When I was applying for universities, one thing I was looking for in a course was ‘Placement’. I wanted to go to a uni that encouraged me to take a placement, why? Because all my teachers in A-levels were scaring me about the ‘decline in value of a degree’. How employers didn’t care that you just had a degree, but you also needed experience.
So, when it came to the point in time when my course leaders started encouraging me to look for a placement (which heads up if you do a STEM degree, could be as early as 5 months into your first academic year), I went on the internet typed in ‘placement for chemistry students’ and started looking at companies I might enjoy working for, and the application process began at the beginning of my second year.
If anyone has every tried applying for a job, we all know it can be quite difficult to make it to the interview stage, let alone being offered the role. I went into this process, fully aware that its difficult, but nobody told me it was BRUTAL! Some well recognised bodies had application forms that took days to fill out, all just for those companies to tell you “Our closing date is X, if you don’t hear from us by this date, then please assume that you have not made it through the selection process.” Then you wait, hoping even praying, sometimes, that maybe, you might just be lucky. And you know what? Sometimes you are, but this wasn’t one of those times.
I’ll admit, in hindsight I made one very big mistake that I feel could have got me the placement that I wanted: I didn’t take advantage of the university employment team. They are a god send, and they come included in the package of being a student at a university. The first thing the woman said to me when I asked her what I was doing wrong was:
“Apply for other roles first, before applying for the role you really want. Then you get practise on most of the selection processes, and you’re comfortable when you reach it for a role that you really want.”
Why didn’t I think of that?- Duh!
By then I had already been rejected by somewhere I really wanted to go, but I wasn’t discouraged to stop trying; I just decided to take each application as it was, and see how far I got, because regardless of where I went, it was still going to be work experience; and THAT will benefit me more than just not doing one at all (especially with how things turned out in the future).
So, with their help I managed to get a placement. It was from a company in an industry that I’d never thought of, and I didn’t search for it, they came to me, at one of the many University Job fairs held throughout the academic year. The company’s application closing date was 4 days after I met their representative, but no later than 2 weeks after applying I was offered a telephone interview, which led to an in-person interview and just before Christmas I had scored the role.
Now don’t get me wrong, in between applying for that company, I sent another 3-4 applications to other companies, and 2 of them got back to me. So, at one point I had 3 interviews for 3 reasonably big companies in their respective fields, and that was thanks to the coaching and advice from the employability team. It was wild. However, I didn’t make it far with the other 2 roles, but it didn’t matter as by then, I was days away from receiving my offer.
Morals of my story:
- Don’t give up– Just because one company didn’t choose you, doesn’t mean they all will.
- Look further afield– This placement gives you a trail of that industry, don’t worry if you never considered in the first place, by the end of the year you will know whether you would consider that industry in the future or not, and that puts you in a better position.
- Apply for other roles first, before applying for the role you really want– Need I say anything else?
- Take advantage of the services your uni offers– As much as they want the money for your degree, they still want you to get a job after it, so just check what services they have to help.
- Believe in yourself– If you can’t convince yourself, how are you going to convince them?
