Careers and Employability – Page 5

My placement experience at Nationwide Building Society

By Becky Altria, BA Accounting and Financial Management with Employment Experience

I am a final year student, with a confirmed place on Nationwide Building Society’s Graduate Programme. I can focus entirely on my studies, without worrying about securing a graduate position. All because I took a placement year.
If you are driven to succeed, keen to get in to work or unsure about what exactly you’d like to do in future – taking a placement year may be perfect for you.
I spent a year working in Nationwide’s Treasury. I worked on reports for regulatory and decision making. I was given a real job, with real tasks and responsibilities. It was tough at times, but ultimately an exciting and engaging experience – I’m not sure that I will ever learn so much in such a short period of time again. I made so many great friends and I was exposed to an array of opportunities. I also got involved in Nationwide’s citizenship agenda, including teaching maths to disadvantaged children. I loved the culture and had no doubts about returning there for a graduate position. This is one of the many fantastic benefits taking a placement year provides; I got to experience the job and the organisation I could be working for in future. This helped massively when making the life changing decision as to what graduate role to choose.
The university offer a huge amount of support for students looking to take a placement year. The Management School’s dedicated Employability Hub advertise opportunities to students, as well as providing skills workshops and interview & application support. You get a designated mentor, who has been on placement the previous year, just like myself, to support you through the whole process.
This support continues while you are on placement, students are provided with a placement tutor, who visits twice a year and supports you whenever you need it. Further to this, the Employability Hub are always there to support you.
Taking a placement year has not only helped me to secure a graduate position. I’ve developed an array of skills that I know will help me to hit the ground running when I start in my new role. The experience I’ve gained has made my university studies even more relevant. I am now able to apply my learning to real life scenarios that I have experienced, helping me to develop my understanding much faster. My placement year has taught me how to focus for long periods of time, a huge benefit to my final years studies. Finally, I am able to take up my graduate position at Nationwide, knowing I already have a fantastic network of friends and colleagues to support me.

My placement year at Arla Foods

By Lily Robinson, BA Business Management with Employment Experience

Last year, between my second and third years of study on the BA Business Management course, I decided to take a placement year. I began the application process during the autumn semester in second year. At this stage, I had an idea that I wanted to work in the marketing function, and I found Arla Foods advertisement for a Marketing Assistant on the lily 2 ratemyplacement.com website. The Management School has a dedicated careers service, the Employability Hub, who also advertise placements and they were a great help too.
I knew a placement was right for me as I really wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and try a new challenge. I was a little nervous about leaving Sheffield, moving to Leeds and being without my friends, but I knew I would meet new people and have an exciting experience. If you are unsure which area of business is for you, a placement is a great trial and error year. You can find out if you like your selected discipline and discover if you can see yourself working in that department in your future career.

After the recruitment process, which involved psychometric tests and an assessment centre day, I was offered a placement starting the following July. Arla were a fantastic company to work for, and I was given lots of responsibility (real tangible experience not just making tea and photocopying!). I worked on four brands during my time at Arla Foods, who are the UK’s largest dairy company and own brands such as Lurpak and Cravendale.
I ran events, liaised with marketing agencies, helped to create packaging and managed budgets. My proudest achievement was running a stand representing Arla across a whole weekend that had over 90,000 attendees! My family came to support me and my manager was on hand to see my work – the whole team were really supportive and pleased with my achievement. As well as work, I made loads of new friends in my colleagues. I had my own flat in Leeds and had loads of fun!
My career prospects have benefitted immensely from my placement year as I have tangible experience in marketing. Employers love to see a placement year and it means I have plenty of examples of transferable skills to speak about in graduate interviews. I won’t be as nervous leaving University as I know I can achieve high quality results when I work hard. I have also benefitted academically. Coming back to final year I am so much more focussed and really pushing myself. I am appreciating a weekday morning lie in much more now too!
As I mentioned, the Employability Hub are a great source of help. There are also the Placement Ambassadors, a team of students who were on placement last year. They are always on hand to give you advice on the application process and answer any questions you might have from a student perspective.

