The reasons I wanted to do an industrial placement year were:
- To make me more employable after graduating
- It gives me a break from studying (well I thought that)
- I can earn money and save towards my future
After months of trying to get a placement, I managed to get one by Christmas of 2018, to start in the summer of 2019, and I was extremely excited. You can read about my placement search journey in my previous post.
My reasons for getting a placement were very valid, but one thing I didn’t consider was that I could go back to that company as a graduate.
Throughout my placement, I took advantage of everything I could in terms of getting a feel for the company. I’d recommend searching for those opportunities to do extra during the placement. It shows initiative and drive, which is something a lot of companies look for in employees. Also, the experience looks awesome on your CV.
Due to the way my degree was laid-out, I had to do my master’s dissertation during my placement. However, I had to hunt for that by myself during my placement. If your degree expects something from your placement, then you NEED to tell the company during your interview, because as long as the company does work which is relevant to your degree, they WILL find a place for you. I wasn’t aware of that when I applied, and where I ended up being for my main placement, couldn’t give me anything towards my degree. That was my fault. So, I went and found an opportunity within the company to achieve my degree.
That year was one of the most difficult that I have lived through. I was balancing uni work, my dissertation, a job and my health. It was insanely difficult. Then the pandemic hit, but by then, most of the stress had a calmed down.
As placement students and potential future employees, the company monitored us throughout the year. There was an assessment centre to help us identify our weaknesses in our employability, and we had to work on those throughout the placement year. We had regular checkpoints with our managers to see how we were progressing. And at the end, we literally had an interview to showcase that we worked on those weaknesses. But these are normal things for companies to do on placement students, because 2 months after that interview, I got my conditional graduate job offer. And I accepted it. A survey done on companies (GM21) showed that 34 % of the graduate intake (in 2021) were previous placement students (both summer and full year) who accepted the graduate role straight after their placement finished in 2020. More than half of all these placement students were offered graduate roles, from their placement companies.
Don’t get me wrong, my placement year was hard, but because I did it, I had less pressure on my last year. I didn’t need to go through the job-hunting process. I didn’t need to balance uni work with job applications. I didn’t go through a single recruitment process that year, all because of my placement. I used that time to prepare myself for adulting life, and to make up for the past 3 years where I worked my butt off to be in that position.
Moral of my story:
- Take advantage of your placement- Use your placement year to give yourself a job offer at the end
- Put in that grind- It’s hard work, but by the end of the year its worth it
- Fact #1- More than half of placement students in most industries are offered a graduate role after their placement
- Fact #2- Just over a third of them, chose to accept their offers
- Placements are very beneficial- as long as you disclose all information for your degree
- You can get paid!-check if it pays, most do
