Clinical Safety Scientist Review

My placement year with GSK was honestly the best year of my life so far. I worked somewhere which was supportive, challenging and most importantly, extremely fulfilling. Although I did not enjoy my actual day-to-day job, and realised that this is not the career path I want to take up, my placement was still the best work experience I have ever undertaken. The only reason I did not rate this a 10, is because like I mentioned, I did not enjoy the nature of the work my department did.

Throughout my placement I was never given simple admin tasks to do, my colleagues trusted me to carry out tasks as important as any other team-member. They had full trust in my abilities and gave me the chance to prove my potential. Additionally, I was always shown an outstanding amount of appreciation for all the tasks I carried out regardless of how small they were.

I was given a huge amount of support, from a variety of stakeholders. Throughout my placement I had my supervisor, who was always there to answer any questions and was always happy to go through my worries with me no matter how busy he was. Additionally, I had my line manager and graduate mentor, who were both a great source of support not only for my daily tasks but also for career advice. Lastly, even the leadership team for my department spent a huge amount of time supporting me in tasks!

The work did tend to vary depending on the amount of regulatory requests we were given. Thus, at some times throughout the year I was extremely busy (but never to the point where I could not handle it), but it did mean that at some points I lacked work. However, I always sought out more tasks to do and there was always more to do if I looked for it- making this a very small issue. It took me a while to adapt to the fact that if I wait to be given all work and not seek out my own work balance, it will not suit my schedule well.

Like I mentioned before, I was never given admin tasks and originally, was quite shocked in how much my colleagues trusted me. Not because I felt that I did not have the abilities or was worried, but simply because I had never heard of interns getting as much responsibility as I was being given straight from the get-go. It made me feel really valued and trusted!

In terms of my degree- it aided my analytical skills and organisational. Learning to handle a bigger workload and getting into a routine for my job has aided me in adapting to a more productive lifestyle at university. Additionally, I did gain great analytical skills via data-analysis which will aid my understanding of my final year. In terms of the future, the transferable skills I got were invaluable and I am sure they will help me secure a job in an area I am more passionate about. The only downside to this was that I take a scientific degree therefore I believe a laboratory placement would have helped my degree more. But on the other hand if I had done that, I would not have gained such good transferable skills.

Great atmosphere, everyone was so friendly, willing to help, enthusiastic and very fun to speak to! The only downside was that there were not many activities that we did as a group outside of the office. However, thinking about it, I should have taken more initiative to organise things, because I am reasonably sure that everyone would have participated!

From the beginning, there was always a clear plan for where I fit in the department. There were clear specific roles and responsibilities which I would be taking over from the previous placement student. Additionally, because of the amount and variety of support that I was given, from the beginning, it made it seem extremely organised.

I was invested in to an extent that I thought was almost crazy! My manager ensured that I had the opportunity to do everything I wanted to do over placement, and was always happy to adapt my work-schedule to fit around development activities I wanted to do. I had the opportunity to shadow two other departments and visit multiple other sites, which gave me a better understanding of the career I want to have in the future. Additionally, my manager was happy for me to take part in activities related to Orange United and for Save the Children, which took some hours out of my daily tasks, but I was still allowed to. Because of all the training that was invested in me, not only for my job, but for my understanding of the pharmaceutical industry, I truly had the opportunity to develop great strategic awareness and know what I want to do in the future.

This is one of the downsides at GSK. In other companies, if you perform well, you get offered a graduate role, however, this is not the case at GSK. If you perform well and shown leadership potential, you can be recommended via your manager for the Future Leaders Programme. However, there are roughly 300 Industrial Placement Students every year at GSK, and about 80 spaces on the graduate scheme. As if this is not already a bad ratio, GSK waits for external applicants to interview candidates. This is an awful aspect of undertaking a placement at GSK. GSK needs to adjust their hiring methods to what is happening in the rest of the industry.

There was a really good social scene with the other placement students, with the group "IP Unite" being set up from the beginning. This meant that there were huge events always planned for all of us, from a Christmas Party to a Leaving Party on a boat in the Thames! This was very well organised and made adapting to the working lifestyle a lot easier. There was not as much of a good scene with my colleagues from my department as they were a lot older and lived outside of London.

The salary at GSK is the same no matter whether you are in London or Stevenage, which is a bit ridiculous considering the disparity in living costs. The salary for the placement year is not enough to live on unless you get financial help from your family or student loans. Rent was extremely expensive and so was socialising. However, the salary is the industry average. I just think that there needs to be a consideration from GSK about adjusting salary to each site.

London nightlife is great, there is always something going on. Although I worked a bit more outskirts, as GSK is not found in Zone 1, it was still extremely easy to go into very central london for a night out. Around the area that GSK there are a lot of pubs and bars as well so there's always things to do!

Yes for sure! GSK has many different sports teams, for example, I was part of the netball team and met up with the girls weekly for a match. Additionally, because of IP Unite there are always new activities and socials being planned, so there were always so many things to do! Very well organised from GSK and the fellow placement students.