Associate Clinical Study Manager Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at GSK. My placement has provided me with numerous opportunities to develop valuable and transferable skills, both within my daily job tasks and through extra curricular activities (such as STEM events). This has been a great start to my career path and has allowed me to feel comfortable about graduating and excited for life after University.

I carried out the role of Clinical Study Manager this year. I have always felt valued by my colleagues as I have been given an appropriate level of responsibility and carried out meaningful tasks that contributed to the progress of the clinical studies I worked on. I received feedback from my manager and colleagues with recognition and appreciation of my efforts throughout the year.

I felt supported by my manager throughout my placement at GSK. We would have regular meetings where we discussed my development objectives for the year so she could guide my development and monitor my progress. I felt completely supported in the sense that if I was ever unsure on how to complete a task, I had no hesitation to ask my manager or other colleagues for some help, and they would happily give me their time and advice.

Throughout my placement year my workload could vary based on which stage each of my studies were at. However, if I were ever to feel that I did not have enough work to do, I would reach out to my manager who would then find me something to complete. Overall however this job was fairly demanding so I was usually the right level of busy.

I worked closely with my manager on all 3 studies and we shared out all the tasks of the role of Clinical Study Manager. As I was performing tasks that my manager would otherwise complete, I felt that I was given a high level of responsibility and that I was given a wide range of activities.

I have been provided with numerous opportunities to utilise and develop vital skills throughout my placement year at GSK, such as teamwork, leadership, organisation, decision making and creativity. All these valuable skills I will be able to transfer to both my University degree and future jobs after graduating. For example, advancing my organisational skills will be greatly beneficial to me when planning my Dissertation whilst also studying for other modules and balancing this with the social side of University. I have gained confidence in my presentation skills this year through running meetings and presenting to external colleagues / students. This will aid me when returning to University as I will be carrying out presentations within my modules to my peers and lecturers.

The atmosphere is very friendly and comfortable in the office which I was really appreciate of. The office is on the quiet side however and I think I have realised from this that I would prefer my working environment to be more buzzy and lively in the future. For example, I have visited GSK's head quarters which is more fast paced and buzzy and I believe this is more suited to what I would look for in an office for my next job. The office is designed with "smart working" with "hot desking", meaning that the layout was open and welcoming.

As GSK Industrial Placement students we are contracted with another agency called SRG. There has been some confusion/miscommunication between SRG and GSK students. For example we were told incorrect information about what our interview would consist of. From GSK's side, I think the overall set up of the placement was smooth and clear.

GSK have provided me with countless opportunities for personal and interpersonal development. I have been able to attend/organise/run events such as STEM Insight Events, The Big Bang Fair 2019, GSK Stockley Park Site Event, School Careers Day. I was also able to volunteer at Kew Gardens through Orange United. All these events I have participated in have developed a wide range of transferable skills.

GSK has a vast range of functions within the company and many different job role within each of these functions. Therefore there are high employment prospects. Although there are a wide range of job roles across the business, in terms of progressing up the line of a specific job role, I am unsure on how easy/possible it is to achieve this.

Within my department there were rarely socials - I think this has to do with the office being far from central London and therefore it is difficult to go to places straight after work with colleagues. However, among the placement students we were very sociable - we had group socials a number of times throughout the year organised by our IP Unite member.

The cost of living and socialising is very high as we lived in Ealing Broadway because this was close enough to our office in Uxbridge without being too far from central London. Although the cost of living/socialising was high, the benefits outweighed the costs for me personally and I would rather pay higher rent to live in a more buzzy area with shops/pubs/restaurants. As previously mentioned, our actual workplace was not in this area, it was 45 mins away from our home (Uxbridge) and off a dual carriage way, therefore there were no real options of socialising here.

I never experienced the Nightlife in Uxbridge where the office was based as I did not live here and I do not believe it really has one anyway. However, the area where I lived in Ealing has lots of options for bars/pubs and this was very enjoyable. Ealing has choices from well known chains to smaller independent bars/pubs.

As I have mentioned, GSK provided me with a vast range of activities outside of my day job. For example we were able to volunteer at Kew Gardens through Orange United. The placement students were also offered numerous visits to places such as The Crick Institute, Clinical Unit Cambridge, The Big Bang Fair 2019 and School Careers Day.