under the supervision of one of my managers, I was given the chance to develop various skills such as my teaching, investigative and presentation skills through her setting up peer based learning sessions with myself and a fellow intern. This was really useful and was a great opportunity to develop and expand my transferable skills.

This varied hugely. I was under the supervision of two different mentors during my placement and this proved interesting in comparing the delegation of both supervisors. On some days, my supervisors would give me enough work to fill the entire working day, however there were other days where this was not the case. Due to the nature of my role, it was understandably difficult for my bosses to allow me to work on individual projects so I was given more task based work, whereas some of my fellow interns were able to take ownership of large, on-going projects that seemed slightly more rewarding.

I was given limited responsibility during my placement due to the nature of my role. This would be something that I would suggest to improve on for the industrial trainee programme as I'd like to have been delegated more of my own projects for me to take ownership of.

Many activities that I have got involved in this year will be incredibly valuable to me when I return to university and following on from education. I have engaged with a huge variety of personality types and work styles which I know will benefit me when returning to the working environment. I have worked really closely with clinical data and scientific materials this year, which will again be hugely helpful when I return to a science based degree.

The atmosphere in my office was very different to how I first imagined a corporate environment to be. It was very quiet with little or no engagement with members of the same office and sometimes in my immediate team. The individuals in my office were all really lovely people with lots to say when you engaged with them but the office just doesn't allow for free, easy chatter with those around you. This was something that I as disappointed with this year.

The placement scheme organisation seemed to differ hugely amongst the industrial trainees at Pfizer this year, Some individuals were given really structured projects that seemed to have been thought out previous to the start of the placement. This seemed to make for a really rewarding placement. On the other hand there were other placement students who lacked this structure throughout their year. I feel like I was caught somewhere in the middle and this also varied between my two supervisors. For one of my supervisors I had no real assigned projects throughout the year as I was just brought on board with whatever she was involved in, whereas with my other supervisor I was given ownership of a couple of projects that I really enjoyed.

The firm invested largely in me in terms of allowing me to attend conferences and meetings outside of my office which made my year hugely interesting and varied. On a development level, I was encouraged to go out on visits to agencies and experience as much as I could in the healthcare profession. This was something that I am hugely grateful for as it made me feel like Pfizer were really interested in developing me as if I were a real employee.

I would consider applying for the graduate scheme once I finish university. I would like to try a different role to the one that I am currently in but would be open to exploring various other jobs within Pfizer. I would also like to try a role outside of industry however, so would maybe do that first to see how it compares to pharma.

Not particularly- there were about 6 interns in my office with whom I got on really well with. Outside of that, I was close to those interns who lived nearby to me but the remote location of the offices didn't particularly allow for much social interaction after work etc.

The cost of living and socialising was as I expected- there were no real clubs/bars in my local community but food and services were moderately priced.

Non-existent!

A fellow intern and I got involved in some volunteering at the local food-bank as we were allowed 5 days of volunteering work. This was a great opportunity to see how companies get involved in their local community.