Regulatory Strategy - Pfizer Essential Health Review

My placement year at Pfizer in the Regulatory Strategy department has been a brilliant experience which I have enjoyed greatly. Regulatory Strategy at a pharmaceutical company allows all those that take Biology, Biochemistry and Chemistry degrees to stay in touch with science but not have to be in a lab.

Those which I work with always made it clear how my support and leadership was valued. At the start, it was expected that more supportive roles were taken to work up to the larger leadership tasks and now I feel like a valued core member of the teams I sit on.

My line manager and other managers I worked with were always very supportive and clear with instruction. Regulatory Strategy is a hard role to get your head around to start with but with their guidance, it was made far easier. Managers would always take time out of their schedules to sit down and explain things at the start which was always appreciated.

Regulatory Strategy tends to work in peaks and troughs where you will go through periods of less work and periods of intense amounts of work. This worked well in my favour as it meant that I could focus on projects such as a Yellow Belt and University Project in the period of less work which meant that I was always busy. If I ever wanted more work, it was always clear that I could ask for more.

I had made it clear since the day I was employed that I would like to take on as much responsibility as I could have, for this reason I was running several meetings on serious topics before the end of December which I was very happy to do. Further on in my year, I was given the responsibility of a number of products.

With the aim to pursue a career in Regulatory Strategy, the skills and knowledge I have gained this year have proven invaluable. Beyond career aims, the organisation skills and soft skills I have learned in my year at Pfizer will prove useful in my degree as well as my future.

The office tends to be well filled Monday to Thursday with a number of people working from home on Friday. Everyone is always very friendly and happy to lend a hand if you ask however there are only very rarely chances to have office coffee breaks to really get to know one-another.

The Regulatory Strategy Department at Pfizer has taken on placement students for many years so the organisation of my year was very well regimented with many trainings and site visits available to attend. The work however can vary as Regulatory in Pfizer Essential Health is very much work in response to a trigger, this results in times of high capacity and as well as times of low capacity.

Pfizer invest large amounts into all of the Regulatory Industrial trainees with a numerous opportunities to training days, training sessions and site visits being made available throughout my time here. Beyond those, my manager and other managers I have worked with have given a lot of their time to develop me as a person.

There is currently no formal graduate programme in place for the placement students here in Regulatory Strategy but there are opportunities to gain a future employment with the department which I find very appealing. I have thoroughly enjoyed working here and would definitely look to come back if that is a possibility.

There are over thirty placement students at the Walton Oaks site and most of those live together. This has resulted in a great social scene for all placement students here especially within the department as there are 6 of us who are all in the same office. The site is also pretty close to London which is easily accessible by train.

The rent is quite expensive in Surrey (around £450 to £500 a month) as there is very little 'student' housing. Costs for other things in the area such as pubs and clubs are average for the South but may come as a bit of a shock to those coming down from the North.

There are a lot of pubs and a number of bars to enjoy in the area but the club scene is not exactly the best in the Walton Oaks area with Epsom holding the only two clubs. However, as I said in a previous question, London is not far away on the train which makes it easy to have a good night out.

With regards to after work, there were not many activities set up for the interns to get involved with, more that the interns would set up activities between themselves. There was still activites to get involved with within the work day such as football at lunch and a cycling club.