Project and Process Management Undergraduate Review

I enjoyed my placement very much. It has given me all of the appropriate experience that I wanted to achieve and more. I have felt that even just being an undergraduate, I have been able to make a difference within the company due to the kind of projects and tasks I carried out when I was there. The placement really opened my eyes to how a real corporate business works and operates and this has allowed me to plan my future career and stir me to areas that I am most interested.

I felt very valued by my colleagues. It was early established in the team I was in that they would just treat me as any other new member of the team and not like an intern. I thought this was great as it gave me a real feel of how working would be when finishing university. I was also given a large responsibility by the team, I was leading projects just like everyone else and it was clear that the other team members respected that. I know the team valued me as I brought skills that wasn't already established in the team- e.g. IT and digital skills and people in the team came to me for help for things.

My manager was very supportive- in fact everyone in my team was very supportive with anything that I needed, whether it was work related or not. My manage allowed me to attend extra circular activities which was paid out of the teams budget, this I am extremely grateful for as being a part of 'Toastmasters International' has allowed me to develop my confidence massively during my time on placement. I have also been able to reach out to my manager if a project isn't going quite to plan or if I needed abit of guidance and he was so happy to do so and would fulfil but also go beyond my request.

For the majority of the time I was comfily busy, meaning that I was busy but I found enough time to ensure everything was carried out correctly. There has been a few periods that I have been extremely busy with many projects on at the same time. I was never bored or short of work, but my manager made it clear that if I was then I should reach out to him or any other members of the team to see if there was anything I could get involved in. One way we did this was during our weekly team meeting is to have a project round up, sharing what we are all doing and seeing if we could share our skills around the team and help each other.

I was given the responsibility at first to aid on projects and carry out some of the pre-work. By 2 months into the placement I had 2 projects that I was the lead of, I had to handle all of the communication, my own timelines and output. I think being thrown into the deep end really helped me find my feet and establish myself in the team. I became if you like the SME- subject matter expert on some of my projects as my manager would forward emails on to me to answer.

The soft skills I have learnt and developed over my placement year will stick and allow me to perform better in my future career. It gives you an insight as to what working could be for you in the future so having the skills I have learnt from this makes me one step ahead of other candidates as I already understand some of the dynamics within a corporate business. I have learnt a number of skills that will help me back when I return to university, my future and how to interact with people in every day life.

The atmosphere was great. It was easy to understand the vibe and way to behave in the office after just afew days in working in there. I loved the mix between teams, there would be individuals who you would talk to everyday who were in a different team. I thought this was great because not only are you learning things from your team, but it was so easy to reach out to other people to ask about their line of work and see if you found anything else of interest. Everyone was very friendly and made me and in intern feel very welcome.

For the most part it was very organised, as it is a legacy to have an internship- so appropriate induction classes for interns, training classes, learning experiences, lunchtime meets were all great ways of allowing the interns to interact and feel safe and happy around one another. These were continuous through out most of the year too. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 this has somewhat stopped and as an intern working now remotely I feel a little bit more detached from that work environment and the social interaction that I used to get everyday.

As previously mentioned there was an extra circular activity that I was interested in- Toastmasters. I have found that Toastmasters is a great way to improve my communication and public speaking skills, something that is mandatory in this line of work as we have to take part in web-ex meetings and present to large audiences all the time. Also public speaking is something that we can always improve on. I took part in prepared and improvised speeches, both of which allowed me to practise and develop in a friendly environment, which I was then able to bring back to my day-to-day work.

I would love to remain a part of the organisation as it has done so much for me already. I know the organisation has an enormous success rate and I would be so grateful to continue to work and develop in such an environment under such a company. Working for Pfizer for one year has enabled me to see what a private health care pharmaceutical company still does to give back to to wider community. I have been involved in Community lab which provides lab space to high schools that don't. I have also been apart of a wheel-chair fun day where we created and donates sports wheel chairs to a local charity. And also supported to LGBTQ+ community with events and workshops.

Yes, most of the inters housed together in mixed houses across the area and so most of us that were new to the area met up on weekends or after work to either hang out or have a drink. Having a big group of other people on placement was really good as it allowed us all to mix and not be on our own if someone was busy a particular weekend. I was able to find some really good friends while on placement that I will continue to keep in touch with.

It was quite expensive for me moving from the north to the south and what you get for the price. Also the price of living- food, going out, amenities was also higher than I am used to. However, this is reflected in your pay check and the salary you are awarded. I did not manage to save the amount of money that I had intended from working there but I did have a really good time.

Great, I lived in Canterbury so it was a student town anyway- with a 30 minute commute to work. I found that the night life was not what I was used to back in Manchester, in Canterbury there were more pubs than clubs or bars so this is something that I did adjust to. But the places where always busy and going out with your placement friends it was always very fun and you had a good time.

I would say so. Most of the little villages have little town halls where they hold events and other activities that you can easily get involved in. My house all got involved in learning salsa dancing at the town hall on a Thursday evening. There are also numerous gyms and sport centres that you can join. We used to play badminton, tennis, go swimming and use to gym together. This also gave you an opportunity to meet new people as well outside of work.