Pre Placement briefings - July 2021

Pre Placement briefings have been running virtually over the last few weeks and will continue until July 31^st, our deadline for Business and Management YIBs to secure a position for 2021/22.

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

Andrea Totaro did his placement year at SAP working in the office of the 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"

 

 Some of our YIBs doing placement this year: