Pre Placement briefings have been running virtually
over the last few weeks and will continue until July 31st, our
deadline for Business and Management YIBs to secure a position for 2021/22.
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| Emir Tolanay – offering advice to students just starting on placement as he completes his year at SAP |
The students who have secured
placements so far have shown incredible persistence and resilience in such a
demanding year. They have placements at a range of companies including both
large multinationals and SMEs. These include Adobe, Ascot Wealth Management,
AWIN, Bentley, Certius, CVInsight,
Deloitte, Doddle, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, FDM, GSK, Hays, Honda, J&J, Kantar
Worldpanel, L’Oreal, Lockheed Martin,
MET Police, ,Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Pfizer, PwC, Rolls Royce, Sanctuary
Graduates, SAP, Siemens, VMWare, Vodafone, Volkswagen, Volvo. Most placements
are in the UK but we do have students starting on placements in Bulgaria,
Hungary and Spain.
We are pleased to hear that the
majority of students about to go out on placement have been advised that they
should either be working full time in the office or following a hybrid
approach, part in the office and part at home.
Current YIB placement students have been involved in the briefings, sharing their experience and top tips, including how to handle working from home and
how to get the most out of the placement. Advice included: reaching out for
every opportunity, not being afraid to ask questions, seeking out mentors and
experience in different departments, building networks with fellow placement
students, planning and being organised to manage the workload and communicating well. Guidance from former YIBs can be found in this
video: http://yibprofile.blogspot.com/2019/10/rhyib03-placement-advice-v2.html
.
The Year in Business students
were reminded of the benefits of the programme: They would have the:
>Chance to try out a Career path and determine if they want to do this long
term.
>Possibility of securing a graduate job offer or being fast tracked through
recruitment.
>Opportunity to gain valuable experience on their CVs – highly valued by
graduate employers.
>Development of increased focus and time management skills – can lead to
better Final year results
>Increased personal development which builds self confidence.
The Placement Officer shared
an outline of expectations of the Placement Provider, the student and the
University during the Placement year along with a pre preparation placement
checklist, all of which can be found on the YIB Moodle page. We talked about
the importance of resilience in the workplace and students were encouraged to
develop certain behaviours and attitudes when starting their placement:
Adopt a positive
mindset
Be open to continually learning – think of
obstacles as stepping stones to develop your own career
Identify goals – this will help put short term
difficulties into perspective and help one move forward.
Network – make connections with others to learn
from them and gain support during periods of difficulty or uncertainty.
We discussed different scenarios a student may encounter on placement, be it
too much work or not enough work or having to handle challenging colleagues or
difficult relationships with their manager. The YIBs shared their views about the
different scenarios and invariably the importance of open communication was
highlighted. We talked about keeping the lines of communication open with
Managers, understanding how feedback will be given and being receptive to such
feedback and to presenting solutions to situations and not just problems.
YIBs were also reminded that the Year in Business team at the University are
also there for them during their year: they can contact MN-YIB for a MS teams’
call. During the course of the year they will also have a placement visit/ MS
teams’ call with their manager and be invited to 2 University Call Back
afternoons.
The Workshop concluded by
reminding students that while starting a placement can be nerve wracking, it
will also be a fun and unique experience. It provides the chance to make useful
contacts and gain invaluable skills/ experience helping with applications for
graduate positions.
Students were reminded of what former YIBs have said:
Priya Subramaniam is currently doing a Marketing placement with L’Oreal.
Priya says that hers was “a year not to be missed. Whilst the university course educates on the theory, the YIB
shines a light on all things practical: you learn the soft skills to get things
done; relationship building; how to balance priorities; when and how to say No;
how to set boundaries; the stuff a year at university will not teach you. Fair
to say that a graduate who has been through a YIB, is the better candidate – an
ideal candidate even – perhaps the complete package for the discerning
employer.” http://yearinbusiness.blogspot.com/2021/04/a-year-not-to-be-missed-priyanka.html
Final year YIB Inesa Soghoyan who did an Account
Manager Placement with Awin, the Affiliate marketing company in 2019/20 and is
now returning to a graduate role with them.
She talks about “Year
in Business is a good way to start your career instead of waiting until you
graduate and how it builds confidence” Inesa says that she has already learnt
so much and is looking forward to being able to put all she has learnt into a
dissertation or other project when back at University for her final year. http://yibprofile.blogspot.com/2020/02/inesa-awin-global-account-management.html
COO and was offered a graduate position of Chief of Staff . Andrea said ” I think Year in Business is the best thing
you can do at University for 3 reasons:
It gives you
business awareness and understanding
It can help you
secure a Graduate job if you give your best during your placement year
It helps you to
grow as a person – after 6 months in SAP I am a completely different person:
I’ve gained confidence & I’ve learnt more about the business”
