We're All In This Together

When I wrote my last blog article in 2016 I hadn't planned to park this site. It just kind of happened that way. My youngest was barely a month old, I was trying to impress the powers that be while acting up with a colleague on maternity leave, and I'd stood down as Trustee for PlaceNet in lieu of increased professional and personal responsibility.

In the intervening years, I haven't really felt compelled to write. The eagle eyed amongst you who have followed my Twitter account over the years, will have seen a cryptic pinned message, which followed an incident with the thought police, who considered my social media presence at odds with my employer. Talk about taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

But here I am in April 2020 and for the first time in years I'm writing. And what strange times we find ourselves in. It is bizarre to think that as recently as two weeks ago the schools were still open, placements were still being advertised in good number, and the lockdown had yet to be implemented. Two weeks. Seems like an awful lot longer don't you think?

Like you, I've been going through a period of adjustment. Working from home full time completely at odds with the norm in which WFH was largely frowned upon within my team. Appointments fully switched online/telephone, losing that daily face to face interaction with my colleagues and that unexpected meeting when someone you weren't expecting walks into the office needing my help. Office phone calls diverted to mobile via Jabber. Departmental meetings over Teams. Zoom meetings and webinars. It is only a matter of time before I'll be asked to do Compliance training via Houseparty.

Within the first three hours of homeschooling my kids, I came to realise that failing to get offered a PGCE Primary place in 2002 was the single best thing to ever happen to my career. I'm not a teacher, I don't have the patience or inclination to make exaggerated phonics noises for the letter N. But we are at the end of week 2, and come through relatively unscathed, balancing the demands of the day job with trying to maintain a relatively structured school day for three primary age kids in different key stages. Joe Wicks is a national hero. The world is on its head.

What has struck me most over the past fortnight is the power of community. I've never been the most sociable person in my department. In fact, during an ill-thought through team development session, my personality was publicly shamed as one of the most introverted in a department of 40 people. Big thumbs up to whoever thought that idea was a good way to bring people together.

But after well over a decade of going to the same office five days a week, it is a very strange experience moving to remote working. True I don't have put up with office politics, gossip and the endless supply of birthday cakes in the kitchen, but the loss of community is stark. Sure, you can check in with emails, messages, the occasional phone call, but it is a very different experience from a career of conventional office structure.

It was with great pleasure then that I took up the opportunity to join the ASET Regional Hub South East meeting yesterday morning. I've not been to a physical meeting with them before, in part due to scheduling conflict with school runs, in part due to my previous association with PlaceNet and not wanting to cross the fence. The silliness of tribalism! But as I logged into Zoom yesterday morning, for the first time in two weeks, aside from a few moments of clapping in doorways on a Thursday evening, I felt a tremendous sense of community.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our South East Regional Hub today. Great to see you all and hear how our members are responding to the current situation. Tomorrow, over to the Midlands! #ASETGoesOnline #ASETTopTips pic.twitter.com/A4Ilb8tClT

— ASET (@ASETOnline) April 2, 2020

We had 75 industry colleagues joining together to bring a sense of normality to the prevailing madness. Shared issues of adjusting to remote working, concerns about dwindling placement opportunities, how to assist our students currently facing furlough or dismissal, not to mention juggling work with children. I couldn't help but raise a smile watching other attendees have their kids appear in shot every once in a while or try to gatecrash the meeting.

While the meeting progressed I listened in as attentively as I could, while managing Maths and English classes for my boys, catheterising and even managing a game or two of Uno. There is a myth than men can't multitask, but I'd like to think that I'm going some way to destroy it.

What I took away from the meeting was a feeling of pride. That despite the immediate difficulties we face individually, collectively and within student recruitment as a whole, we are a resolute bunch who have seen economic downturn before and come through the other side, who will run through walls to help our students to make the best of a bad situation.

We don't know what the full effect of this global pandemic will be, but I can say with certainty that placement professionals will tackle this issue head on, doing their absolute best for their students.

I was so proud of my industry colleagues. I am proud to be a Placement Adviser. We are all in this together and we will prevail.

I Don't Like Spam!

Spam, Eggs, Spam, Spam, Bacon and Spam. Sound appetising? If not, you probably aren't going to want to eat in the Monty Python cafe, as bit like the 'lady' in this very famous sketch.



Why do I bring this up, other than to make myself giggle and try to justify a way of publishing the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch at a later date? Well, here is some food for thought.

Despite advancement in the sophistication of email systems in recent years, spam filters are not perfect. Quite recently I found my invitation to the National Undergraduate Employability Awards tucked away in my spam folder. I'd like to think that this was purely down to a glitch in the system, rather than my employers doubting that such an invitation was genuine! However, that combined with something which happened this morning made me think about spam and how students need to be particularly vigilant in ensuring that their applications do not get lost in the ether.

