СÀ¶ÊÓƵ

If you have been following along on my journey, you will know that I have been on a year placement for the past 10 months. And now that summer is approaching, my placement has come to an end. So I thought this is the perfect time to share a little about what I have learnt being on placement and how I plan to use that going forward.

Networking

One of the biggest takeaways of a Placement is the connections I have made throughout the year, and this last year has had no shortage of networking opportunities for me.

Mentoring

I have been able to receive mentoring through my supervisor and get personalised feedback on my work performance and my development, which has been invaluable!

To make the most of having a mentor, I suggest setting up regular one-to-one meetings with them and having an agenda for each meeting. That could include some wins and failures since the last meeting–discussing mistakes can be just as important as talking about wins–updates on important projects, opportunities for feedback or advice and a chance for them to discuss anything on their mind too.

I have benefited greatly from this structure. I have also put these things in writing ahead of each meeting to have a written record of the topics of each time but also to let my mentor know ahead of time what I want to discuss.

A variety of insights

By engaging with my team and setting up introductory meetings at the beginning of my placement year, I have been able to learn about the different paths that have led people to the career/field I was working in.

This is very useful to gain perspective, especially when the job market seems terrifying. It is great to learn of actionable ideas and avenues to enter and excel. There are great lessons to be learned from listening to those around you!

Peer support

At my Placement, there were other Placement students alongside me. Being able to share and connect about a similar experience can be very supportive, especially at the beginning when everything is new, exciting but also a little bit scary! Not going it alone can go a long way.

Professionalism

This is a big word, but essentially I just mean the combination of showing up to a workplace professionally and being able to engage with people in a professional manner. But also maintaining a work-life balance that allows you to show up in a way that you work best while feeling healthy and happy. Being on a placement will teach you about these things and give you a solid basis on which to build in any future career.

Office Work

Working in an office comes with many responsibilities and skills attached. For example, you might be hot desking or have an assigned desk, you might have to book rooms and schedule meetings, learn to use your office’s management systems, whether that be Microsoft Office or the Google Suite, chair and attend meetings or understand protocols and software.

Being able to navigate this environment well, and being exposed to it on a placement, will serve you well in the future! Even if your placement is not strictly office work, most of these likely still apply in some form or other, and amount to a professionalism that will benefit you later on in your career.

Life around work

One of the biggest, but potentially surprising, challenges for me was getting used to working a 9-5 schedule. While you might not work a 9-5, working full or part-time will be a very different experience to being a student at university. Especially because your entire lifestyle will have to adapt around these new working hours and structures!

By working a 9-5 this year, I have been able to experiment with different routines or schedules that might work for me and the modes of working that work best (working from home or in an office). This hasn’t been easy but I have learned valuable lessons about how I can live well while also working my best.

Communication skills

Communicating well and professionally is a skill that needs to be learnt! I definitely had to understand this during my placement, when I had to completely reframe how I write and send emails.

Other skills under this umbrella can include being able to give and receive feedback well or adjusting communication based on the person or group you are speaking to (e.g. whether they are internal or external, knowledgeable of a certain subject matter or not, whether you are asking something from them or they from you).

There can also be unwritten rules to what is considered professional communication. So my best tip is to have open communication with your team and supervisor about the team’s preferred ways of communication. That will go a long way.

How to use your experience

Of course I have gained a lot of skills, be that field-specific or soft skills. The biggest takeaway from me here has been keeping an up-to-date placement diary where I recall events or valuable information. I can then later look back on and pinpoint the moment where I gained or showcased skills.

This is a way of keeping track so it is easy to refer back to your placement, in for example cover letters or interviews. One of the most common methods in which employers might ask you to demonstrate your skills is the Situation-Task-Action-Result (STAR) method. And by noting down the situations, tasks at hand, the actions you took and results you saw in real time, you will have answers ready to go at any time!

My next steps

One of the most important outcomes of a placement is that of whether you could see yourself doing this long-term and whether you enjoyed the work or not really (both of which are fine and useful experiences!).

I, for example, have discovered that I am unsure whether continuing on with academia is the right path for me. And I have since explored other career options that might play more to the parts of my placement I did enjoy the most and the strengths I have discovered within myself. This will help me to narrow down my future career search and make finding the right fit that bit easier!

Finally, I am really excited to come back to my final year at the СÀ¶ÊÓƵ (especially with a new-found appreciation for the freedom being a student provides!) and I cannot wait to update you with my final instalment in this Placement Diaries Series about what it is like returning to University after a sandwich placement year. 

See you in September!