Regulatory Operations EID Intern Review

The work a GE Healthcare was highly rewarding, knowing that you were directly impacting patients who were receiving the products produced within the company.

I felt very valued by my colleagues, I was given important work from a very early point which allowed me to contribute and work alongside team members.

Support and guidance from management was sufficient, particular members of senior management within the company made a real effort to meet and talk with employees from all levels. Direct guidance wasn't required all of the time as I was capable of finding my own way through many tasks, but in the instances where this wasn't suitable I was given great training or mentoring to reach my goals.

I was kept incredibly busy whilst working at GE Healthcare, the workload in certain portions of the placement did peak and drop away towards then end.

I was given huge amounts of responsibility during my placement, both in my full role and in extra projects and initiatives that I was involved in.

Because the nature of my degree is very different to the role I was doing on placement I wouldn't be able to take technical skills developed on placement back to my degree. I can however say that I developed a wide variety of soft skills that will no doubt assist me in completing my degree and further in my career.

The atmosphere in the office was good fun. A big effort was made by the senior management to put on routine events such as quarterly coffee and cake mornings, summer BBQ's and even movie and pizza nights. The team I was based in was also very good fun to spend time with, and despite being based in Norway and the US, we were able to have face-to-face time for team building activities on three

I was fortunate because I joined the placement program two weeks after most people on my site had joined, which ensured that I didn't have to wait for any length of time to get set up on my first day. Due to my team being able to integrate me effectively from an early stage I felt that I was never sat around waiting for things to be given to me.

The majority of my training was given to me on the job, and a lot was learnt through persistence with the systems I was using. I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend a conference in Barcelona to discuss the system we had implemented which gave me an incredible opportunity to deepen my understanding and learn cutting edge developments that were planned to be released in the future.

Unfortunately, the graduate schemes at GE Healthcare are very limited to core business roles, due to the fact I was doing a placement in R&D, there weren't any defined programs. I was able to discuss this with my manager and gratefully, and was told that if a suitable role opened up, I would be welcomed back. I was very grateful for this gesture as I understood it is very difficult to promise anything for certain such a long time in advance.

There was a good social scene with a group of interns organising a couple of events throughout the year to allow all placement students from the two sites in Amersham to get together. The same was true with colleagues, with great events such as the summer BBQ within R&D being a very fond memory!

The cost of living around Amersham is fairly expensive due to it being a town in the commuter belt. Having said that, it was cheaper than living in London and there were even special offers for GE employees at the local pub which encouraged team pub lunches which were great fun.

The nightlife in Amersham is fairly limited, with a few pubs and bars that would close by 11 pm. If you wanted to have a later night out you would have to travel into London, which was very easy on the tube as Amersham is at the end of the Oyster zone.

The activities organised for all employees or certain departments were fairly numerous, with brilliant initiatives during mental health awareness week. There was a big effort within R&D to involve placement students in STEM ambassador volunteering which was a great initiative to be involved with and allowed us to help local schools.