Medical Affairs undergraduate Review

I felt very valued throughout my placement. After a couple of months I was leading my own projects and making important decisions. This suggested that my team trusted me. I was in a small but very fun team who made me feel welcome from day one. Pfizer has a very inclusive culture. Everyone is encouraged to share their opinions and experiences. The senior leaders are often very interested in hearing what the undergraduates and graduates have to say.

I had weekly 1 to 1s with my manager, where we would talk through each of my projects and decide the next steps. Outside 1 to 1s, I was able to speak to my manager at any point I needed to, either face to face, via text, or call. My manager was always checking if I was happy with my workload to make sure I was never bored or over-stretched. I had a lot of university work to complete during the year and my manager was extremely supportive through it all.

It varied from week to week, but on the whole I was quite busy. If there wasn't an immediate task to do, there was always something I could be doing. This usually involved reading clinical papers, clinical guidelines, conference updates or completing Pfizer's online training modules. I was never bored. There were some weeks that I was super busy and had to be very strict with my time management. But there were also weeks that I could relax a little and focus on improving my exisiting knowledge.

In the first couple of months I had very little responsilibity as I had to focus on upskilling myself and learning all the background information for the medicines I would be working on. But by month 3/4 I took on a reasonable amount of responsibility for a few projects that I was able to lead on. This level of responsilbity continued until the end of my placement and I felt my manager fully trusted me to make important decisions.

I have greatly improved my scientific writing skills during my placement, as well as my ability to deliver presentations to an audience/ my colleagues. I have also improved other important skills including problem-solving, time management, and working under pressure, which will be extremely useful in my future career. I have also grown a professional network within Pfizer, and made many close friends that I am sure I will remain in contact with for many years.

The office that I worked in was very lively at the start of the week- monday, tuesday, wednesday and was much quieter on thursday and friday. When it was quiet it wasn't very exiciting, however it was a good chance to get your work done with minimal distraction. When the office was bust and my team were in, the atmosphere was very relaxed and informal which was great. I always felt comfortable asking my colleagues questions and having a chat without distracting others.

It was very well organised as the company take on a high number of placement students every year. The onboarding/ induction process was very concise and informative. We had regular training sessions and group activities in the first few weeks to ensure that we were all up to the required standard. These sessions were also a good opportunity to get to know the other placement students. Whilst the overall placement was very well organised, the organisation that comes from your placement manager depends on them as an individual. I was very fortunate that my manager was never short of tasks for me to do, or ideas for new projects, however this may have not been the same for everyone.

The future employment prospects within the organisation are quite limited as there are are only five places on the graduate programme each year. Outside of the graduate programme there are some entry level jobs that new graduates can apply for, however these can be quite rare. The best route into the organisation post-placement is probably an entry-level sales position. I think it can be hard to gain other roles without a masters/phD as they are high competitive.

Yes there was a great social scene amongst fellow placement students. There were about 50 of us working at the same site so there was plenty of opportunity to meet other people and make close friends. Sharing a house with other placement students and living nearby other student houses made it very easy to socialise. I spent almost every weekend with other placement students. I didn't socialise with colleagues who were non-placement students outside of work.

Yes I joined a sports club in the town I lived in and trained with them 3 times a week. Other placement students I knew also joined various sports clubs and did volunteering in their spare time. I really enjoyed meeting new people outside of work and it was great to not have to talk about work when I was with the club. It also made me feel much more at home as I often bumped into people from the club when I was food shopping/ in town.