Ben Challis' Project management placement at CooperVision

A placement year in Project management? I know this isn't for everyone and it is not the status quo but my placement year in project management has been an exceptional experience which I would highly recommend to anyone looking to become a project manager or develop their organisation and time management skills. 

After having my interest in project management sparked during modules in second year, I decided this was an area that, although I was initially unfamiliar with, I wanted to explore further. Fast forward almost two year and I have just completed my Global commercial PMO (Project Management Office) placement year at CooperVision. So let me take you through what this role involves: 

Managing project 

Yes, it doesn't take a genius to work out a placement in project management involves... Managing projects but what does this actually mean? 

 During my year I worked on a variety of projects with varying scale and scope, but all involved the implementation of IT systems to help our seller become more effective at selling contact lenses. Working on multiple different projects enabled me to experience every stage of the project Lifecyle and how each project manager is flexible to make adjustment in order to remain within the budget and time restraints. 

Working in a global team 

Due to the global nature of CooperVision this placement provided me with the opportunity to work with colleagues from every corner of the world. This enlightened me to different ways of working and best practise I would have otherwise never thought of. I have made connects across the globe and look forward to seeing where these may take me in the future. 

 Other areas of involvement 

Although my primary role was as a project manager an area CooperVision excel at is getting their interns involved in all areas of the business. 

For me this included: 

• Getting involved with the Pride ERG (Employee resource group) - A highlight being marching at Southampton pride. 

• Taking part in an intern project where we conducted a full review of the current fertility treatment policy.

 • An active involvement in the organisation and planning of team building days. 

• Organisation of charity week where our team ran carnival style games. 

As I hope I have been able to get across I believe a placement year in project management is an excellent option which can lead to a fulfilling career. I also cannot speak more highly of my experience working at CooperVision so even if project management isn't for you each year CooperVision hire lots of interns in all different areas of the business their options are worth exploring. 

 If anyone reading this has any questions about CooperVision or placement years in project management, please feel free to connect and message me on LinkedIn and I would be more than happy to help.

Placement openings at VMWare

VMWare has been in touch to remind us of the range of placement positions they are looking to fill.
The Company provides cloud computing and platform virtualization software and services with Dell technologies being a majority share holder. One of Royal Holloway's  Management students, Militsa Tutekova, is currently undertaking a placement with VMWare, based in nearby Staines.
Previous YIB Jordan Maxwell also did a placement for the company as a Sales and Business Development Intern at the company and wrote a very insightful blog article for us about his placement :http://yearinbusiness.blogspot.com/…/a-year-in-business-at-…

Current placement vacancies include Cloud business intern, EMEA Marketing, Sales and Marketing operations, Strategic Alliances, Advisory Services. Details can be found on the Company website.

Royal Holloway Alumnus Edward Hutchinson specifically wanted to draw our attention to the Project Manager position https://lnkd.in/eH85DBE and current placement student 
Alexandra Moylan- Jones shares some more details about the role:

“The project management internship at VMware is a really unique opportunity, not only do you get to work in a fast-paced, global organisation, but your input into the business has real monetary worth. The work you do actually matters in the overall scheme of the business, you will not be pushing papers but working with real customers on real projects that you own entirely. In the day-to-day of the role you are responsible for managing a databased used by the whole of the professional services organisation, running your own small projects and liaising with customers; with no two projects or customers the same, its safe to say your day job is rarely repetitive. My experience this year has been extremely positive, I have learned invaluable lessons and found a career I absolutely love, even if project management isn’t something you have been looking into, I urge you to consider this role, as it will likely exceed all expectations you have about the profession.

In addition to the role, VMware as a company really care about your personal development, for both your time with the company and for your future. During your time here you will have the chance to take part in both internal and external training, including the nationally recognised project management qualification – PRINCE2 - a certification that will set you apart from all other candidates in future roles, even if you decide project management isn’t for you.” – Alexandra Moylan-Jones

 Pictures of previous YIB Jordan on placement at VMWare.

Mae's Project Management placement at NetApp

Mae Wang is studying BSc Management with International Business (Year in Business) at Royal Holloway and is currently doing at 12 month placement as a Project Manager at NetApp. In this guest blog Mae talks about the Project Management role and her tips for YIB students.

Project Management Internship at NetApp, Inc.

Just coming into my third month at NetApp as a Project Manager Intern, first, let me say that it is not what I had initially thought of. – In a good way. 

When I first started looking for placements, like many others, I was looking for HR/Marketing positions. When this role was advertised by NetApp, only 30 applicants applied. Compared to the 200+ applications for their Marketing roles. I debated whether to apply for this role as the title ‘Associate Project Manager' sounded like a big responsibility and I also didn't know that much about project management itself. However, after the various interviews, it was clear that the hiring managers were more interested in my transferable skills and willingness to learn new things than ‘what I knew about project management' (although it would help, massively).  

For those who have not heard of NetApp before, NetApp is an American multinational storage and data management company. It has ranked in the Fortune 500 since 2012 and is listed on NASDAQ with a revenue of $5.54 billion (2016). I am based in the Uxbridge office and the atmosphere is quite relaxed, everyone is very friendly – you could literally walk up to anyone and start a conversation.

I am the only intern in the Professional Services department and my team consists of 10 very experienced Project Managers. Due to my predecessor working remotely, my handover period was relatively short and the first few weeks felt like I was thrown into the deep end. But it helped me to learn at a quick pace, to be pro-active and I felt empowered to discover processes through trial and error. It also allowed me to build a network with different people in the office. (I also bugged other PMs 24/7, following them around and asking a thousand questions.)

 

My line manager is extremely supportive and encouraging. Instead of making me do coffee rounds he has put me on multimillion-dollar projects. The main project I’m working on is for a High Street Bank, assisting the Global Programme Manager with the delivery the project in four countries (US, Mexico, UK and Hong Kong). I am responsible for managing and tracking project milestones, monitoring actual expenditure against budgeted, completing project key performance indicators (RADIO Log) to list a few.  Did I mention I use Excel daily? – not something I anticipated but I have grown to appreciate their beauty!

Overall, the role of a Project Manager is intense and requires a high level of time management and organisational skills but at the same time, you will also learn very quickly and gain a lot of key transferable skills with the opportunity to build a long list of credible contacts both internally and externally. NetApp has been fantastic in terms of developing their interns, they are currently funding my Prince2 qualification for professional Project Managers.

My tips for the current YIB students who are looking for placements are to be bold in your choices, apply for roles that are not heard of, even if you don’t have the knowledge or experience it could open new doors to you. 

P.S. Take additional training in Excel!!!! You will thank me later!

Louis Alecu's placement at Vauxhall

Louis Alecu is studying BSc Management with International Business (Year in Business) at Royal Holloway. As part of his 4 year degree he is working for a year at Vauxhall in Luton as a European Supply Chain Analyst (Materials Management).

In this video he gives advice to other Year in Business students and talks about his placement position at Vauxhall.