How do you find the right placement or internship?
Placements and internships are a great way for employers to find new recruits and increase the level of skills within their industry, so it’s no surprise that the number of opportunities offered to students is on the rise. However, despite the wealth of opportunities many students can still struggle to find the right placement – a situation which is made more all the worse in competitive industries such as law or the media. So where should you start looking to find the perfect placement?
Your University Careers Service Or Placement Office
The placement officer at your university careers service will be the best person to help you find any relevant and interesting opportunities that you can apply for. Careers services have a wealth of experience and information that can help you research different roles and they will often organise events where you can meet employers and hear them talk about the placement schemes that they run. Careers services will often also organise the recruitment fairs where again you can get great information about the internships and placements recruiters offer.
On top of this, careers services will have a number of exclusive vacancies that you can search and many operate a service where you can register your details and the service will email you with any appropriate vacancies. It’s essential to make an appointment early in the term to discuss your options as the services and placement officers can get very busy.
Your University Department
Many departments that offer sandwich degrees will often have a placement officer whose job is to develop relationships with employers and arrange for them to take their students on. Even if your department doesn’t have a placement officer, they will still have a list of contacts for companies within the industry that you can pursue.
Again, it’s better to speak to your department as early as possible to give yourself the best chance of finding the right placement or internship for you. Your course handbook or website will have more information on the process for applying for placements (including vital deadline dates and any regulations you have to adhere to if you’re looking for your own placement) and you should make sure you read these before you do anything else.
Vacancy Websites
There are several websites, including RateMyPlacement, that offer students the chance to browse the opportunities that various employers offer. As well as RateMyPlacement there are other more specialised websites which can help, such as Intern Options (www.internoptions.com), looking at internships on offer to UK students in Australia and New Zealand and IST Plus (www.istplus.com) offers a broader list of destinations.
Speculative Applications
It could be that you’re interested in working for a company who don’t advertise their placements and internships, or that you would like to work in an industry where the competition means you have to create your own opportunities. In this instance you may have to make a speculative application and be ready to convince an employer about why they would benefit from having you in their business. If this is the case there are a few golden rules to follow:
- The first step is to find the right sort of companies to apply to. Speak to your department for any advice they have about where to start. You could also speak to organisations like the local Chamber of Commerce (www.britishchambers.org.uk), or your local Business Link (www.businesslink.gov.uk) to find relevant companies who work in the area and industry you’d like to target.
- Work out how you could use your skills in their business and what it could bring to the company.
- Target this information in an email or letter at either the owner of the company or the HR department and clearly explain who you are, what you are looking for and how a placement could be mutually beneficial.
- Make sure that your CV clearly explains what your skills are and how your experiences make you a good fit for the business you are applying to.
One student who had success with speculative applications was Felix Brann, who wanted to work in the computer games industry, something which he couldn’t find through any of the university placements. “If I’d just wanted a normal placement then my university would have helped me out a lot. So I’d certainly say don’t dismiss the help that your university can give. It’s when you want work experience that goes beyond the places they can offer you that you have to start doing things off your own back and looking at speculative applications.”
For Brann, the key to a successful speculative application was to target the information he gave in his initial approach to a company. “My email was really, really tailored to the games industry. For example, when I gave programming experience it was graphic programming experience and even my team-working experience was centred on the games industry. If you do have an area that you specifically want to work in then don’t just write a general application, really work on it. Don’t just have a blanket application that you send out for each job. I spent a lot of time on my application and after about 30 emails I got about four responses and was lucky to get a placement with one of them, so it can happen!”
Should You Look For The Right Job Or The Right Company?
You might be absolutely adamant that you want to work in marketing when you graduate, but don’t get side-tracked into thinking that you have to land the perfect job in the perfect company. “In my opinion it’s more important to focus on the job function and what types of things you’ll be doing as a placement, rather than who you are working for,” says Donna Miller from Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
“Some students may say I’m going to work for Company X, which may be a thrilling high-profile employer but you may be working in the mailroom. But if you go for a different type of employer or even a really small company you may get to do some really interesting things and see some different opportunities than you would get in a high-profile company.”
