By Eloise Howard, BA Business Management with Employment Experience
Why do a placement year?
One of the best decisions I made during my time at University has been to do a placement year. I decided at the beginning of second year that I really wanted to gain experience in a big global company and build my CV, as it is so important nowadays to have more than just a degree. Looking back, I had the best 12 months at GSK – I gained so many skills and I met lots of new friends who I’m still in touch 
with now. It was a challenging year and I truly developed on a professional as well as a personal level. Not only this, it was also so much fun as there was lots of opportunities to do extra things, such as volunteering.
Finding a Placement
My heart was set on finding a HR role as I enjoyed this module the most and it really stood out to me as something I could see myself doing. However, there are so many different companies to choose from all across the UK so it is a big decision! Luckily, I received tons of support from the University and I was able to speak to dedicated staff in the Employability Hub, who helped me to finalise my CV and provide really helpful advice in terms of where to look for placements and what I could expect from the recruitment process. Not only this, you can do workshops like practice assessment centres, which I would really recommend! My advice would also be to not be disheartened if you have some rejections… there were a few companies I never heard back from or didn’t get past the first or second stage, but eventually I found the perfect one and used all the help available from the Hub to secure the job!
HR at GSK
GSK is a healthcare company with 3 global businesses: vaccines, pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare. I worked in one of the specialised HR departments in the Head Office in London. This was really exciting moving to a new city, and GSK were great as they put you in contact with all the other placement students in a Facebook group so that you can find people to live with. My role varied as I did project work including Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP), mySkills (an application to assess employee skills) and Global Inclusion and Diversity. Typical day-to-day tasks were developing communication materials; writing emails andcreating help guides and articles. Plus, I had roles in Project Management and was a key point of contact for global colleagues in Inclusion and Diversity. One of my highlights would be presenting the team updates to the CEO of Consumer Healthcare! Overall, I gained so 
much varied experience and it helped me to work out that I definitely want to go into HR in my future career. This experience has also made me much more confident in securing a graduate job as I now have so many experiences to talk about in an interview!