Life outside the classroom

By Anamil Kochar

When I first came to Sheffield, I was excited and wondered what Sheffield had in store for me. I had no idea what to expect. The number of activities one could get involved in at Sheffield astonished me, and right then, I knew I would make the most of my time in Sheffield.
There are more than 300 sports clubs and societies in Sheffield suiting diverse tastes. You can get involved in national or cultural societies, departmental and academic societies or any creative and special interest society like Bird Watching and Debating society.
If you are interested in fundraising, you can get involved in RAG (Raising and Giving) or Bummit. These societies hold a lot of fundraising events from bake sales and food crawls to high rush adrenaline events such as Bungee Jumping and Arts Tower to charity hitchhikes across UK (Baby Bummit) and one across Europe, that happens during Easter (Big Bummit). I have taken part in Bungee Jumping and the Big Bummit Charity Hitchhike to Romania and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Last year, RAG and Bummit managed to raise over £200,000 for charity!
Apart from this, Sheffield also has a number of volunteering societies if you are interested in regular volunteering. Sheffield University Conservation volunteers run conservation and ecological related events in Sheffield and the Peak District. Sheffield volunteering also offers volunteering in teaching centres, day care’s, hospitals, churches and almost any area you can think of.

If interested in Journalism and Media related societies, there is Forge. Forge is a student run group and offers services like Forge Radio, Forge TV and Forge Press. You can get involved in this, and be an editor for the local newspaper, a radio jockey, or a television host apart from being hosts for various sports matches, elections etc.
Being an international student, I wanted to travel around UK as much as possible, and the student’s Union City day trip idea was excellent. It allowed me to travel to Newcastle and various Christmas markets in between breaks from studies. Being cheap and affordable, it provides us the perfect way to experience different cities.
‘Give it a Go’ is another set of activities offered by the university. It is exactly what the name suggests and offers a unique opportunity to try new things, meet new people, or learn a different skill or sport. I have enjoyed taking part in archery and scuba diving. It is a good way to know where your heart lies and follow it.
University of Sheffield Enterprises offers various activities, and challenges for budding entrepreneurs such as the module making ideas happen, the university business challenge, skills building sessions and a skills of work certificate. By taking part in UBC, and making ideas happen, I have learnt the abc of entrepreneurship, brainstorming and thinking out of the box.
Taking part in all these activities does not impact studies and it is very easy to balance studies with extra-curricular activities if you manage your schedule well and maintain a calendar.
In Sheffield, you are strongly encouraged to get involved in extracurricular activities, these are not only fun but also look great on your CV and help students stand out from the crowd in the real world. By participating and contributing in various activities and events, I have learnt a lot and made myself personally and professionally more presentable, which is very important for employment and to succeed in life in general. Improved interactions with the team, ideation, people skills and taking up responsibility are just some of the direct benefits I see.
Sheffield Graduate Award is recognized by employers because of its commitment to personal development. This award showcases one’s extra-curricular achievement by recognizing valuable skills and experience gained at the university outside of the degree. Participating in all these activities also helps you as a student move a step closer to the Sheffield Graduate Award.

Why should you do a placement? It’s great fun!

Claire Richards

My placement year was one of the best years I’ve had of my time at university! It was so much fun alongside the challenging work.

The job itself can be really fun. I worked for Glaxo Smithklinehad and had a very big role which was very busy and stretching but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was great fun to actually organise induction programmes for the new graduates or a Development Week for all of the existing MBA associates across the business. Lots of the pictures below are dinners from assessment centres or induction and development weeks!

Obviously closely connected to this is the people you work with. Despite us being quite a small team we always had time to laugh and bond with each other. Some of the (very long) quarterly meetings with the whole team were the most fun meetings. Even though we were discussing very serious things, like where we taking our strategy over the next few years, we still managed to discover that one person in the team had been in a music video!