I wrote some time ago about the importance of sending placement applications from a sensible sounding email address. If you're firing off your CV to the IBM's of this world from account similar to supersexysusan@live.co.uk I wouldn't be optimistic about getting a response any time soon. However, what if you've used a more sensible account, slaved over your application documents which have been given a green light by your placement officer and yet still you find yourself waiting for a reply that may never come. It is regrettable that not every employer will acknowledge your application, but there could be another reason for the silence.

When sending emails with attached documents, most spam systems will scan those attachments, viewing them as a threat. A simple word document of PDF file should clear this without difficulty, but what if in the course of saving that document, you made a simple typing error. What if instead of saving your application as Susan Lab.doc it instead became Susan.Lab.Doc? This is exactly what one of my students did this morning. The additional dot instantly made an otherwise ordinary Word Document into an attachment which the spam filter identified as a malicious threat due to it believing the file was being disguised as something else. I didn't get the email or the attachment, but fortunately my Computing Support team alerted me to this email and I was able to retrieve it. Had the application been sent directly to an employer, I very much doubt the email would ever have seen the light of day again, and the student would not have been considered for that placement.

So when making your applications, always be meticulous in your attention to detail. You'll already be aware of the need for correct spelling and grammar, but always having taken the time to piece together an application, don't let your hard work go to waste on account of the name of your attachments.

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Don't waste your time, or mine

2014 has come around and it is no surprise to me that the Placement Office is busier than it was in the weeks immediately prior to Christmas. Whether it is a new year resolution to be more active in a search for a placement, or the penny has dropped that ideally they would like to be starting work in a matter of months, students who have gone AWOL since signing up in the early autumn have been coming out of the woodwork and wanting my help.

I don't mind this at all. It would be preferable to have been working with these students during the autumn so they could have applied for a number of roles already, but better now than the summer when opportunities will be in shorter supply. But when several months have already been lost in a search for a placement year, it is important for students to take heed of advice and act upon it without delay.

Something that is a huge frustration for me and fellow Placement Officers is when a student doesn't take our suggestions on board. I'm not big headed enough to think that everything I say is gospel, or that I have mastered the science behind writing applications. But I've been in this game long enough to offer sound advice and when I see things on a CV that require improvement, a student should take note.

Most do just that, but there are always a few who don't. Today was a case in point. Having sent detailed feedback to a student, which included some thoughts in the body of the email and tracked changes with comments in the word document, I received back a revised version and was asked if I could cast my eye over it again before applications were made. I was happy to do so and pleased that the ideas I put over in the email had been taken on board. However, on closer inspection, the changes I had tracked remained in their original form and had not been amended.

I don't pick holes in a CV just for the sake of it. No Placement Officer does. If we see something that needs attention before it reaches an employer we will tell you. We do this to give you a better chance of being invited for an interview, not to make your life more difficult. One of the things I pointed out in this particular example was it didn't look good to claim to have a good eye for detail on one line, while spelling Excel with 2 Ls on the line below. When this hasn't been corrected in a 'revised' version, please don't be surprised to find me lying on the Placement Office floor waiting for an ambulance to whisk me off for treatment for a violent case of banging my head against a wall.

The Great Placement Race

At the weekend I did something that I had not done before in my life. With a number on my vest and a timing chip on my shoe, I lined up to run a 10km race. In the holding area before the starting gun was fired, you could hear a number of different conversations; some looking to record personal bests, others just hoping to last the course. As I stood there taking it all in, the best bit of advice I heard was to ignore what everybody else is doing and just concentrate on running your own race.

This was something I tried to take on board and in many ways offers a good analogy for where most of you are now at the start line in a search for a placement. Summer 2014 seems like a long way off, a bit like the finish line before the race starts, and while every student starts from the same point (effectively now), not everybody will reach the end at the same time. With that in mind I've identified 5 distinct 'runners' who make up the field in The Great Placement Race

The Pacesetters

There will always be those who surge ahead and get to the finish line first. In athletics this can come down to natural physical prowess or dedicated training regime, while in job hunting it may be an excellent academic record or prior internship experience that helps them to run away from the rest of the field. They will probably have already got applications made and in some cases have interviews or assessment centres lined up. In the next month or so when many students are still finding their feet with a placement search, they will hear about Pacesetters who have already secured a job. Don't let their success discourage you as there is still plenty of time to get to the finish line.

Steady Runners

These are the students who get on with the task at hand, make their applications, see their placement officer and will get their reward in a due course. As with my 10k at the weekend, this is the largest chunk of the field. They have seen the speed merchants running ahead, but rather than chase their shadows have gone about their business in a pragmatic manner. There will be obstacles to overcome during the race, but with a bit of determination these will be overcome.

Grafters

In any race, the people I have the most admiration for are the grafters, determined to reach the finish line no matter how long it takes. At the weekend there were people completing the course more than an hour after the first finishers, but refused to be denied their moment. I see lots of students like this during each placement cycle. Rather than let unsuccessful applications get them down, they come back fighting and through sheer will power and self-motivation keep going until they cross that finish line.

DNF

Of course while the Pacesetters, Steady Runners and Grafters all get to the end, there are also those who Did Not Finish. Looking for a placement is a demanding discipline requiring time and commitment, and while nobody intentionally wants to be in this category, inevitably not everybody who starts the placement race will cross the finish line to secure a placement. Maybe it was a more difficult challenge than was anticipated at the start, or perhaps there just isn't the never give up mentality of the Grafters. Either way, lots of students who make applications in the next few months will hit an obstacle, and rather than pick themselves up to keep going, will let their placement search end prematurely.

DNS

Then of course we have the Did Not Start group. More than one thousand runners registered for my 10k, yet only 800 or so began the race. The same thing happens with placements up and down the land. Some students will register to do a placement, either when applying through UCAS or at the start of their second year, and then fail to show. No applications. Non-attendance at placement lectures. Don't reply to invitations to meet with their Placement Officer. In many ways these are the most frustrating group, as they remain an untapped source of talent and there isn't a Careers or Placement service that doesn't try to reach out to this disengaged group. The fact is though, they do exist. If you're reading this article, it probably means you don't fit into this category, but I'm sure you know a few people in your class who do. Be a friend, and give them a nudge about placements.

So there we have it. 5 distinct groups, each with a different approach to completing (or non-participation) in The Great Placement Race. There isn't a one size fits all method for being successful with your search, but do take on board the advice I received while waiting in the start area - run your own race. Don't be led by the crowd, find your own way and keep going to the end.

The starter gun has fired. Good luck to you for the journey ahead.

For those with curious minds, I finished in a respectable 56 minutes 38 seconds and together with colleagues have raised over £900 for the Lynda Jackson Macmillan Centre. www.justgiving.com/teampcc

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The Placement Seeker's Bible

If you're about to embark on a search for a placement or internship starting in summer 2014, you may be wondering where on earth to start looking for information about companies that offer student opportunities. Fortunately those nice people at RateMyPlacement have published their guide to the Top Undergraduate Employers for 2013-14 in which they list the Top 75 companies based upon the reviews of students who have worked at these organisations. They've even thrown in sections for Small and Medium Sized Employers to boot.

There will be physical copies of these guides available at universities in the very near future, but if you can't wait to get your teeth into the publication, you can access an electronic version below.

Happy placement hunting!

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Who's that calling you?

Your CV is a tool with which you present yourself to potential employers. It seems a little crazy that we have to cram our working history and educational achievements into a 2 page document, but that is just how it is. Personal details. Education. Work Experience. Interests. References. Put them altogether, spellcheck, press the send button and wait to see what happens next.

I've written before about the importance of have a professional sounding email address on your CV as you don't want to miss out on opportunities just because you've got something a little eccentric. It is after all one way that an employer is likely to contact you to follow up on your application, so you do need to ensure your email address is fit for purpose and an account you check regularly.

But what about that other mode of communication that we all type on our CV? That 11 digit mobile phone number is there for employers to tap into their handset and call you, often without warning. We put it on our CV without a second thought but are we actually ready for the consequences of our actions? If an employer rings you completely out of the blue, are you ready to take that call?

I'm often disappointed with the phone etiquette that I encounter when I'm contacting my students. When I answer a call I would never say 'Who Is This?' or 'What?' and yet those are greetings I regularly receive. Now, it may well be that they have my number stored on their phone and therefore know that it is the Placement Office calling rather than somebody more important, but I do worry that this may be how they answer all calls.

Picture this if you will. You've applied for a placement. Your CV boasts of excellent communications skills. You have customer service experience which is great because this job involves a lot of client interaction and so you will need to talk in a clear and coherent manner over the telephone. A recruiter likes the look of your CV, wants to invite you for an interview to discuss things further and goes to dial your number. It rings and the recruiter is waiting in anticipation to speak to the person who may very well end up working alongside them. The call is answered, and the voice at the end of the line, the excellent communicator, mutters 'What?'

In one syllable, you've probably just blown your chance.

Making a great first impression is so important when job hunting. It isn't just how well your application form is written. It isn't just your previous work experience. It isn't just how well you scrub up for an interview. It isn't just how you communicate with employers. It is all of the above, demonstrating professionalism in everything you do.

The next time your phone rings with an unknown number, even if you are convinced it is yet another person trying to talk you into making a PPI claim, take that call and treat it with the utmost professionalism from the moment you answer. It could make all the difference.

Good things come to those who wait

A few months ago I wrote an article imploring students to not give up on placements. It was mid-April, exams were coming up on the horizon and understandably focus was on revision rather than application forms. The message of that article was succinct - it's not too late to get a placement, and it is something that I've been repeating on Twitter ever since.

I can understand the mindset of a student, who after months of trying and getting nowhere is prepared to throw in the towel and turn their back on placements. But if I could bottle resilience and sell it, I'd be considerably richer than I am now. During the months of May, June and July, I've had 77 of my students secure placements. That is during months where some people will have thought it too late to get a placement and not bothered to look for one. I don't want to say I told you so but..... well, you know what comes next!

During July alone which is a month when you may expect the well to run dry, more than 30 of my students have secured placements. From interactions with colleagues in other universities, it is a similar picture. July has been a busy month with lots of successes to report. It is the healthiest I've seen the placement market since the Lehman Brothers fallout in 2008 and with what are potentially green shoots of recovery in the economy, there is reason to be optimistic that next year will be even better.

The message for students preparing to embark on their second year at university, combined with searching for a placement, is be ready to play the long game. Many of my students who have secured their placement in recent days have been going hard at it since last autumn and are finally getting the fruit of their endeavour. How we react to setbacks and disappointments is important. You can fall at the first hurdle and give up, or you can learn from the experience and clear it at the next time of asking. Good things can indeed come to those who wait.

Resilience, determination, bloody-mindness. They aren't necessarily the competencies you are asked to expand upon when applying for placements, but they are qualities that many of my students have exhibited in abundance in their search for work experience. It is great to see so many of them now being rewarded for going the distance.

One sentence says it all

Yesterday afternoon I was paid a visit by one of my students who had just completed their placement year. He had literally come from his last morning at work, armed with the leaving presents his colleagues had clubbed together to buy him as a thank you for the last 12 months of service. I asked him how the experience had been an in one sentence summed up everything I think prospective placement students need to know about work experience.

'I learnt more in my placement year than I did in the two years of my course.'

It is the sort of headline that newspaper sub-editors or marketing bods could spend hours trying to formulate. Very simple, direct and powerful. It is a message I'll be quoting many times in the future.

A rewarding experience?

With employability high on the agenda at pretty much every university across the country, it is no surprise that there is a degree of out of the box thinking taking place. 'How can we improve our student's employability?' is the question that everybody wants to find a solution. Employers, well the AGR most publicly, make the case for work experience, talking about how competitive the graduate market is. The High Fliers report concurs pointing out 'graduates who have had no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful during the selection process and have little or no chance of receiving a job offer for their organisations’ graduate programmes'.

I'm not somebody who needs convincing. I work with placements day in day out and know just how much value they add to a student when leaving academia. I wouldn't write this blog or actively promote placements through #PlacementChat with Rate My Placement if I thought I was flogging a dead parrot. The vast majority of the students I have helped to secure a placement over the last few years would agree it was not only a great choice to have made, but also provided a boost to their early career prospects compared to their peers who did not take a placement year.

But what about Careers and Placement services themselves? I'm not going to pretend that everything in my domain is perfect. Personnel should always be looking to improve themselves and resources should meet the changing needs of our clients in the modern era. I'm on one side of the digital divide, I know many brilliant people who are on the other. Tweeting and blogging ultimately doesn't bring home the bacon, it is the results that count and in my business we tend to be judged on the numbers. Are more students getting placements? How many are getting into 'big' companies? etc

It was with considerable personal interest that I read Professor Zahir Irani's comments in Guardian newsletter yesterday, under the section Guardian Higher Education Network.To stave off threats from the private sector, Irani suggests 'Career centres should start thinking and acting more like recruitment companies with dedicated consultants, motivated and, indeed, rewarded for placing students and graduates into jobs.'

Reward for placing students into jobs? That is certainly an interesting proposition. I currently earn a fixed salary, without bonus or incentive. Would my mentality change if my income became partially performance-related? Rather than trying to help all students to secure placements, would I turn my focus specifically upon those who I know have a greater chance of success? Maybe I would offer less support for roles at companies where I know there is little possibility of pushing up the numbers. Why for example would I agree to sit down with a student with a poorly composed application for one of the big 4 professional service companies, when my time could be more lucratively spent with a straight As student applying to a company who genuinely wants to hire from my university? Certainly an interesting ethical dilemma. 

