Our Welcome week induction for Royal Holloway Year
in Business students was virtual this year, but no less interactive than in
previous years. Yet again we were joined by former YIB students, keen to share
their top tips and insights with the students just starting their University
journey. A massive thank you to all these students just back from placement for
giving up their time: Michael (just completed his placement year at SAP),
Nikita (placement at Superdrug), Harry (placement at Mercedes-Benz) and also to
Dania who has just started her placement at The National Physics Laboratory and
talked about how her active involvement with the Enactus society helped her
secure her placement position. Michael Andehn, the new Academic Director and
Katharine Radford/ Karen Lensink from the Placement Place office also joined
the session.
All 1st year YIBs were given the
opportunity to watch a recording with key information about the programme. This
also included some really inspiring videos from former YIBs:
Why I recommend a placement year http://yibprofile.blogspot.com/2019/09/rhyb04reco.html
The best thing about my placement http://yibprofile.blogspot.com/2019/11/rhyib05-best-thing-v2.html
Top tips for 1st year YIBs.http://yibprofile.blogspot.com/2019/11/rhyib01-yr1-advice-v2.html
We talked about the many benefits of undertaking a
placement year, from increased confidence levels to enhanced employability
prospects and potential for higher grades.
We quoted some former YIBs including Andrea Totaro who did a placement
year at SAP and as a result was offered a full time position as Chief of Staff.
While on placement 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 was a completely different person: I gained confidence and I learnt
more about the business “
YIBs were reminded that the responsibility
for choosing and securing a placement lay entirely with themselves but that
they would be offered help and support at every stage by the Placements’ Place
team and Careers. Students were given 4 key areas to focus on during
their 1st year:
1. Attend all lectures/workshops and work
hard to get good grades 2.1 year average required
for ALL YIB students to progress to 2nd year Good
attendance record required in your Lectures/ Workshops.
2. Engage in a lot of co-curricular
activities (eg sports, societies) AND gain work experience (paid part
time, volunteering, insight week or virtual internship) These will help
you develop skills such as team work, leadership, priority setting,
problem solving to demonstrate in your placement applications.
- Get actively involved in societies; https://www.su.rhul.ac.uk/societies/a-z/#
- Virtual part time jobs fair taking place THIS week
https://intranet.royalholloway.ac.uk/students/jobs-careers/events/part-time-jobs-fair.aspx - Virtual internships: https://www.theforage.com/
- Volunteering: https://intranet.royalholloway.ac.uk/students/campus-life/volunteering/royal-holloway-volunteering.aspx
3.Set up a Linkedin profile. Start
networking with Companies at Careers events and previous YIBs
which will help you develop connections to help in your placement search.
https://intranet.royalholloway.ac.uk/students/jobs-careers/apply/linkedin.aspx
4 Take advantage of the massive
programme of events organised by the Careers’ and Employability service to
help you get a better understanding of the area you would like to undertake
your placement, to develop your skills and start building contacts.https://intranet.royalholloway.ac.uk/students/jobs-careers/events/go-to-a-careers-event.aspx
Previous YIBs have let us know that what students
do in their 1st year can really help with their success in
securing a placement in your 2nd year. Do read the
Preparation for Placement manual found on the Year in Business moodle page (1st years)
and check out the student profiles on the Year in Business blog to get a better
idea of appealing roles/ placement companies http://yearinbusiness.blogspot.com/
We will be running further YIB workshops next term, but in the meantime know
1st year YIBs will be busy focusing on the 4 areas above. Any questions can be directed to Katharine or Karen in the Placement
Place office – contact viaMN-YIB@rhul.ac.uk .
Thank you to YIBs for sharing their experiences:
