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.

#PlaceNet13 Day 3 & Reflection

The morning after the night before! Following the festivities of Thursday evening, #PlaceNet13 rounded off with a few weary eyes and dare I say it, a sore head or two. That said, the AGM was well attended and all of the night owls who could be found drinking in the hotel lobby in the wee small hours made it on time.

Libby Beck received flowers as a small token of appreciation for her work as a PlaceNet trustee. With her standing down from the role the conference elected Mike Grey as the replacement, while Graham Kaye-Taylor was co-opted onto the executive committee. (Writing about me in the third person is a bit weird, but for the sake of reporting I thought a distinction should be made between me and 'The Placement Officer')

Emily Timson had the uneviable task of delivering a presentation on a Friday morning but gave a very interesting talk about her professional journey within placements, highlighting challenges experienced at different universities.

A discussion took place to decide upon areas of interest for PlaceNet to focus on in the coming year. Thanks were given to Jan and Virginia for their work in arranging the Social and booking the restaurant. Matthias Feist summarised his thoughts on the last three days before drawing the conference to a close.

Afterwards the Trustees met briefly to reflect on the week and get the ball rolling for #PlaceNet14.

On a personal level I found this conference to be extremely rewarding. Any fears I may have had about presenting my work in social media proved unfounded, as it was both well received and started a dialogue between me and other delegates who want to find out more about bringing technology into their provision. I even received an offer to go and talk to students at another university about using Twitter and LinkedIn as part of their placement search and for engaging with employers.

I had a lot of very positive feedback about the blog and there seemed a genuine interest in #PlacementChat from people who had not previously encountered it before. Receiving peer approval for my extra-curricular activities re-affirmed my passion for doing this and I may have convinced some guest bloggers to come forward and get involved.

My professional network expanded and there will be a fair amount of LinkedIn connecting going on over the next few days. The PlaceNet LinkedIn group is already a great resource for sharing good practice and if you are not already a member get yourself signed up and join the conversation.

I'd like to extend my thanks to the PlaceNet trustees for inviting me to the conference and giving me a platform share my passion for engaging through social media. I'm very much looking forward to working with you in the coming months.

#PlaceNet13 has been and gone. Roll on #PlaceNet14.

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• #PlaceNet13 Day 2
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#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.

Related articles

• #PlaceNet13 Day 3 & Reflection
• Blogging: A Tool for Engagement #PlaceNet13
• #Placenet13 Day 1
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A Penny for your Thoughts

Next week I will be heading to Bristol for the PlaceNet Conference, and will be leading a session on using blogging to connect with students and employers. My presumption is that I've been asked to present on this topic off the back of writing Tales from the Placement Office, and so I'm currently reflecting on what I see as the big positives of producing this blog over the last 18 months.

In that time the site has evolved and moved beyond just the musings of one person with an opinion on placements. There have been guest articles written by graduates, recruiters, current placement students and careers websites. The associated Twitter account has built a following in excess of 900 and judging by the regular interaction I get from my tweets they can't all be fraudulent or providing links to dodgy adult material. The birth of #PlacementChat and its development with help from my friends at RateMyPlacement has provided a mechanism for placement stakeholders to engage in meaningful dialogue with the aim of helping students with their search for placements, and in the case of the employers who participate, a new channel for identifying talent.

Ever keen to engage with my readership, I'm interested in receiving feedback on why you have read the blog, followed my tweets or participated in #PlacementChat

If you are a student, what is it that first brought you to this site? What articles have you found most helpful and are there any themes that I've not covered that you'd like to see on here in the future.

Employers and recruiters - what have been your perceptions of #PlacementChat? Are there ways in which we can collaborate to put out the message of your placement opportunities to the students and careers services who follow my blog, or share insights into what makes successful candidates at interviews/assessment centres?

Placement and careers staff, I've not forgotten about you! Thanks for sharing links to my articles with your students or for getting in touch to bounce around ideas. It would be good to hear from you about the things I do which you like, those which you are less keen on, or perhaps if you've borrowed any of my ideas!

Feedback can come in using the comments box below, emailing me or if you can keep it down to 140 characters you know where to find me on Twitter. It feels a bit like cheating by asking for help with my homework, but I'm genuinely interested to hear your perceptions of this blog and its associated activities, and your thoughts (anonymised of course) could well features in my presentation.

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• Employability - Fact and Fiction - Graham Kaye-Taylor

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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