Welcome week for 1st year YIBs

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 1^st 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 1^st 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 2^nd 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 1^st year can really help with their success in securing a placement in your 2^nd year.  Do read the Preparation for Placement manual found on the Year in Business moodle page (1^st 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: