Regulatory Operational Excellence Undergraduate Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year with Pfizer. I was pleased with how many opportunities I was given for personal development, loved gaining more experience in a role I previously knew very little about, and had a very supportive team and manager.

I felt very valued by my colleagues. They gave up their time to teach me how to do the job and once I was confident, gave me responsibility and were thankful for all the help they received. I also found that even colleagues in other teams were willing to give up their time to chat to me about careers.

My manager gave up his time every week to have catch ups with me. He supported my personal development by helping me reflect on the skills I had gained or wanted to improve further. I could also go to him with work related queries and he tailored my year to what I wanted to achieve.

I found that my placement was a little slow to get started. The training was slow and I had lots of gaps in my day. Once my experience had increased, I was given lots of responsibility and had to balance multiple projects so I was busy. I was also comfortable feeding back to my manager to adjust my workload if necessary.

I was responsible for a couple of projects which enabled me to interact with other teams and ensure work was completed. This allowed me to own my project and develop as a team leader. My level of responsibility increased throughout the year.

One of the main things my placement has helped with is my confidence and self assurance. I feel ready to get into the workplace and build my career. I have also had to take on big responsibility and learnt how to balance multiple projects. I have also had the opportunity to develop my communication skills by presenting regularly.

My office was very friendly, and I was able to get to know many people around me well. We were also very supportive as people offered to share out workloads or support with difficult projects.

The placement was well organised. There were orientation days at the beginning which included talks from HR and health and safety, and most managers were already familiar with the scheme so knew how best to set up the undergraduate. I think it would have been helpful to have a few of the previous year undergrads still around to chat to in the first couple of weeks.

There were loads of options for personal development, as we were treated the same as FTEs. We could do free courses/online training, in person training days, coaching sessions and one on one meetings with managers. We also did a 6 month communication course which gave us the chance to present regularly.

I find the prospect of coming back to Pfizer in the future very appealing. I like the opportunities for development, the support from colleagues and the overall ethos of the company.

There were about 30 undergrads and lots of apprentices so lots of social opportunity. We could go out for meals and drinks in the nearby city and spent time down at the beaches. Many undergrads lived in Pfizer undergrad houses as well.

The housing was a very good price, although there aren't many options as it isn't a student area. The city prices were slightly more but still very affordable.

The best option was 25 mins away in the city but good train connection. Lots of bars, restaurants and a few clubs.

There were some e.g. some people took up running with clubs or going to parkrun. Other people did sports e.g. trampolining or badminton.