Admin – Undergraduate Blog

Running for SU Officer

By Margaret B Barrionuevo Camacho

Last February, I decided to run as International Officer candidate for the 16/17’ SU officer elections. After receiving loads of emails from university about nominations and the available positions at the Student’s Union, I booked an appointment with some of the current SU Officers in order to find more about it and also looking forward to hear their first-hand experiences. I managed to meet and talk with the International and Women SU Officers, who were very happy to share their experiences with me as well as answering all my questions (always one too many ha-ha).

Encouraged by their involvement with their roles and their passion to make change happen, I decided to take the challenge and hopefully become the 2017-18’ International Officer. On the first week of February, I and my fellow candidates, attended a ‘Candidate Training session’ which covered all the aspects from running a campaign to recruiting friends to be part of our campaign team. It was a very intense and long (4 hour) session which made me realize the challenge I got myself into! Reality hit me, I had so many questions and so little time to get everything ready. What would be my slogan? How could I design my posters? Who could edit my campaign video? Would I be able to make lecture shout-outs in front of hundreds of strangers? Luckily, I received help from my friends, who supported me throughout the campaign which lasted about 2 weeks! The whole experience was very intense and tiring but I enjoyed every single moment. I stretched myself and got out of my comfort zone by doing public speaking in big lecture rooms; especially the ones in the Diamond, those are massive and scary! I also retook my ‘artistic career’- ha-ha. I had to be creative, from creating a slogan to painting t-shirts and banners; my fingers were multicolored for weeks!

Election results were announced on the 9^th of March, where I came second out of the four SU International Officer candidates. Even though I didn’t win, I was so grateful to the 1200+ people who trusted and voted for me. And also very thankful for the whole experience itself, I got to make new friends, challenge myself, and feel supported by my mates. Definitely an invaluable experience, where every candidate was a winner. Many little achievements I am proud of such as; speaking in front of several (uncountable) big lectures, learning to use the green screen and feeling confident to stop and approach anyone, anytime, anywhere. Being a SU Officer candidate is demanding and challenging I assure you, you will feel great after completing it!

Women in Business

By Margaret Barrionuevo Camacho

Hello everyone, this is my first time writing for the blog! My name is Margaret (Gigi) and I am currently on my final year of International Business Management at the University of Sheffield. In this, my first post, I would love tell you about one of my favourite societies at university; Women in Business (WIB). This is a brand NEW society, founded by Olivia Lynch, who was the 2016-2017 society President and one of the most driven and determined persons I have ever met. After months of planning and working along with the SU, Liv finally achieved her dream to create a society which not only aimed to empower women but also to provide them with support to enter a career in Finance, Business or Commercial Law.

I joined the Women in Business society in September 2016 when I attended their very first event which consisted on a skills workshop in collaboration with EY. During this session, I did not only get the chance to meet other society members but I also discovered more about my own strenghts and weaknesses and how to tackle the latter. Furthermore, I got to meet the committee members and see how passionate they were about helping us to develop professionally. This is the reason why, later on, I decided to run to be on the WIB committee. In October 2016, the society announced 2 available positions on the committee; activities officer and publicity officer. I ran for ‘activities officer’ and after writing and sharing my manifesto with other society members, I achieved to get into the committee.

My role as an ‘activities officer’ has consisted on building partnerships with recruiters from various companies such as PwC and Enterprise Rent a Car (ERAC) as well as planning and delivering events aimed at helping our society members to develop their professional skills and career aspirations. These events have included: LinkedIn master session (PWC), Commercial awareness session with DLA Piper, MOCK assessment centres and even a visit and networking event at Slaughter and May in London!

The society is fully committed to help every member to achieve its full potential, however, it also aims to promote integration and friendship between our society members. As a result, we have organized various socials which have included: pub quiz, Bollywood dancing class and an evening of free pizza at Bloo88 (yummy)!

During its first year, the Women in Business society has achieved to gather more than 120 members, organize a wide variety of events and also holding 3 nominations for the 2017 Activities Awards: (1) Academic society of the year, (2) New society of the year and (3) Most enterprising society.

What are you waiting for joining WIB NEXT year? I totally recommend it and I can’t stress enough how much I have learnt out of the different workshops, a society that definitely cares about you and your development!

