Project Analyst Review

A lot of the work I was doing on placement was very interesting, challenging and fun and helped drive strategically important decisions within the business. However, a good 30% of my work was last minute ad hoc requests coming from senior stakeholders. This did slightly limit how much I was able to deliver against my own expectation. It is important to note though that although the last minute requests were often boring tasks, they were very regularly supporting highly confidential and interesting projects which made it far more exciting.

There is plenty of opportunity to become an SME in certain areas for your team and to build very strong knowledge in certain areas. This made me very valuable to the team and meant I was highly regarded by not just my team but my department.

Early on I was given a good amount of support, but as my placement went on my role became far more independent. I had the ability to choose areas where I felt improvements could be made and then given the freedom to implement change. Slightly more support could have been given but I reached out to senior stakeholders in the business to get regular advice and guidance.

Day-to-day I was very busy while on placement. My working hours were roughly 8am - 5:45pm most days, this was pretty common for my team but unusual for the rest of the business compared to similar level roles. During this time I would often be in and out of meetings and then cramming in work towards the end of the day to get things completed. Rarely did this get too much but there were a few occasions of working very late nights and early mornings over a week or so to get particularly large pieces of work completed.

I developed a strong working relationship with my team and senior stakeholders which meant I was given a fairly large amount of responsibility and autonomy. The level of responsibility you get in your role will predominately be down to the reputation you manage to build. If your team see that you can deliver a high standard of work and have proven yourself then they are far more likely to trust you.

While on placement they paid for me to go on PRINCE2 which is a professions project management qualification, this will help me for the rest of my career and helps me particularly stand out against other grads. The key skills I developed that will be invaluable to me are communication, relationship management and negotiation.

The atmosphere was fairly good, people would chat and laugh when they have the time. If people are busy it is obvious and they will get their heads down. The people at GSK are generally very friendly which created a nice working environment.

My placement wasn't particularly well organised in the sense that they weren't sure what they wanted me to work on as my role was new. Instead I looked for work and would ask to get involved or run projects and this was how I got a large portion of my work. However, that was never a problem for me it might be for others if you aren't comfortable asking to be stretched and given more.

GSK invested very well in me, as mentioned they paid for me to stay in central London for 1 week to complete the full practitioner qualification in PRINCE2. They also flew me to Germany to run joint planning sessions with one of the contractors I was working on a project with.

Very, there is a key push on personal and career development. If you show that you are driven and trying to improve your skill set then word will spread and you can build a strong reputation. The graduate schemes offer great development opportunities and help kick start a fast progressing career.

Yes, I met a lot of other placement students through playing football and we had quite a big group. I also met people through taking part in Tough Mudder through work. There were regular trips to the pub with both other placement students and my colleagues.

Cost of living around GSK House in Brentford is far lower than other places in London. I would say that the pay is a little low in my opinion and limits how big you can make your weekends. I would highly recommend taking out the student loan the government offer while on placement.

Nightlife in Brentford is non-existent. But we would regularly go to Putney, Richmond and surrounding areas.

Yes, plenty. Both sporting and charity based events are hard to miss.