BioPharm Industrial Placement Student Review

The workplace was very friendly and supportive and everyone was kind and helpful, which definitely contributed to the enjoyability of each day. I enjoyed attending meetings and working with others, but personally was not especially interested in the science behind my project. If I had been working on something different I probably would've enjoyed it more.

The full-time staff were always very kind and helpful, and we'd have good talks when out at team lunches or teambuilds. However, in general, the students tend to stick together and aren't exactly "on the same level" as full-time staff in most cases. There are some exceptions and it may have simply been due to an age gap as well.

My supervisor was incredibly supportive and always gave me a lot of feedback and guidance. Sometimes I do wish that he'd given me more to do and listened to other things that I was interested in doing, as I often wished for more to do. Overall, my supervisor and other team members were very helpful and kind.

I wish that I'd had more things going on or had more opportunities to get involved in other teams or projects. Almost all of my time was spent doing experiments for my own project, which sometimes felt a bit dull and boring. It would've been nice to be able to work on a few different things simultaneously.

My supervisor and I shared the responsibility for my specific project, with me doing most of the experiments and work. Aside from the project, I wasn't given much else to do. I wish that I had more to do and more to contribute as I wanted to be responsible for more.

It was definitely useful to experience a work environment and it'll make it easier to adapt to working in the future. There are lots of training and learning opportunities and I did learn a lot more about my department and about the science behind my project. I'm hoping these will be useful beyond my studies!

The office is generally quiet, with everyone independently working and some occasional quiet conversations. People would often find each other and ask to go outside/to a cafe for chats and coffee breaks so the office didn't get too loud. This created an environment where it was easy to focus on work and assignments.

Overall, the transition into starting work was quite smooth. The orientation was helpful and we were given time to adjust to the new working environment. However, sometimes it was difficult to get clear information about holidays and other small details, but it was generally quite organised. Although, this may vary between different departments and supervisors.

The company invests a lot in training and learning for all the staff, but it's ultimately very subjective to whether the staff member wants to attend the course. Most of the courses I attended at GSK were useful and I learned something new, but many of the SRG ones were not especially useful.

I'd be very happy to work for GSK as a company in the future. From my placement, I've learned that my team/project are not very suitable for me as I wasn't too interested in the work, but I love the company culture and the people so I'd be happy to work for GSK under a different role in the future.

Yes! There are quite a few placement students in each department, making it easy to become good friends. Plus, since almost everyone is living near work, it makes it easy for people to get together for drinks or food after work or on weekends. There's a lot of off-site team lunches which are very fun!

Stevenage is not expensive compared to the nearby London, but it may not be that cheap for some people compared to their hometowns. Overall, Stevenage is reasonable in price even though there aren't too many social activities to do. On the bright side, London is nearby and there's always things to do there.

There's one Bar & Beyond in Stevenage that people can go, but generally not much "nightlife". If anything, people after work may sometimes get in small groups and go to spoons for a few drinks and maybe some snacks after work, so it's much more chill than going to a club.

There are many activities that you can choose to get involved in, but it would be nice if there were more. For students, there was IP Unite, which helped organise events and talks for students. There's some exercise/running/sports clubs to join but not much else. I would've liked to see more.