This picture was taken after our first AGM, where the new committee members were elected! Old committee on the low row; Olivia Lynch (President) is the third from left to right, and I am next to her on the white blouse.

Operations and Supply Chain Management: A Rolls Royce Sponsored Module

By Hannah McLennaghan

BA Business Management with Employment Experience

Hello! My name is Hannah and I am a final year Business Management student. As my graduation date is steadily approaching, I’ve been looking back over everything I have learnt across my degree and all my best bits. For me, my most challenging yet rewarding module was my Second Year Supply Chain Management module. This was a core module at the time and made up of a group project and a written exam at the end of the semester. The most amazing thing about this module was that it was sponsored by Rolls Royce! This meant that senior industry professionals from the company were involved in the creation/ structure of the module content and the assessment. The group project was our way of applying the theories we had learnt throughout the module, to a real life business!

Our task was simple; generate a 10-year operations and supply chain plan for one of 4 companies in the aviation industry; Rolls-Royce, Pratt and Whitney, Airbus or Boeing. My group chose Pratt and Whitney, a major competitor of Rolls-Royce. Each group member was given a director role within the company: Director of Operational Design, Planning and Control, Enterprise Resource Planning, Manufacturing Operations, Supply Chain Management and my role which was Director of Quality Control and Total Quality Management. Working collaboratively, we analysed the company’s current situation and how the market was operating. Using the theories, we had developed during the lectures, some of which were given by Rolls-Royce executives, we applied it to Pratt and Whitney to generate a plan for their future operations. Although this may sound complicated, it was incredible to take on a task that felt so real! It was also the kind of thing I’ll have to do when I graduate and work for a real company so it was really great practice.

Our plan was assessed through a written report, and a formal presentation to the module leaders from the University of Sheffield, and senior executives from Rolls-Royce. This was the starting point for me developing my presentation creation and delivery skills which I am now extremely confident in thanks to all the chances I have had to practice during my degree. My groups hard work finally paid off when we were awarded second place for our 10 year plan out of the entire module! This meant we were awarded the Rolls-Royce Academic Award of Excellence, something that looks INCREDIBLE on my CV, and I have found that employers just love it in interviews! Specially to have my academic work accredited by senior professionals such as Ian Shellard- Director, Global Physical Logistics, Rolls-Royce, it’s a great talking point that really makes me stand out.

This is just one example of the way Sheffield University tries to link the theory of management studies to a real industry organisation. It was a strong turning point for me in becoming a more practical learner, which also gave me a greater confidence in my own academic and business operational ability. I hope you get a chance to do this module as I absolutely loved it- Good luck!

No.1 Students’ Union….9th year running!

By Frances Kendall

As a student at the University of Sheffield, it is rare to find anyone that doesn’t think our Students’ Union is pretty amazing. For me, that’s why it was unsurprising to find out that we recently won, for the 9^th consecutive year, the award for the best SU in the UK in addition to ranking 1^st in Student Experience among the Russell Group Universities. However, after writing this blog, reflecting on my student experience, I believe I have taken this all for granted.

Looking back on this week, I realise just how much the Union has contributed to my time at Sheffield. On Tuesday, I had group meetings in Coffee Revolutions, sorted referees for a lacrosse match in the Sports Office, grabbed lunch at New Leaf and had a lecture in the auditorium. I spent Wednesday evening at Bar One and Varsity ROAR, the sports night at Foundry, Studio and Fusion.

I can’t remember the last time I didn’t go out to the Union because I always have the safest and most enjoyable nights there; this is partly due to one of my favourite services that the SU runs. If you don’t fancy staying out too long at a club night or want to work late at the library, there is a Women’s Bus which runs every hour. It takes you from the entrance of the SU all the way home, regardless of distance, for just £1.50. I regularly use it so I don’t have to wait until all my friends also want to leave, which enables me to feel secure and still be independent. It’s hard to imagine how different life would be without the convenience of the SU and its facilities on your doorstep!

Coming to the end of my time at Sheffield as an undergraduate I am so grateful for my student experience because I have had the most fantastic time here. Academically and socially I have loved it, although I honestly had no idea how much the various SU events, facilities and services had contributed to it, up until this point!