The other industrial placement students (affectionately called IPs) that you meet will be a lot of fun. From going to a bar after work and getting to know everyone to the more organised events like boat parties; the ‘IP community’ is a lot of fun, both to just be part of but also to lead, if the opportunity is there for you. The picture of a lot of us in orange t-shirts was when a lot of IP students went to support the GSK Impact Awards which acknowledges some incredible work done by charities around the UK – that was a fun and emotional night.

Doing an industrial placement will enable you to have a little bit more money to do a lot more fun stuff on placement too. Manchester United v Arsenal at the Emirates, Twenty20 games at the Oval and too many dinners to count gave me some awesome memories of my placement year, and would never have been possible without throwing myself in and undertaking a placement.

To ask Claire or any of the other Placement Ambassadors about doing a placement year, email mgt.plambassadors@sheffield.ac.uk . You can also drop-in to the Employability Hub to speak to the Employability team.

Why should you do a placement? To network and earn some money!

By Dan Radcliffe

Networking
Networking is a great aspect of doing a placement year. There are so many valuable benefits to keeping in touch with people you worked with of varying levels of seniority.
The contacts made on placement can be fantastic for receiving advice from and being mentored by. By getting myself out there while working for a large organisation and speaking to as many people as possible, I was able to find the areas I really wanted to work in for my future career and how to get there. Without the networking I did on my placement I would be very much stuck with what to do post-graduation, as well as being unaware of a huge number of career opportunities.
One of the contacts I made while on placement moved on to a new business and when I had finished my placement I asked to do work experience with him, as it was in a field I was particularly keen on working in. So don’t think of the networking as over after your placement year… They are contacts who can be really valuable in a sociable and professional manner.
The people you work and build close relationships with can be a huge resource when in your final year should you be applying for graduate vacancies. Not only can they stand out as glowing reference providers, but they can also help you with recruitment into the organisations which you choose to apply to.
So to summarise, get yourself known while on placement. Don’t just work in the remit of your team. Try and explore areas you’re interested in for the future, thinking past that 12 month (give or take) placement year. The people you network with are massive assets and you can really benefit from them – keep them close!

Earn Some Money
With the length of an industrial placement, you will probably have a salary to help out with the costs and give you a bit of extra money. Though the purpose of an industrial placement is focused on the experience and learning as opposed to the money, it’s a nice bi-product to enjoy.
Throughout my placement, I didn’t have to rely on student loans or financial support from my family as my salary enabled me to be self-sufficient, living away from home.
Furthermore, it gave me the ability to enjoy some extras, such as the technology I couldn’t afford as a student, and a few holidays within the year.
Depending on where you are in the country will determine your salary as well as the company and industry you work in.
Like with part-time work, the pay is a real credit to the hard work that you put in day-to-day on a placement year and a nice bonus to doing an industrial placement.

To ask Dan or any of the other Placement Ambassadors about doing a placement year, email mgt.plambassadors@sheffield.ac.uk .

You can also drop-in to the Employability Hub to speak to the Employability team.

Enactus (Entrepreneurial. Action. Us)

By Georgina Rees

Enactus Sheffield is a student run company based at the University of Sheffield, dedicated to running commercial and social action projects to make a difference to the lives of others both in our community and internationally.
Through both social and commercial projects we aim to harness students’ entrepreneurial spirit, to make a difference in our local community and to communities abroad. Commercial projects enable students to run real, profitable businesses, allowing them to use their creativity and business acumen to raise money for our social portfolio. Through social projects and working with vulnerable people Enactus aims to positively impact their lives through the power of social enterprise, students work proactively and are rewarded by witnessing the changes in their lives first hand!
Every year, we present a handful of our projects at the Enactus National Competition. This is a great event which allows students to showcase what they have achieved in the year and provides exposure to their projects to allow them to expand and continue their work. In 2013, Enactus Sheffield won the National Competition. It’s a great opportunity to not only to have an impact on the world whilst at university.

