Supply Chain IP Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my time on placement at GSK Barnard Castle. I enjoyed the opportunities to be treated as an equal in my team, to work in a global company, I enjoyed the type of work I was set and I have enjoyed it so much that I have realised this is the career path for me.

Within my team I felt very valued, they treated my like anyone else and was there to support me in and outside of work having moved to a new area of the country alone. For me personally, my team made my year. Outside of my team, in a more general sense of around site-I do not feel like IPs are valued. I had been told multiple times on placement 'you're just an IP' as if that was a derogatory thing and I don't think it should be.

My team whole team were very supportive of me and my development, not just my manager. I felt that all of them were wanting to help me achieve my goals and regularly offered ideas of how to aid my development of both technical knowledge and soft skills. my manager took me along to tiered accountability early on so I could see the whole process and meet more senior members of staff.

My workload was ebbs and flows. A lot of my standard work occurred at the beginning of the month from trending data from the previous month. This meant that I was very busy at the beginning of the month with little time to progress my projects but in weeks 3-4 of the month I had time to progress my projects and chase necessary replies. The busy times were fine-I was stretched without being stressed but I personally found the quieter times too quiet and would ask others in the office if they wanted me to pick up some of their stuff.

I have scored this a 7/10 because I personally wouldn't want to be much higher. I am grateful for the independence on some projects I was given and the responsibility that came with that, however I wouldn't want too much responsibility as IPs are not business critical. For me it was the perfect amount of responsibility, I could lead projects where I wanted to but had the support for others if necessary.

My supply chain placement is directly related to my maths degree so I don't feel like I improved my maths technical knowledge that I will go back and use in my degree. But I did improve my personal/soft skills on placement and that is something that will assist with in future life.

There was only 3 other people in my office so it was often quiet and I felt conscious if I was to speak when it was quiet in case I was distracting anyone. My office could be quite stand off ish environment at times if there was an Audit on or after there was an announcement that 200 jobs across site would go.

My manager was amazing at my induction package and training plan. They knew exactly when I would learn what. It meant I felt comfortable in their abilities and made a good impression. I had weekly 1:1's with my manager and we would plan my work for the week ahead. I think other placement managers could learn a lot from how my manager ran it.

GSK as a whole did nothing to help my personal development. All my developments were down to my manager arranging things for me. GSK workers look down on IPs and think we are here to do admin work. I tried and failed on multiple occasions to have the site support the IPs on various development opportunities that the apprentices and grads were getting.

There was site announcement last week that there would be 200 job cuts over a 1200 staffed site, hence I don't think I would be able to get at the same site. I don't know if this is general company move to save money or if its more localised but it has made me doubt any chances of a job here.

Yes, I socialised with a couple of different groups from work. One group was the placement students and the other group was the younger generation from my department. There was more of a social scene than I was expecting coming into the workplace from uni. The GSK sports and social cluc played a large part in this.

As someone that has lived in the South their whole life I found living in the North East of England very cheap. I was able to easily live off my wage and have money for 'treats' and excursions. GSK also had good relationships with local companies/cinemas and there was cheaper tickets/items if you showed your work ID badge.

Barnard Castle is a small village with around 10 pubs. There was no clubs but the pubs were sufficient to socialise.

Tere was a few STEM activities and GSK had a couple of orange days but my manager didn't encourage me to take other opportunities as I was often too busy to spare a time out of my calendar.