Putting the moral maze aside for one second, let's focus on the reality of placement and careers services. Even with the employability agenda, lots of services are under resourced. Throughout HE, there has been a tightening of budgets and Careers services have not been immune from this. Just because employability has been flavour of the month in recent times, it doesn't necessarily follow that the pursestrings have been loosened to hire more staff and expertise to help make these ambitions a reality. More likely, an increased burden of responsibility has been placed upon consultants and placement officers to deliver the goods, without the reward and incentive that Professor Irani mentions. You only have to scroll through the vacancy pages on jobs.ac.uk these days to see that job security in HE is not what it was. You might find a role that you like but the chances are it will be on a fixed term contract. Short term fixes rather than long term planning.

Then there is the issue of governance within an organisation. From talking to colleagues at the PlaceNet conference, there were many who have found their jobs at risk. Some have had to re-apply for their jobs. Others have had their jobs re-evaluated. During such process, it is not likely to see a role scaled upwards. I myself have been operating under a cloud of uncertainty since the fabled word Restructuring was introduced at my university in recent months. I've had a hand in 123 students (and counting) securing placements during this academic year, yet my 'motivation' and 'reward' has not been financial incentive; it has been to not know (and still don't) if I or my role will have a place within the new structure. 

Interesting times afoot then. Hard work and endeavour don't always bring reward, as many students know only too well as the slog through placement application after placement application. The concept of incentive and reward creates a juxtaposition for staff performing their duties with an axe hovering above. Does that make for a rewarding experience? I guess only time will tell.

Update - full article from Prof. Irani now published on the Guardian website

Started a placement this week? Spread the word

July is here and up an down the country hundreds of students are coming to the end of the first week of their placement. Although a number of those on my courses got things under way in June, the start of July has seen a lot more placements commence. If you are one of those people reaching the end of a long first week on the job, well done, you've nearly made it and can turn that alarm clock off this weekend before enjoying what appears to be a glorious sunny couple of days.

Spare a thought though for your friends and classmates who have not been hard at work this week. I'm talking about the people from your course who haven't managed to secure a placement for one reason or another. Maybe they've not had the rub of the green and missed out on roles. Maybe they didn't really think about doing a placement for whatever reason. Maybe they applied for a few roles, were unsuccessful but then gave up. Now, having thought about them, why not get in touch, and give them a few words of motivation. Tell them about the first week of your placement. Give them an idea of what you've already been exposed to. This isn't a case of rubbing your success in their faces; it is a question of inspiration and helping them to get with the programme.

Yes it is July, and yes lots of jobs are already filled, but if your friends believe that it is too late to get a placement, I beg to disagree. In the first 4 days of July, as many students on my courses have secured a placement as managed in the whole of July 2012. We're talking about double digits here, not just one or two. And with plenty more interviews in the pipeline and a number of employers contacting me this week with fresh opportunities, I'm expecting numbers to increase further still.

So when you enjoy a beer or glass of wine this week to toast the end of your first week of placement, be a good friend and tell your mates all about it. It's not over for them yet, and a friendly bit of peer motivation may be just what they need to resurrect their placement search.

#PlaceNet13 Day 2

Day 2 of the conference picked up from where the previous day finished off. A packed agenda full of interesting speakers, sparking ideas and debate. Picking up the early shift was Mike Grey talking about the Employability Advisory Panel he has set up for EC Futures at Coventry University. It was good to hear how he has got employers on board, with some going beyond the call of duty by going along to open days to encourage applicants to engage with placements at an early stage.

Lewis Coakley from the NUS delivered a presentation full of wit, quotations and thought provoking material. 40 minutes simply wasn't enough for him to ponder if education is delivering employability but what he did manage to cram in blew the minds of the audience and led to wider debate later in the day.

Following Lewis was going to be a difficult task and one I was pleased not to be charged with. However Gemma Hunter and Alex Elkins pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat and ran a session that for me was the highlight of the conference. Focusing on change and how we approach it, the session broke off into smaller groups to use our innovation and creativity to think about selling hats in an Apprentice-esque activity. Pimp My Cap will be taking the fashion market by storm in the near future!

The afternoon Q&A session incorporated a live twitter chat, taking questions from the wider placement community as well as from the gathered delegation. The panel featured Lewis Coakley, Katerina Rudiger from CIPD, representatives from Bodyshop and I was there for good measure too. The topics covered ranged from unpaid internships to questioning if recruitment is working. It was a valuable experience and one I was pleased to participate in, even if I'm more used to answering questions via Twitter rather than face to face with an audience.

The PlaceNet social took to the local waterway, incorporating a tour of the Bristol harbour area. Our guide pointed out local landmarks while his assistant kept our glasses filled from the well stocked bar. The evening festivities moved onto the Glassboat restaurant for a fantastic meal while the networking continued long into the night.

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#PlaceNet13

Coming up fast on the radar in the placement world is the annual PlaceNet conference. Taking place in Bristol from 15-17 May, #PlaceNet13 provides the platform for placement professionals to share good practice, debate the issues affecting our industry and pick up ideas on how to better the service we provide to students in their search for industry based work experience. Throw in the networking and social aspects of the conference and this is an event that should not be missed.

Having attended the conference in 2012 (read my review here) I'm pleased to be going back again this year for a second instalment. The schedule is already starting to take shape with speakers from a range of backgrounds include graduate recruitment, the NUS, placement officers and somebody who had the daft idea to spend their spare time writing a placement blog.

With confirmed attendees from universities across England and Wales, it promises to be another fantastic conference. You can find out more details about #PlaceNet13 on the PlaceNet website and if you are on LinkedIn be sure to join the group Placenet - Placements In Industry Network

I hope to see you in Bristol in a few weeks time.

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So much for the ten year plan, I just want to get drunk and headbang

I was asked recently if I wanted to write a guest blog article for the University of Kent Employability blog - little did they know that I am Kent alumnus! Here is the article in which I consider what I would tell the teenage me who rolled up in Canterbury many moons ago

You’ve probably heard lots about Employability. It has been a buzzword around universities for the last few years, used in the context of helping students to be both ready for work and desirable to graduate employers. There’s a huge range of ways in which your careers service can support your employability these days, and if it is anything like where I work, there will be dedicated workshops, focussed employability weeks, the chance to participate in an employability award and various other activities. In other words, it’s in your face and the opportunity is readily available for you to engage, should you wish to do so.

When I started out at UKC some 15 years ago, I was not very career-minded. As a placement professional, I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that the Twitter dialogue which led to this article being written was the first meaningful exchange I’ve had with the University of Kent Careers team. I didn’t seek out their help when looking for part-time jobs or graduate roles. Back then I didn’t know that placements existed. I spent most of my days keeping the Rutherford bar staff employed rather than participate in the sort of opportunities attending university offers to students. If there was a stereotypical undergraduate who could have done with careers advice, I was that person.

So if I could rewind the clock to talk with the 18 year old me, what would I be saying?

Well firstly I’d be telling me to wise up. University is serious business and not to be taken lightly. With tuition fees now so much higher than they were in my day, there is little point in applying if you aren’t going to take your studies seriously. Even if your first year doesn’t count towards your final degree, discount it at your peril as it will count with graduate and placement employers. That 40 per cent pass mark achieved through minimal effort will not look good if you have aspirations for securing graduate jobs. Start as you mean to carry on, knuckle down and have some good grades to be moving on with.

Next, be strategic when picking your clubs and societies.

With all due respect to the UKC Rock Soc who I enjoyed both membership and committee involvement with in my time, in hindsight there are other things I could have done with my time that would have enhanced my CV and experiences beyond bar crawls and the occasional trip to rock clubs in London. Involvement with RAG, CSR (Radio Station) and taking up the offer to play Offensive Lineman for the American Football team I would have both enjoyed and provided plenty of material for writing future applications. (Before I get an influx of messages from Kent metallers, I’d have still joined the Rock Soc!)

Without doubt if I knew then what I know now, a placement would have been high up on my agenda.

I make a living now out of promoting placements and work experience to my students, but it really isn’t a very difficult sell. Paid industry experience, increased graduate prospects, higher starting salary. Never mind the fact that most graduate employers will expect you to hold a certain amount of work experience. Placements are invaluable. I wish I had done one when I was a student and I can’t encourage UKC students enough to pursue internships or placements. If you haven’t already spoken to the Careers team, don’t delay in doing so!

Use social media to get ahead

While the class of 2013 undoubtedly face a more competitive graduate market than the one my peers and I had over a decade ago, one area that you do have in your favour compared to the old school is the emergence of social media. Through effective use of LinkedIn you have the opportunity to network with recruiters in a way that my class could only have dreamed of. Savvy students can engage in meaningful dialogue with companies through #PlacementChat or keep up to date with the placement schemes of individual organisations by following their Facebook page.

So in a nutshell, take advantage of the opportunities that university presents to you, speak regularly to the Careers team throughout your time at UKC and prioritise securing a placement. You will not regret it.

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Seriously, pay your interns

internship (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

The best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and bees, I want money

It is almost 50 years since The Beatles recorded Money (That's What I Want). Fast forward to 2013 and it is a song that is very much in my thoughts with regards to the practice of unpaid internships. I received a placement advert last week that demonstrated in very clear terminology everything that is wrong with current legislation regarding sandwich placements. Placements undertaken as part of a university course are exempt from National Minimum Wage, meaning that employers don't have to pay their interns. 

