Ice Ice Baby

Have you ever wondered what goes on in the The Placement Office during the summer time? It often makes me laugh when I'm told on the last day of exams 'enjoy your summer holiday' as if they believe we close for business the minute our students leave campus. As good as that sounds, there is a mortgage to pay and placements to be secured, so during June, July and August I've very much been here, plodding away with the job in much the same way as I do during term time.

This morning I was minding my own business, conducting a number of risk assessments, when my phone buzzed and the tweet I received rather caught my eye. You may have been aware of the #IceBucketChallenge that has been doing the rounds on social media in recent days. Essentially a gimmick to raise awareness of ALS, celebrities having been lining up to get themselves on tape being drowned - The Guardian have kindly pieced together 10 of the best (Love the Oprah effort!)

Anyway, this morning, I received this.

RMP's Ice Bucket Challenge in aid of ALS. We nominate .@milkroundonline and .@PlacementBlog. http://t.co/OX74MrgSbU pic.twitter.com/SdTgnwLK7I

— RateMyPlacement (@RateMyPlacement) August 20, 2014

To see the clip of RMP in action, click here 

Now never one to duck a challenge, or indeed someone who needs an excuse to cast aside joyful bureaucratic paperwork, I contrived a plan to get myself under an ice cold bucket. Firstly, I asked around The Placement Office to see if there were was anybody willing to help me out with the task. I was rather taken aback at how quickly my colleagues were lining up to soak me. Clearly I'm not as popular in these parts as I thought! Next, I had to overcome the logistical issue of only having the clothes I was wearing to hand. One short trip to the local Tesco later and I was adorned in some rather fetching £4 flamingo shorts

Properly tasteful and in no way look like boxers

All that was needed then was some ice, buckets and some willing volunteers to capture the moment for the world to see. Here you go!

To my friends at CareerPlayer, CareersBox and EC Futures , consider yourselves nominated.

Back to the day job then.................

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It's that most wonderful time of the year!

#PlaceNet14 beckons. Here is an article I've written for the PlaceNet website previewing the conference which is taking place this week in Leeds

Is it really that time of the year again already? It barely seems like 12 minutes since #PlaceNet13 drew to a close, let alone 12 months, but here we are on the eve of another conference. The Trustees have been working hard behind the scenes to piece together what we believe will be our best conference yet and I for one can't wait for Wednesday lunchtime to come around.

From where I sit, the placement industry appears to be in a period of change. While it is too early to generalise, 8 months into working with the first cohort of £9k sandwich placement students I can see anecdotal evidence of how the fee changes has impacted on at least some of my courses. Employability remains high on the agenda and I'm seeing more postgraduate courses offering mandatory or optional internships. With that in mind I'm particularly looking forward to hearing from Dr Lorna Warnock and Dr Hilary Jones regarding their study into producing competency frameworks for postgraduate internships. The session on International Placement Perspectives strikes a chord as my institution plans to expand overseas work experience opportunities for our students. As somebody with more than a passing interest in Social Media, I'm also excited to hear what the founder of Career Geek Blog has to say.

Away from the conference floor comes plenty of opportunity for networking. We've tapped into the local knowledge of our members to book Bibis restaurant. Our Thursday afternoon social remains wrapped in secrecy but I'm assured that this year it does not involve boats. We have also introduced 'Fresher's Drinks' which are loosely themed networking sessions. Wednesday evening I will be hosting (with sponsors RateMyPlacement) drinks for delegates 'New to the Profession', while Thursday night (sponsored by Cogent) offers the chance to network regarding 'Progression in Career'.

This will be my third PlaceNet conference and I expect a very different experience from previous events. In Liverpool I arrived as a relative unknown but received a warm welcome both from the Trustees and delegates. In Bristol last year I was given the platform to speak to the conference and participate in the Q&A panel session. This year, I'm very much part of the establishment and have a greater appreciation of all the hard work that goes into organising an event such as this.

Have a safe journey and my fellow Trustees and I look forward to welcoming you to Leeds.

Yo Adrian I Did It!

Ever wondered how you would react if you won an Oscar? Would you blub uncontrollably like Gwyneth Paltrow or launch into a political rant like Michael Moore? I recently had my day in the sun, collecting the award for Outstanding Contribution to Work Experience at the National Undergraduate Employability Awards and was rather relieved that there was no requirement for an immediate acceptance speech. If there had, I can only imagine it would have taken an alarming resemblance to the one delivered by a certain Mr R. Balboa

)

The keynote speaker at the NUEAwards was Sahar Hashemi, co-founder of Coffee Republic, who said a number of things that struck a cord with me. We often see the term 'Overnight Success' used to describe people or business that very suddenly come to public awareness. As Sahar pointed out, there is always a backstory to go with the success, and it may be that rather than achieve success in a very short space of time, there could be years of hard graft to reach that point. The speaker used the figure 15 years. As somebody whose first job after graduation was engraving trophies 13 years ago, this point felt pretty close to home when a few minutes later, she presented me with an award that had my own name engraved onto it.

Success comes in different sizes

Success isn't always measured in terms of winning. I attempted my first half marathon last weekend and while the fancy union jack flag medal was awarded for completing those 13.1 miles, the success in my mind is all the training and preparation that went into getting me fit to run the distance. All those miles run in wet and wintry conditions, plus years of weight management and dieting. Crossing the finish line only tells a very small part of the story.

My students are currently 6 months into their placement search. We formally started out on the journey last September in the introductory placement lectures, and a good number of them have since secured a role. For many others, the pursuit continues, having had a few setbacks along the way in the form of unsuccessful applications. I understand and sympathise with those who feel jaded and perhaps a little disillusioned at drawing a blank thus far, but things don't always happen quite as quickly as we would like. To get where we want to be, we have to learn from our mistakes or where things don't quite go according to plan. The inventor James Dyson built over 5000 prototypes before getting his vacuum cleaner right. I hope it wouldn't take my students this many applications or interviews to be offered a placement, but it is a valid comparison. If you've not previously gone through the rigour of applying for jobs, it can take time to become job savvy. The key is to ensure we learn from each experience, until we find the correct formula.

A key message I share with my students to keep them motivated is based on hard fact. In every year I've been doing this job, most of my students secure placements from March onwards, and I've no reason to think it will be any different for the class of 13/14. To borrow from the Rocky/Mo Farah school of cliches, we are only half way through this fight, and the finish line is not yet in sight. There is still plenty of time to get there, so any thoughts about giving up on placements should be cast aside.