Brand Executive Review

I really, really enjoyed my placement at GSK. Every day I went into the office, I was able to learn something new. I was given the opportunity to lead on projects, actively partake in meetings and be exposed to business discussions around me. I learnt so much and the company/team culture is fantastic. Everyone is so supportive in helping you be successful and achieve your development objectives. You are treated just like every other employee and while it can be challenging, you have a great support system to help you along the way.

You are definitely valued in the sense that you are given work that is of importance, and if you do a good job you will often be recognized for your efforts (verbally, with awards, etc.). While as a placement student you won't be charged with doing the most important things all by yourself, you are certainly given the chance to contribute and take ownership of elements of large scale projects (which sort of indirectly shows you are valued, too). Your team also treats you like family and your boss will count on you to deliver.

My manager was fantastic. Whenever I had a question, challenge or wanted to learn more about a certain concept/function of the business, they would work with me to make sure I got what I needed to achieve my goals. Also, if you have uni coursework that is related to your placement, managers are often very accommodating in helping you get what you need. We had development check-ins every week too to help review work in progress and how I was feeling about my placement.

This really does vary depending on what is happening in the business and what time of the year it is. For instance, some days I would be working up to 10 hours, while other days there would only be 5 hours of work. It really depends if you have initiatives that are time sensitive going on and ! Never, however, did I feel bored with nothing to do and never did I feel like I was overwhelmed! And if you struggle with this either way, your manager will help you adjust accordingly.

In the first few months I was not really leading anything - but I almost preferred this, as it allowed me time to learn and make mistakes on a smaller scale. By the second half of my placement, I was delivering content and leading projects with only mild supervision from my manager. I even got to manage an entire marketing campaign from A to Z during my placement year, which was awesome! But sometimes as well, your responsibility may just be with helping other team members. It depends on what is going on!

This was a great company to do a placement in terms of increasing my commercial knowledge and developing relevant skill sets. I study marketing and did a marketing placement, and I think I pretty much got to work on (and sometimes lead myself) every major component of marketing (PR, advertising, briefing agencies, reviewing/approving content, etc.). You will definitely be in a better place (skill wise and CV wise) for a job after university, and you will be able to give yourself credibility in your final year of uni and beyond in your field.

Amazing office environment in Consumer Healthcare. Everyone is supportive, respectful, and help each other out. There are regular business-wide meetings and often rewards for doing well. There were also a number of company socials too for our floor which were lots of fun (pub nights, karaoke, meals, nights out, nights away, etc.). In general, a positive and relaxed vibe day to day.

The GSK placement scheme is very well organised (they have had placement students for 10+ years) and they have a number of procedures and systems in place for you to thrive. Everything from the initial handover to continuous check ins with managers/supervisors, to great opportunities to partake in development workshops/training, and socials set up for you to get to know the other placement students. Can't complain about this at all.

They invest in you a lot. I had trainings and workshops (sometimes 2+ days) where they dedicate a lot of time, money, and resource into helping you get better at your job. I would say you probably have 1 to 2 days a month entirely dedicated to you becoming better at your job (workshops, guest speakers, specific skill trainings like presentation or negotiation or finance or marketing or current trends). Off-site meetings would be regular too, like going to agencies and partners where they would teach you more about best practices.

This is maybe one of the few things that I find a little bit disappointing. A lot of my friends at other companies were offered jobs at the end of their placements. For me, I have to reapply (pretty much from the start) and do all of the CV reviews, assessment centers, etc. again...which is frustrating considering you already spent a year there and have learnt their ways of working and systems! Still, a lot of former placement students come back for the grad scheme which is promising!

Fantastic social scene! There is nearly something to do every night, and there is even a placement student social committee that helps to organize events (football, pub trips, football matches, movies, parties, etc.). At GSK House as well there are nearly 80+ placement students, so there is a large group of people for you to get to know and have fun with over the year!

London, as you probably know, is very expensive. Pubs are expensive, rent is expensive, food is expensive, transport is expensive...but it is sort of worth it if you ask me, as it is a world class city, and if you save/spend carefully, you should have plenty of money to go out a reasonable amount of times...and there is so much to do!

Great in the city centre! Not as great in Brentford. However, you are super close to the city centre (like a 30 min tube ride)...there are tons of clubs and pubs within the vicinity to be fair, but again, it is quite pricey. Still, I would argue that it depends on where you go and how much/often you spend!

Tons of opportunities - sports teams everywhere, lots of shopping, lots of great restaurants/pubs, and historical sites. In terms of work group activities, a lot of people organise events together with people from work (usually right after 5pm) with things like book clubs, 5 aside football, pub quizzes, etc. always happening.