I'm pleased to say that the vast majority of the employers my students spend their placement year with do offer salaries. For those who don't, I offer very little support in terms of promoting their opportunities and shunt their adverts into a separate online folder clearly branded UNPAID PLACEMENTS. Personally I would prefer not to advertise these roles at all but given that they are not illegal, and in some instances, the industries my students want to work in offer no paid alternative, I duly upload these roles through gritted teeth. 

For the most part, the companies offering these roles are charities or start-up companies looking for a bit of extra man-power. While I still think they should be paying employees for their work, I can recognise that resources may be stretched for these organisations. An extension of the SME Apprenticeship Grant for SME placement providers would be a welcome step forward to help these companies hire and recruit placement students into paid roles. 

Where I get angry is when much larger companies who should be offering paid placements decide that they need not bother and go down the unpaid route. The job description I received last week falls very much into that category and frankly has left me feeling more than a little disgusted. And here is why. The job title does me a favour by marking up in big capital letters that this role in unpaid

Job Title - Marketing Administrator - UNPAID INTERNSHIP

However, just a couple of sentences down, the advertising company proudly boast that they are part of a larger plc which is a FTSE 100 company and has a £2 Billion turnover. So, to type that out, in a financial year their turnover is £2,000,000,000. Lots of zeroes don't you think? Surely within that, they can cobble together enough pennies to offer a student employee a reasonable placement salary, circa £14k? This role may be exempt from National Minimum Wage, but seriously. Pay your interns. 

It could be a really fantastic role, a doorway into a successful career and no doubt the student who takes up the opportunity will benefit (non-financially). However, when a company that clearly has the resources to offer paid placements but decides that their interns can do without, my moral compass tells me to steer clear. I won't be advertising this placement. My students, and students in general, deserve better than this.

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• Is It Really Simple To Ban Unpaid Internships?

A Year Out, Is Worth Two On Your CV

Here is a guest article from Sam Popham-Holloway, a recruiter who writes the excellent GoodGradGuide - make sure you take the time to read his blog and follow Sam on Twitter via @GoodGradGuide

A Year Out, Is Worth Two On Your CV

Add value to you and your CV with a year away from university

Graduates are always told they don’t have enough work experience. Many leave interviews or find their inbox filling with messages akin to “sorry, you just don’t have enough experience compared to the other candidates...” It can become demoralising. It is often not the amount of experience; but the relevant, professional and therefore credible work experience that eludes many graduate CV’s.

Most students can rustle up some cashier work at the nearby supermarket or bar work at the local pub, but how do you accrue experience that sets you apart from your peers and makes employers want to hire you? The Internet is littered with forums of frustrated students/graduates posing what has become the million-dollar question for any ambitious undergraduate; how do I gain credible work experience?

I am keen to pose an often overlooked way of gaining significant work experience, whilst remaining in the safe arms of student life. Have you heard of A Year In Industry? It’s what your really motivated friend probably rambles on about whilst you try to decide just which drinking game is best for that evening. It is something I never considered, because I never knew about the opportunity and Beer Pong was simply too big a distraction. However, I missed a trick and in my job I see many others who would have really benefited from a year’s worth of experience.

A Year In Industry does exactly what it says on the tin. It gives you a year (or typically 8-10 months away from university) in a career of your choice. Most wisely pick an industry/job that relates to their course and future career aspirations. Many students studying languages are often required or opt to spend a Year Aboard, in what is a very similar scheme. This sees them either working, studying at a university or teaching aboard, with the obvious aim to put their language skills to the test and immerse themselves in a foreign culture.

Both options extend your degree by a year, yet, compared to your peers, a year in the workplace or the sunshine gives you a fantastic opportunity to build up an unparalleled level of commercial experience or improve your language skills. When you graduate you already have the best part of a year of work experience and its not going to be in the local supermarket or watering hole.

The list of advantages of postponing your graduation by a year is longer than you think. Spend your year out impressing the socks off your manager and once graduated there is a good chance you will be asked back to join the firm as a proper, full time employee. I have seen it happen. As graduation approaches and the inevitable job search starts, you can sit back rest assured that you are already sorted in what can be one of the most stressful times in your life.

Should they not ask you back, you still have a solid year's experience and normally a handful of great dinner party stories to boot! Only the best graduates will able to compete with you in the work experience stakes, but they never had time to play Ring of Fire. Moreover, your year away from university should further your personal development, particularly if you spend it abroad, polishing your language skills, experiencing new cultures and learning a few life lessons. It can have a positive impact on more than just your CV.

