Rate My Placement

Yesterday, Ali and I attended the semi-finals of the 2008 HSBC Unipreneur Awards, and here’s how the day went….

It was an early start for the both of us - suited and booted, we took on the rush hour commute to HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf. Armed with a selection of our promotional material, a laptop and all the RateMyPlacement chat you could ever want to hear, we got ourselves set up and awaited the judges arrival at 10am.

The judging panel consisted of (in the order we met them):

• Jamie Murray Wells, founder of Glasses Direct.
• Professor Robert Blackburn, Director, Small Business Research Centre, Kingston University.
• Jenny Little, Enterprise Editor of the Financial Mail on Sunday.
• Huw Morgan, Head of Business Banking at HSBC
• Dr. Lorna Collins, Director of Flying Start.
• Emma Crosby, presenter on Sky News.

The next two and a half hours were spent chatting with the judges about the website and our business. We were quizzed on our progress to date and plans for the future. All of the judges seemed genuinely interested and asked some great questions, and Ali and I were exhausted but buzzing come 12.30 when the judging ended.

Next up was a few photographs, a chance to chat to some of the other semi-finalists and a very corporate looking lunch, which as you’d expect, we took full advantage of!

I think Ali would agree when I say it was a great morning and excellent experience for us both, and one we both thoroughly enjoyed. We’ll find out in the next two to three weeks if we’ve progressed through to the Final and be in with a chance of picking up the £20,000 prize, so fingers crossed!

Click here to view photos from the day.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated!

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I’ve been struggling to think of a way to link this in with work placements or internships, but what the hell - COME ON YOU SPURS!

One member of the RateMyPlacement team enjoyed a particularly good day on Sunday celebrating the mighty Spurs’ Carling Cup victory at Wembley!

Congratulatory comments are welcome!

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This was a comment that a colleague of mine said to me today that I thought was particularly relevant to users of RateMyPlacement. We were having a discussion over a number of articles that have appeared in the press over the last few months regarding employers using social networking websites to check out potential recruits.

 I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s got a few photos on Facebook that they probably wouldn’t want their employer to see! You know the ones, those nights in the Union that you can’t really remember, and there’s always a camera knocking about!

According to recent research, 20% of employers have used social networking websites such as Facebook to run searches on potential employees, whilst 68% have used search engines to check on candidates. If you haven’t done it recently, try ‘Googling’ yourself and check what comes up, because there’s a high chance your potential work placement employer will be doing exactly that! As my colleague said, it’s important to manage your own ‘online brand’ and ensure there’s nothing online that you wouldn’t want your boss or colleagues to see!

So, next time you’re tagged in a photo or video - just remember who may be able to see it, particularly if you’re in the process of applying for work placements - you never know who might be checking you out!

As always, we’d love to hear your comments and opinions on this, and if anyone has ever actually missed out on an employment opportunity because of something ‘incriminating’ online - let us know the story!

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After recently beating off competition from hundreds of entrants to reach the Top 20 of the HSBC Unipreneurs Awards 2008 - we have just been informed that WE HAVE REACHED THE SEMI-FINALS!

We’re down to the final 10 entrants, and we now have to attend a judging day being held at HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf next Tuesday! The judges will have a difficult task on their hands as they have to select 5 finalists to go through to the grand final, which is held at BAFTA on April 23rd. The winner takes home £20,000 to put towards their business, so fingers crossed for RateMyPlacement!!

Be sure to check back and we’ll keep you updated on our progress…..

Click here to read about the Semi-final judging session, and here for photos of the event.

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I read an interesting article in Marketing Week today - entitled "Social Media for the masses". It refers to the "Recommendation Generation" - which students or recent graduates very much fall into - 80% aged between 18 and 24 years old,  over 11 million of us active ’social networkers’ and the majority educated.  Whilst the article is aimed at consumer purchasing trends, I feel that it is very relevant to RateMyPlacement.

RateMyPlacement encapsulates the concept of the "Recommendation Generation" - the article states that 66% of social networkers are influenced by a referral from a friend or online acquaintance (think Amazon or TripAdvisor). When we first began talking about the concept of RateMyPlacement, social networks were in their relative infancy (ah the days before Facebook!), however it is becoming increasingly apparent that students are hungry for information and peer-to-peer communication.

For a student’s graduate prospects, it is becoming increasingly important that they make the right choice when applying for a placement, and we hope that RateMyPlacement is becoming an increasingly useful tool in the search for information.

So, your thoughts and opinions on this article are welcome. Do you think the "Recommendation Generation" and social networking is going to continue to grow; and in terms of work placement/internship employment, do you think that peer-to-peer communication and review websites such as RateMyPlacement are set to play an increasingly important role?

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Our latest poll has been running for over a week now, and the results are in.

When asked what is the best thing about a work placement:

• 62% of students voted for ‘real’ work experience
• 33% voted for the money
• ….and the academic 4% voted for helping your final year studies!

It is clear that there are many, many positive aspects of going on a work placement or internship, however it does appear clear that work experience is the number one benefit. (Although the money is nice!)

In today’s increasingly competitive graduate environment, it is vital that students are able to make their CV’s stand out from the crowd, and a work placement or internship is the perfect way to do this.

To any graduate readers of this Blog, we’d love to hear your comments on using your work placement or internship experiences to secure a graduate position. To those students looking to embark on a placement, what aspects are you most looking forward to?

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