Advice from a Placement Ambassador

By Hannah Mclennaghan

Hi, I’m Hannah, a student Placement Ambassador for 2016-17, and also studying for my BA in Business Management with Employment Experience. I carried out my placement year at Virgin Media in 2016.

If you’ve already got a house in Sheffield for next year or want to stick around Sheffield while on Placement, I’ve put together some really useful advice about how and where you can find a placement in Sheffield, that might just help you.

Why do a placement year in Sheffield?

It is the perfect opportunity to get the best of both worlds! You can remain in the City you love whilst gaining an invaluable experience and a complimentary asset to your degree. It also means if you have only just decided to do a placement year it is not too late, as you do not need to drop out of your housing contract for next year!

Where do I find a local placement?

The easiest place to start your search is the University’s internal portal Career Connect. You can access this through MUSE and use the filters: Yearlong placements, (the business area) and South Yorkshire as your location and you will arrive at a list of opportunities. Other great job sites are Milkround, Graduate recruitment Bureau, Rate my placement & Linkedin

What kind of opportunities are in Sheffield?

There is a magnitude of placements currently available; on Career Connect alone there are 50 currently still open. A local placement can be a great opportunity to gain experience in a corporate or slightly smaller company which can provide a more unique, tailored and rounded experience- giving you an insight into the company’s operations in its entity. Many local placements advertise solely to the University of Sheffield management students, giving you an extremely high chance of success!

What support is available for me?

If you would like to do a placement year, contact the employability hub: mgt.employability@sheffield.ac.uk and you will be assigned a mentor. They will provide you with support in searching for placements, doing your application, preparing you for interviews and general advice and guidance. The employability hub can also check CVs and cover letters. Once out on placement your degree will change to add “with employment experience”. You will be visited twice during the year and you will need to carry out a small assessment at the end (which is easier than you think!)

If you would like any further advice you can get in touch with all of the Placement Ambassadors at mgt.pl.ambassadors@sheffield.ac.uk

My placement story

By Charlotte Howe

Hey everyone, my name’s Charlotte and I’m in my fourth year studying Business Management with Employment Experience. I returned to Sheffield as a Placement Ambassador following my placement year at PwC in London, in September 2016.

During my placement year I worked in Learning and Development, part of the wider HR function at PwC. Taking a placement year is one of the best decisions I’ve made, the team I worked in are responsible for delivering soft skills training across all areas of the firm, so I was able to learn more about the workings of the firm and explore future career opportunities.

Through my placement I achieved so much, learning about myself as well as invaluable skills for both in the workplace and beyond. Some of the key stand-out skills I learnt are:

Networking and maintaining these networks
Leading yourself and managing my time more efficiently
Leading others and how to efficiently work in teams
Managing stakeholders
Communication skills and dealing with conflicts
IT skills
Office Etiquette
If you would like any further advice you can get in touch with all of the Placement Ambassadors at mgt.pl.ambassadors@sheffield.ac.uk
A placement is a great opportunity to trial a career that you think you may want to go into or a city you may want to live in, it gives you the opportunity to decide if it’s for you. For me, I loved living in London and working for PwC, however I decided HR wasn’t the career for me. Through the networks built during my placement, I was able to try out different areas of the business and decide on a career path, interviewing whilst still working at the firm and securing a job for after I graduate back in London. Going into my final year with a job offer really takes the pressure off, however, if you decide you want to search around for jobs elsewhere, having a year of experience on your CV with all these new skills will really help you in the eyes of potential employers.
All of these have led to an increase in my confidence in terms of speaking out in meetings, voicing my opinions to others and in my own ability, all of which is invaluable coming back to University and also when I return to the workplace.

My advice to prospective placement students:

There is so much help available to management school students applying for placements, such as the employability hub, career connect and placement ambassadors. Take full advantage of these people who want to help you!

Secondly, keep going, and please don’t get knocked back by rejections. They happen to everyone, think of it as a learning curve, allowing you to take on the next application stronger and more confident after learning from the previous applications.

Finally, say yes! Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way and when out on placement don’t be afraid to take yourself outside your comfort zone and try something new, a placement is as much for you to learn as it is for the companies to benefit from your skills.

