Junior Brand Manager Review

I enjoyed my work placement because it gave me a level of experience which I would not have obtained by working elsewhere. By becoming an integral member of my team, I was exposed to lots of new situations which helped to develop a range of skills in the work place.

I felt valued to different extents by different colleagues in my team. I feel that my manager and immediate team based in the same office valued my contributions to the team; however, with lots of colleagues based in other offices around the world and with limited face-to-face interaction with them, this made it more difficult to build relationships and feel valued by them.

My manager was helpful when I felt that I needed support and guidance. There were often challenging times due to changes of senior leadership within the team which ultimately meant that I was caught up with a disrupted workflow for some time; however my manager supported me through this period.

Generally my work load was very manageable and I could complete all of my daily tasks without having to exert myself too much. This meant that on the whole I had quite a relaxed placement, although there were sometimes periods where work picked up significantly across the team, and at these times everyone steps in to help get things across the line.

I feel that my manager was happy to give me a significant amount of responsibility once he was comfortable in knowing that I was capable of getting the work done to a good level. This meant leaving me to independently run some projects, only taking guidance from my manager or the team when I felt it was necessary.

This placement year has provided me with an invaluable skillset which I would not have had if I had continued on at university. My time management, communication, organisation, planning and general awareness of the everyday corporate lifestyle have all benefitted throughout the course of my year here. These will all continue to be useful learnings for me at university and beyond.

The overall atmosphere across the whole building was nice, friendly and relaxed. However, in my immediate team, almost every person worked from home most days. This meant that at my desk, I was often surrounded by empty desks and I never personally felt that there was a strong team atmosphere.

There had been a placement student in my role for the last few years, so when I arrived there was a clear plan laid out for projects that I was to work on over the course of my year. However, due to internal changes within the team, within the first 2 months this plan was no longer valid so I was left without any longer term structure to my placement. Despite asking for a new project framework on several occasions, this was never given to me, resulting in me providing ad-hoc support to my team for a lot of the remaining time on my placement.

The company invested heavily in personal training and development opportunities. If you are open with regards to your development plans with your manager, they should support you and allow you to take time out of your daily work in order to attend training courses that are in the interests of the development of both you individually and consequently the team too.

There is a graduate scheme opportunity, where existing undergraduate placement students are open to apply. This provides a prospect to return to the organisation following university studies if you would like to do this. There are also some entry-level jobs available, which can be applied for as per any usual, non-graduate scheme job.

There were approximately 60 undergraduate placement students based at my office, a lot of whom lived relatively close by to one another. This meant that it was easy to connect with others both inside and outside of work, so we often had group social events together which was a nice bonus.

As the office is fairly isolated, there is nowhere in the immediate vicinity of work for living or socialising. However, the area in which I lived and socialised was reasonably priced - bearing in mind that it will be difficult to find something as cheap as student accommodation and nightlife!

As Pfizer is located very much in the countryside, the immediate area and even the surrounding areas where most people lived out had a more or less non-existent nightlife. Of course there were the standard small town venues, but for a good night out you would have to organise a trip to London.

There were some opportunities to get involved in sports and fitness activities, as these were driven by some of the senior leaders within the organisation. However, a lot of other activities tend to be driven by your team, and as I worked in a largely virtual team, there was very little opportunity for me to experience other activities outside of work.