This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
As a whole I found being onsite at GSK very interesting and could always find something to learn during my time there. I got the chance to see different areas of the business and got on well with other interns and staff members. I really enjoyed my insight into the industry and I defiantly feel like it helped me in deciding what I should do after graduation.
I felt than within my own office that staff members didn't reach out to me particularly often and didn't include me in their work, or check up on me to ensure that I had enough work. Overall they were all friendly, but I didn't feel included often and felt they could have worked more with me. Being assigned a buddy as some interns were could have helped in this regard.
I was given good guidance and support from my supervisor, but due to her being on a busy schedule I didn’t want to bother her with everyday problems. She did assist me on getting work in different areas on site and getting me into the areas that I had the most interest in. I feel that a weekly or fortnightly catch up could have helped me stay on track more.
It depended on the day, but I defiantly had large chunks of time where I had run out of work and no one to really go to immediately for this issue. I didn’t have a specific project for the length of my placement therefore there was a lot of jumping around and not really the chance to just get on with my work on my own.
I feel I was given a decent amount of responsibility and I was trusted to get along with work on my own. Having more work to do would have helped this issue more and having a more independent project. I don’t feel like I wasn’t trusted, just that I didn’t have a great deal of duties to be responsible for.
The main thing I think I gained in my placement was a greater sense of how the industry operated and how my degree could enable me to work in it. This more concrete sense of understanding has given me a greater deal of reassurance going forward with my degree. I know that the experience is going to be a great asset to add to my cv.
The Company
The atmosphere was friendly, but I was placed in an awkward desk away from the others. Simply owing to the layout of the office, but it did really reduce the chance to interact with my colleagues. I did feel slightly isolated in the position I was in and it made it difficult to interact.
It defiantly varied between different interns, but I much more would have appreciated a greater amount of work ready for me starting and a clearer layout of what I would be doing. Certain areas did feel very organised, but for me not having a main project or goal to work on left me floating around quite a bit.
I did get the opportunity to complete a lot of online training and draw from the GSK resources to learn about different areas of the business. I got to attend a lot of different types of meetings that really helped me to learn more about the industry. There were plenty of resources available to learn there.
Subsidised Canteen
Company Parties/Events
I would love to work with GSK in the future and am currently planning on applying for their future leader’s graduate program. I have heard from within the site that interns have been hired back as full time staff after graduation. I can only imagine the placement as a positive in terms of this.
The Culture
All of the interns got along well and were very friendly. We all made an effort to have lunch together every day and even arranged a special lunch out for our last week together. We had a large variety in backgrounds and universities, but I think all enjoyed our time here.
I live local to the site so my only expense for the internship was the cost of fuel in getting here.
Again I live local, and the nightlife defiantly leaves something to be desired generally.
Other interns did get involved in charity volunteering days, known as orange days whilst here, it just happened that my department did not have one scheduled during my time.
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Pharmaceutical, Science
Scotland
August 2017