These are just the most notable benefits of opting to spend a year away from university. The Placement Officer is the ideal point of contact to help you find your placement. In this especially tough graduate market, a Year in Industry could prove priceless when it comes to finding a great graduate job! Take a closer look!

By Sam Popham-Holloway from http://goodgradguide.blogspot.co.uk/ Check it out for chat about articles about graduates and job hunting!

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Guest Post - Preparation overkill

My guest blogger returns with this little story about the dangers of over-preparing for an assessment centre. Just because you think you know it all, doesn't give you a green light for success......

Knowledge is power, use that power carefully..

Picture the scene; you have just been invited to the assessment centre for your dream job and so
you start searching Google, high and low for anything that you can find to prepare you for the day.
Aha, you seem to have struck gold, you find a WikiJobs post detailing everything that happens on
the day, including the questions that will be asked and details of all of the assessment tasks. You pat
yourself on the back, for your most excellent research skills!

You read this information religiously, analysing all of the answers on the WikiJobs post, building
a picture in your head of how the assessment centre will be. You feel confident, memorising your
responses to the questions that you know will be coming up. After all, the post on WikiJobs is
detailed and the original poster has confirmed that they have been successful at this very same
assessment centre.

The day of the assessment centre arrives and it is going well, in fact it is just as you read online; a
couple of individual tasks and a group task. In the group task you know the answer before even
reading the brief and so you recite what you have been practising to the group. Other members of
the group don’t seem to understand, but you push on regardless as clearly you know the correct
answer. You feel good, leading the group, finishing the task early, you must have impressed the
assessors. You feel your preparation has paid off, all the revising and reciting, you know you have
given all the correct answers.

A couple of days later you receive a phone call from the company to let you know that you have
unfortunately been unsuccessful at the assessment centre.

What went wrong here? This is a worrying trend that I have been hearing about recently where
candidates have over prepared, so much so that they have blinded themselves to the reality of an
assessment centre or interview, often they have no idea what went wrong. In the scenario above,
even though the candidate correctly completed all of the tasks at the assessment centre, they
committed the gravest sin of them all; they failed to demonstrate their key competencies.

Because this person was so sure they knew what was coming up they didn't listen to what they were actually asked to do on the day. E.g. in the group task, all focus was on going for the right answer. The recruiters weren't necessarily looking for this; they wanted to see how you work together with the group to achieve a shared goal.

Preparation is vital to achieve success in interviews or assessment centres. Just be careful not to take your eye off the ball and allow your eagerness to impress cause you to miss the point of the task.

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• Getting to Grips with Group Exercises
• Guest Post - Cracking Careers Fairs

Happy birthday to me

Birthday Cake (Photo credit: Will Clayton)

It is the 30th January and a quick flick through the article history of this site tells me that Tales from the Placement Office is one year old today. This time last year when I started typing enthusiastically away, I didn't know if I'd still be going in 2013 but I'm pleased to be here and still going strong.

The cyclical nature of my job means that I've turned a full circle. What I wrote in the first article a year ago is very much where I am today. Business is starting to pick up in a big way and undoubtedly it is time to get busy. Three of my students secured placements yesterday, many more have interviews in the coming days and weeks and all the stress and sweat put into the Autumn term will now start to bear fruit as the number of students with placements secured builds steadily. I'm anticipating it will be a good year and certainly hope that proves to be the case.

Having reached this milestone, I'm giving quite a lot of thought towards the future direction of this blog. I've built up a nice little audience and have no intention of deserting you, but I am very conscious that I don't want the content to become repetitive. While there will be topics that merit new articles, there is only so much that can be written about documenting your experience or creating a good first impression without starting to sound like a broken record.

Some of the most popular articles over the last year have featured external content, such as the video for How to kill your career in 140 characters, the RateMyPlacement Top Employers Guide and the article about Careers Fairs written by my Guest Blogger. I'd like to think I'm in tune with my audience and if there is wider interest in the blog posts that aren't exclusively my witterings, I'm happy to give you what you want.

I'm therefore looking for other people to get involved to help keep this site content rich. You may be a student currently looking for a placement and want to share your experience of the process to date. You could be someone coming to the end of your placement and want to tell the world about why it has been such a worthwhile experience. Maybe you're an employer wanting to reach out to students and placement officers about your fantastic placement and internship opportunities. I'd also love to hear from other Placement Officers about the innovative ways in which they are helping their students to secure work experience.

If you feel like you want to contribute to the site or want to get in touch to discuss things further. I'm looking forward to hearing from you and seeing what collectively we can bring to this site over the next 12 months.

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• And the award goes to.........