Industrial Placement Student Review

I joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals as a Talent Management Placement Student and throughout the year, I developed an understanding of how the HR function operates within a Global business. I have been responsible for the creation and implementation of Talent Management processes on a global scale, and I have taken a data-focused and detail-orientated approach to broader areas of my work. A few projects I have been involved in include, managing our mentoring programme, implementing a new external programme for our global talent and data-handling projects involving excel work.

I was given huge amounts of responsibility during my placement such as managing our global mentoring programme, co-leading global projects and solely meeting and building connections with our external vendors.

I have developed an immense amount of skills since joining Vertex Pharmaceuticals. For example, I enhanced my stakeholder management skills when taking part in a cross-functional global project introducing a new external programme to our global talent. I have also had many opportunities to network at Vertex including through social hours on Thursdays and early-career specific social events. I have really built on my data-analysis skills by taking part in data-handling project which required me to learn excel formulas such as XLOOKUP and VLOOKUP.

I received an incredible amount of support and guidance throughout my placement year. For example, I had a mentor who provided me with career growth and development support and I had a buddy who supported me with everyday tasks. The early careers team also provided so much support through events and discussions.

Vertex's culture is all about being inclusive and embracing each individual. At Vertex we have many social events which encourages others to talk about their culture. All Vertexians are supportive, kind and understanding.

I enjoyed my placement year immensely. It has been an invaluable experience. This placement year has given me so many opportunities to grow, develop, network, collaborate and learn more about different functions within an organisation. I have been exposed to how senior leaders operate on a global scale and I have been able to apply key learnings and theories to practice. I am so grateful for this opportunity and I would recommend this placement programme to all students!

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