Hi all, for those who have stumbled across my blog, I’m Beth and I’ve recently finished a year in industry doing a marketing placement for a French automotive company.  Having documented my first and second-year university experiences on my blog in previous years, I thought I’d seize the opportunity to use this space on the internet to share my experience, tips and advice following placement.

In today's post, I want to focus first on how I secured my placement and how, if you have been successful with securing a placement, you can prepare yourself before you start.

Securing your Placement

Securing myself a placement was no easy feat. I had a systemised method to my placement application process which materialised itself in a google sheet with the list of the company names I wanted to apply for, the placement deadline and stage of the application process I was up to. I found myself using any free time I had available during first semester to look for placement opportunities and complete applications. To find placements, I'd suggest looking on sites such as Indeed, LinkedIn and to also see if your university has its own jobs board online as often there are exclusive opportunities.

If you are looking to apply for a placement, it is really important to keep your CV up to date throughout the application process. Make sure to keep a record of any relevant work experience you have throughout first and second year to aid you when completing your CV. I’d also suggest, if you don’t already, that you set up a LinkedIn account and set your social media accounts to private, first impressions count after all.

I worked with my faculties employability office to bring my CV and covering letter up to scratch and found this really helpful, so if you have the facility at your university, I’d highly recommend it. What was also great was that on my faculty’s employability website you could practise psychometric tests to assist you ahead of completing the real thing.

I truly believe securing a placement is a numbers game. Up to the point where I received my placement offer, I had completed 20 applications, had completed 2 video interviews, a 1:1 interview and an assessment centre before completing a phone interview, psychometric tests and assessment centre for the company that I’d secured my placement. Each of the interviews and assessment centres I completed were different, so it’s worth getting experience with answering interview questions prior. 

When it came to applying, I was fortunate enough that I had previous experience in the industry; I had worked for 2 years in my uni’s in-house agency and had done short placements at 2 local marketing and PR agencies. I believe this in itself is extremely valuable to your application if you are applying for a marketing role. I was also informed by one of the HR’s at a major airline (a role that I was shortlisted to the top 8 for) that, as a way to filter through their applicants, they simply discarded any applicants that had no prior experience - so that’s definitely something to consider getting if you want to complete a marketing placement.

Preparing for Placement

I finished my second year of uni at the end of May and I started my placement on the 2nd of July. In the month leading up to placement, I had two holidays arranged, had to hand back the keys for my second-year house and move into my third-year house, so it’s safe to safe there wasn’t much time for me to prepare for placement.

If you have the opportunity to, I would spend the weeks before your placement trying to get yourself in the habit of going to bed earlier and waking up early - you’re going to feel a lot more productive this way.

Something else to consider is the placements dress code. This wasn’t very well stipulated at my placement, however, I went and bought a couple of pairs of fitting work trousers that I could interchange with some smart blouses that I already owned. I didn’t want to invest in the completely wrong work wardrobe, so gave myself a couple of days to weigh up what everyone else wore day-to-day in the office and concluded that formal trousers with smart-casual shirts would be fine.

It’s also worth checking how you’re going to be getting into work. The weekend before I started placement, I did a couple of practice runs from my new third-year house to the office to try and judge how long the commute would be and become more familiar with the roads, or in Coventry’s case, the nightmare ring road. Although trying this outside of rush hour wasn’t an exact replication, it definitely reduced my nerves for my first day so is worth considering.

In the days before you start, take the opportunity to familiarise yourself again with the company and it's values and the industry in general so that you aren't completely overwhelmed on your first day.

Due to start your year in industry? Got any advice to share? Leave your comments below :) Also, look out for a blogpost on my daily routine whilst on placement very soon!