Find out what our Guest Bloggers are getting up to. Throughout the year we will be following the progress of our Guest Bloggers so read on to find out how Anna has been getting on!

“My first few weeks at GSK have gone by so quickly and I think the best thing about it is how varied my job has been so far and how friendly and welcoming everyone is!

I have now been here 10 weeks and done so many different things! At first it was strange getting into the role as I don’t have a manager who delegates jobs for me to do every day and takes a more proactive approach. Initially I was worried I wouldn’t know what to do with myself each day but I have never once felt like that since coming to work and have found that by ensuring I am always busy I have in fact ended up with so many different things to be getting on with.

I found it a lot easier to get in to the role than I thought as I had an official one week handover but the student I was taking over from was still in the same office for 3 weeks after this helping me with anything I needed. This period was really helpful and prepared me as best as possible to begin the job properly.

One of my first important tasks was to write a global news story for the GSK intranet website. This story is posted to employees all over the world (i.e. 100,000 people.) Although this was only internal I was quite nervous about the amount of people that would read it, especially senior management from my department. However, I ensured that I got as much feedback as possible before sending the final copy and so was happy with the final piece.

I have been working a lot on a project to design interactive maps for our website. The Maps will explain all of the programmes my team (Global Community Partnerships) supports and so I am going through the process of researching everything and speaking to managers to find out what they would like to see included on the map. I am really enjoying this project as it is really helping me to develop my knowledge regarding the work my team does. I also feel I have been given a lot of responsibility on it which can be nerve-wracking but also really empowering.

My other main project is updating our internal website as the whole company has just converted to a new intranet system and so everything needs updating. This is not only challenging my literacy and marketing skills but also developing my IT skills.

Alongside these main projects I have been doing smaller scale jobs such as emailing people to organise Orange Days (Days where employees volunteer for charities.) I have also been emailing people to organise Macmillan coffee morning within GSK. Finally, quite a key part of my job has involved attending events run by our partners. For example, the opening of the ‘Who Am I exhibition’ at the Science Museum as GSK funded this. Also the opening for the Summer exhibition at the Royal Academy as we are corporate members and attending an exhibition at the Strand Gallery with the National Down syndrome Association. All of these events have been really enjoyable and also something complete new as they involve a lot of networking with senior people from all sorts of organizations.”

Find out more from Anna and our other Guest Bloggers in the next couple of weeks!