Here at Sheffield, there are commercial projects which include The Intern, Marketing Mission, Football Frenzy, Campus Clothing and Event Planning. The Intern is a unique competition designed to test and develop a variety of entrepreneurial skills for students, based on the TV show The Apprentice. The Marketing Mission group aims to bridge the gap between Sheffield students and the Sheffield sports teams. Football Frenzy is a student run football league which runs on a Sunday to raise money for social projects. Campus Clothing is a student run business that supplies personalised clothing to societies and organisations. Event Planning gives aspiring event planners the opportunity to run events to raise funds for Enactus.

Some of the social projects are: HOPE Local, HOPE Nigeria, Homemade and Blankets for Bolivia. Hope Local aims to empower vulnerable women who have previously been sexually or domestically abused, or trafficked, through Enterprise. Hope Nigeria offers pastoral care and personal development for all women, including educational qualifications, business management courses, counselling and legal assistance. Enactus Sheffield created the ‘Homemade’ project, working with homeless men to help them gain financial stability and become self-sufficient again. Blankets for Bolivia run a social enterprise making emergency blankets from recycled crisp packets.
I would highly recommend getting involved with Enactus, not only is it a great thing to do but it will also look fantastic on your CV!

What will I study on BA Business Management?

By Lily Robinson

As a final year student looking back over my three years on the Business Management degree course, I am very satisfied with the variety of modules and topics that have been available to me. I have covered many areas of business; accounting, human resources, marketing and supply chain to name a few. In first year, though it seems you have less choice, the modules are based around important different areas of business, to really help your understanding of what you enjoy. A good manager will have knowledge of all of these areas, so it’s also beneficial for your employability prospects. All modules in first year teach the basics, so if like me you didn’t take Business at GCSE or A Level, please don’t feel you are at a disadvantage starting this degree!
There are compulsory basic maths, accounting and economics modules in first year, which personally I was nervous about to begin with. All the lecturers were great at explaining things. I did poorly in Economics during my AS Levels and achieved a 2:1 in the Business Economics module at degree level, which really is a testament to the great teaching staff at the University who were there to support me.

Having taken a placement year after second year, I found that I used learnings from some of my modules during work. During the second year supply chain module, I did a group presentation to a number of academic lecturers and industry experts which was an invaluable experience. I also found the unrestricted module I chose, Business Challenges, gave me the chance to work on my communication skills and meet new friends.

Through later years, there are less core modules and you really get a chance to tailor your degree and take modules in subjects that really matter to you. I am currently exploring a career in Marketing after working as a Marketing Assistant at Arla Foods during my placement year. I have chosen two different marketing modules in third year and have decided to work on a marketing based project in my Management Project module. This has allowed me to research subjects that I find interesting, which I believe has helped me achieve good grades in my modules. One of those modules, Digital Marketing, is a relatively new field of marketing and I received up to date theories and research from my lecturer.
Overall, the variety and quality of the modules has been very beneficial to me. I have tailored my degree to the point where I can highlight certain modules to employers and mention specific works in my CV.

Experience of studying abroad

by Elise McDonald

Hi, my name is Elise and I’m studying in Vienna for my second year of International Business Management. I chose to study at WU as I really enjoyed learning German at GCSE and I’ve been desperate to start learning the language again to help me in my future career in business – it is crazy the number of employers I have seen that are looking for German speakers!

Obviously, Vienna is also a beautiful place and Austria has great links to other countries which will make it much easier for me to travel this year. I’ve only been here a couple of weeks and I’ve already been to Oktoberfest and have booked to go on trips to Salzburg and Budapest next month, as well as a ski trip to Zell-Am-See in December!

It’s so great to have so many things to look forward to, particularly the Christmas markets in November/December. I’m already shocked by how much I’m enjoying myself as, for the whole of first year, I dreaded this year abroad. Yes, you’re probably reading that sentence thinking that I’m crazy, but I’ve always been a glass half empty kind of person and I kept focusing on the negatives of the experience; leaving my boyfriend and friends behind, missing out on a second year uni house, being so far away from home… need I go on.

