6 October 2023

How I Found my Dream Placement Using RateMyPlacement.co.uk

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It’s not easy to find the perfect placement. However, there are steps you can take to help the process feel a little less like searching for a Horcrux.

Don’t just take it from us. Maria, a student currently studying at the University of Exeter, wrote to us about how she used RateMyPlacement.co.uk to find her dream placement and wanted to share some tips with all of you.

Read on to find out how she did it…



Hey, I’m Maria and I’m in my second year at the University of Exeter studying BSc Mathematics with Management.

I recently accepted an offer to join A+E Networks UK as an Analytics + Insights Research Intern for my placement year starting this July, and I wanted to share my experience of searching and finding a placement, as well as a couple of tips I have learnt along the way.

It can be very tempting to jump straight into looking for a placement on a company’s website or a job board. I am guilty of it! However, reflecting on my journey looking for a placement, I would recommend taking a step back first.


Reflect on what you look for in a placement

Take the time to think about…

  • What industry interests you
  • What role you think you would enjoy the most
  • What type of company you would like to do your placement at

These are key questions that can lead to the best-suited placement for you.

For me personally, I had three clear requirements…

  • My placement had to be in the entertainment industry. My interest in this field grew ever since I work-shadowed the team in charge of organising a well-known music festival in Madrid. I was on top of the latest news in the music business, subscription streaming services, television, film production, you name it!
  • I knew I wanted to work and live in London. For me, London has always been aspirational, a land of opportunity. It pulls huge economic weight globally and, in my eyes, it (still) is one of the most culturally diverse and powerful cities in the European continent.
  • My third and final requirement was the role I would be taking on – it had to be related to my course and my interests. So naturally, I wrote down Business Analytics. I had taken a similar module in my first semester at university and really enjoyed it!

Looking for placements online – RateMyPlacement’s features

Once you’ve reflected on what kind of role you want, you can dive straight into opportunities posted on job boards, using the filter tool in RateMyPlacement. Yes, there are other websites you can use like LinkedIn and even other social media platforms.

How did RateMyPlacement help?

I found RateMyPlacement to be the most efficient in my hunt for a placement. The personal dashboard recommended roles based on ones I had liked or interacted with before.

This was extremely useful, and just after a few days of actively engaging with the website, I was receiving recommendations of 30+ suitable roles based on my profile and filters.

In fact, it was like this that I found my placement at A+E Networks UK, a company I wouldn’t have necessarily considered straight away when thinking about where to do my placement.



After some research, I found A+E Networks checked all the boxes.

  • A multinational broadcasting company owning several entertainment-based television brands (including the History Channel)
  • With an open placement position in Analytics and Insights
  • Based in Hammersmith, London

Despite the overall application process for placements being very time-consuming, making sure you are being intentional with your time and efforts would be my number one tip for those looking to secure a placement.


If you’re unsure what exactly you want in a placement, I would recommend speaking with previous placement students who are studying a similar course. Or working in a company that interests you to hear about their experiences.

RateMyPlacement also has thousands of reviews on undergraduate work experience, written for and by students.