Timesare challenging. Office based Year in Business students out on placement are now
working from home. The University has moved teaching and 1:1 Career
consultations online using MS teams. Students can access a wealth of material from the
Careers and Employability moodle page as well as company led
employability webinars (as featured on the Careers’ event portal) Technology allows
us to be connected and to carry on. While some companies are no longer offering placements in 2020/21, there are still a number seeking placement students and using online recruitment processes. YIBs continue to receive the weekly vacancy bulletin and have been
encouraged to keep applying.
We were delighted to hear this week of YIB Stephen
Morse securing a Cloud Business placement with VMWare.
YIBs
out on placement are also keen to encourage 2nd years in their
placement search, particularly during these difficult COVID-19 times and will
be available for a number of Q&A sessions via MS teams. Karen Lensink from
the Placement Place office has initiated these with the first 2 sessions taking
place this week:
April 30th : 1.30 – 2.30pm and
May 1st : 1.30 – 2.30pm.
we talk to former YIBs, whether at the Call Back afternoon at the University or
during the placement visits at their workplaces, we are delighted to hear of
the progress they are making and their positive comments about undertaking a
placement year. Likewise it is so heartening when former YIBs contact us to let
us know how much of a difference the Year in Business made to their Career
prospects. We do hope these positive words are encouraging to 2nd
year YIBs at this time.
One of
our YIBs who did a placement year at SAP last year working
in the office of the COO was given a Graduate job of Chief of Staff with the
company. No wonder Andreas says that “Year
in Business is the best thing you can do at University” For Andrea the
placement allowed him to gain business awareness and understanding, to secure a
Graduate job and to grow as a person”
Another former YIB Niall Casson graduated with a First Class degree
from Royal Holloway last summer and let us know about the Graduate position he
has secured in the City as a Junior Marketing manager with Root Capital. Niall
did his placement year with SME Lemonade Reward and is very clear that it was
the placement which helped him secure his Graduate position.
Niall says:
“My placement year at Lemonade was
fundamental in building a career after graduation, the experience and
responsibility throughout the year was invaluable in securing my current role.
The YIB program allowed my employer to focus on the quality of my experience
rather than using age and years in service as a gauge on ability and skillset.
A quality placement year can really set you up for a successful career and I
couldn’t recommend it highly enough.”
Current Year in Business students have produced video profiles
which give a flavour of the roles they are undertaking.
Inesa is doing an Account Manager placement with Awin, theAffiliate Marketing network which delivers marketing solutions for advertisers,
agencies and publishers around the world. In her video she talks about loving
the company culture which is young, supportive, dynamic and positive. She talks
of how the “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
Saniya is doing a Sales placement with Atos IT Services, the
multinational information technology service and consulting company. In the video, Saniya talks about loving her client facing role, her involvement
in bid management, talking to the customer and the opportunities for travel. She advises students making
applications to think about creating their own personal brand so that they can
differentiate their applications from those of others competing for the same
role. http://yibprofile.blogspot.com/2020/02/saniya-atos-sales.html
More student videos, packed full of advice and insights into
different company placements, can be found on the Year in Business blog. We
hope you enjoy listening to the students.
http://yibprofile.blogspot.com/2019/11/rhyib02-yr2-advice-v3.html
http://yibprofile.blogspot.com/
Read more about the benefits of doing a placement year in this
artlcle: http://yearinbusiness.blogspot.com/2019/04/students-promote-year-in-business.html
For 2nd year YIBs do remember that there is still
considerable time to secure a placement (deadline is not until July 31st)
and support is available from Katharine and Karen in the Placement Place office