On placement: ‘A day in the life of…George at RSM’

By George Philipson

My name is George Philipson and I am a final year Accounting and Financial Management student. I completed my year in industry with Top 10 accounting firm RSM as an Audit Assistant, in 2016. This was a typical day for me out on placement…

8AM

Monday: Quick walk to work with a coffee in hand catching up with this morning’s financial and business news stories. I get into work for around 8:30AM, set up my laptop and other equipment and quickly catch up with the other employees in the office. I check my diary to find I am auditing a large dairy producer for the week ahead, liaise with my Manager and Supervisor and prepare them for our meeting with some pre-fieldwork files I assembled on Friday afternoon.

9:30AM

The Partner, Manager, Supervisor, and I set up for a client planning meeting which is around 30 minutes long. It allows the Partner and Manager to highlight any key risk areas involved with this client, along with a brief introduction into the audit history of the company. I take minutes for the meeting, making sure it is evidenced that the audit team have outlined all potential areas of the audit file. In addition, duties and responsibilities are delegated and I am made aware of my role in this job.

12PM

I grab a quick bite to eat with the other graduates before I head out to the client site. We quickly compare weekends and clients for the week ahead, whilst also discussing our plans for the audit party on Friday.

I have spent the rest of the morning preparing some areas of work which do not require client interaction, as this helps to save the Supervisor time at the end of the fieldwork after I have left. I also set up some files on the network and some documents, so that I can be more time efficient whilst carrying out the fieldwork of the audit.

1PM

My Supervisor, Jen, and I arrive at the client site just outside of the city centre. We meet with the Financial Director (FD) and Financial Controller (FC) who discuss their time commitments for the week, whilst we also update them on our schedule for the week ahead. We are greeted with fresh coffee, and a great office view, before setting up our work stations.

5PM

Gosh, the first day of an audit always goes quickly! I spent the remainder of the day collecting evidence such as bank statements and reports from Sage (an accounting software) whilst also completing some shorter pieces of work. These involved: Other Audit Areas which look at non-financial aspects of the audit, along with Updated Minutes Review and updating the Audit Findings Report. I also finish my emails for the day and update the client of any remaining information I require.

I head back to the office as I have a 5-a-side fixture together with some colleagues from the auditing department. This is a welcomed break to release some energy and practice for our upcoming national RSM football tournament, I am told a place to represent the UK in Warsaw is up for grabs!

If you would like any further advice you can get in touch with all of the Placement Ambassadors at mgt.pl.ambassadors@sheffield.ac.uk

Applying for a placement or internship

By Ellie Thornber

Hi, I’m Ellie, one of your Management School Placement Ambassadors for 2016-17. I did my placement last year at Accenture, a large management and technology consultancy company. I am so glad I did a placement and would recommend it to anyone. I developed so many transferrable skills, established a really valuable network of colleagues and secured a graduate job too. Here is how I found my placement, the application process, and my hints and tips to help you secure a placement or internship.

How did I find my placement?

It is helpful to know what kind of organisation you want to work in before you start applying. Websites such as Rate My Placement allow you to read about other student’s experiences whilst on placement and can give you more information from the responsibilities they held, to the social side of work. This helps you to understand the type of job you want to be doing and can help you create a list of companies you might be interested in.

Websites such as Rate My Placement, Milkround and Career Connect provide a great database of companies which are offering placement and internship opportunities and will show you those with deadlines approaching. If a company you are interested in isn’t formally advertising any opportunities it is always worth contacting their HR department and asking, especially for smaller companies. Family and friends are also a great network to use to find opportunities!

The application process

The application process for placements/internships can sometimes be long and daunting, but I found that once I had submitted one, they got much easier. The length of the process varies, often depending on the size of the company. Some can have multiple stages to their application process such as online tests, telephone interviews, assessment centres and final interviews. However small companies may simply ask for a CV and cover letter before inviting you to interview. I found the Employability Hub and the Careers Advisors really helpful in going over my applications before I submitted them, helping me prepare for telephone interviews and giving me tips for assessment centres. I also used the online learning tools on Career Connect to help practice for psychometric tests such as verbal and numerical reasoning.

Hints and tips

Tailor your CV to highlight the skills you have that the company is looking for
Ask someone else to check your application – a second opinion always helps!
Use websites such as Glass Door to find out common and tricky interview questions

Contact me at: ethornber1@sheffield.ac.uk if you would like any further advice or you can get in touch with all of the Placement Ambassadors at mgt.pl.ambassadors@sheffield.ac.uk

Internship Update

By Robbie Bailey

Hi guys!

I have now finished my internship at Santander and a lot has happened since my last blog post!

The Provisions team have been fantastic and really made me feel welcome from the start. They have given me a lot of work that has been interesting and worthwhile. I have been working on some proposed changes to the mortgage provision model and have been producing data on Excel to assess the impact of these changes on the overall provision. These changes will be a significant change to the nature of the teams work and they are being implemented later this year. Graphs and analysis that I have produced have been used in board papers and have gone right to the very top of the organisation. I certainly did not expect to be given so much responsibility during a 10 week internship programme but it has given me great exposure!

I have attended a number of training sessions for a variety of topics. We had sessions with teams from Risk and Pricing and learnt all about how these teams work. I was also invited to learn about Santander’s Finance Graduate Scheme and what life as a Santander graduate is like. These sessions were very useful and helped me when considering what I would like to do after I graduate from university next year.

The CSR Challenge is now finished and my team and I were very successful as we raised over £2,000! We ran weekly food sales within the office including cakes, popcorn, pastries and samosas! I organised a football score predictions game that was very popular in the office. Players paid £2 to enter and half of the money went to our charities and the other half went to the winner of the game. Our main fundraiser was a pub quiz night which we hosted in a local Wetherspoon’s! Teams from various departments across Santander came along to play and it was a fantastic evening. Local companies donated some great prizes including lunch vouchers, a free gym membership, a signed photo of Jessica Ennis-Hill and the winners took home a team go-karting session.

In my penultimate week I delivered a presentation to the Provisions team about my life, my experiences on the internship and my future career plans. This was really good as it helped me to reflect on the programme. This last 10 weeks have gone incredibly quickly, it has really flown by but I have had brilliant experiences and met some great people.

All Finance interns were offered the opportunity to interview for the Finance Graduate Scheme during our final week. We were asked about our experiences on the internship and our motivations and plans for the future. I was then called on my final day and told that I had been successful in securing a place on the Santander Finance Graduate Scheme. This is a 3 year rotational programme based in Santander’s London head office and I will be starting in September 2017.

The internship has been a fantastic experience and having a graduate job already secured means I can focus on my studies in my final year and takes away a lot of stress!

Erasmus Society: Trip to Oktoberfest

By Lissandra Radu

Before Christmas, the Erasmus society organised a trip to OKTOBERFEST! Keeping in mind that my only experience with beer is going to the pub’s beer garden, I had absolutely no expectation of what the day would be like. We left Vienna on the Thursday evening, taking a night party train to Munich where the festival takes places.

Tip no. 1: Do NOT get *too* drunk on the train as you will have to nurse your hangover for 14 hours at a beer festival.

Tip no. 2: Invest in traditional dress, a dirndl for girls or lederhosen for boys, although I wore an adaptation of the male outfit. The whole dressing up process puts you in the mood for partying and you really feel as part of the event!

The festival itself can only be described as an adult Disneyland, where instead of princess houses you have massive beer tents where a band plays traditional German songs and people bang their 1 litre jugs of beer in tune. It was fantastic!

The first part of the day we spent in a tent where we had booked tables, drinking beer (or if you do not like beer, you can have a Radler which is essentially beer watered down with lemonade!) and eating chicken or pretzels. The second part we moved around different tents, each with a slightly different atmosphere, in search for a table that would fit all 15 of us. Turns out people actually book these tables a year in advance, so as you can guess, we did not have much luck but it was definitely a lot of fun.

In hindsight, the trip was definitely a whole new experience and I am gutted I did not get to try the caramelised almonds, which are supposedly to die for. Personally, as I am not an avid admirer of beer, Oktoberfest might not be the ideal festival for me. However, having said that, it is a great place to have a lot fun with your friends and a very good excuse for day drinking J.