So, I guess my blog posts will be good for people that are considering a year abroad but find the idea scary! Hopefully, this year will prove me completely wrong and help to ease other students’ nerves. I’ve been here for just under two weeks and I can already say that nothing I was worried about has happened. To be honest you’re so busy exploring and meeting new people that you don’t really get a chance to think about home and if I have had a difficult moment there’s always Netflix to distract me.

So far I am so happy that I picked WU as my host University as the Erasmus set up here is amazing! We have the Erasmus Buddy Network (EBN) which organises so many trips to other places and gives you a ‘buddy’ to help you settle in. I was so lucky that my Buddy offered to collect me from the airport and showed me to my accommodation as I’m not sure I’d have managed on my own. By the way, the accommodation here is great and was so easy to apply for. I have my own kitchen and en-suite and its cleaned every week – it’s like living in a hotel which is perfect for an undomesticated person like me! The University itself is also incredible and so modern that the library looks a lot how I’d imagine a spaceship would look. I have already been assigned two essays to write before I even start classes though which was a bit of a shock to the system! I’m not sure I’m prepared for the change in teaching style that they have here but hopefully it won’t take long to adjust as I start classes this week.

Now enough of the boring stuff and on to the fun things I’ve already done. The first thing I did when I arrived was go for weiner schnitzel and apfel strudel, which definitely did not disappoint and was really good value for money at an all-night restaurant called Mozarts. I also went on the Giant Wheel at Prater which was great to do at sunset with views of the whole city.

The whole time I have been here the weather has been so warm which was obviously not what I was expecting in Austria. I was also surprised to find that they have beaches and bars along the Danube but I thought I’d best experience them before the weather changes and they close for winter.

Again, AMAZING FOOD and just generally a great night but so surreal to be sat on a beach looking at high rise buildings! Finally, the main attraction: Oktoberfest. Two days ago I went on my first EBN trip to Munich on an overnight ‘party train’ with a free bar. It’s safe to say that it was one of the weirder experiences of my life but seemed a lot more normal by about my 10^th drink. I didn’t get much sleep on the way to the Festival which is a huge regret as I spent the whole day too hungover to drink again. Yes… I went to Oktoberfest and didn’t drink!

I think I’ll leave it there for now but I’ll try my best to post regularly to brag about all the fun stuff I’m doing!

Elise x

Get great experience with a summer internship

By Hannah Regan

Internships are such a great way to spend your summer break during your time at University. You can use those summers to not only gain professional experience, but also have a great summer, earn money, and travel!

I have had the opportunity to take part in several internship programmes during my time here. My first was based in South Carolina, working at a Disney Vacation Club beach resort. When I arrived to South Carolina I had no idea what to expect, I was picked up by the Disney managers and driven to our apartment where I met the 3 other interns I would be living with. They were all girls from the UK, and we quickly found the other apartments with people on our programme- there were 14 of us in total, 6 from the UK, 4 from Hong Kong and 4 from Mexico. I settled in to the programme really easily, another intern and I were working on Front Desk; our training lasted about a week before we were then out there on our own. Our team was made up of Americans from all over and a complete mix of ages, our shifts varied between 6am and 11pm, typically 8/9 hour shifts 5 days a week. On our evenings and days off we often went to the beach, the shopping malls, or out for dinner at the various restaurants on the Island. Disney provided us with bikes, and most places were accessible by bike, or by taxi, but we also made American friends on the island who had cars and they would often take us to cities slightly further away for us to explore such as Savannah and Charleston! After the internship your visa allows you 30 days to travel, a friend I made on the programme and I decided to travel the East Coast, visiting Atlanta, Washington DC and New York, before flying home.

My next internship with The Walt Disney Company was based down at Walt Disney World in Florida. This is a much larger programme, with between 150 and 200 people from all over the world participating in the programme. Our arrival was a lot less personal, as over 200 of us arrived on the same day, but took a similar format. I was placed in an apartment in a large apartment complex owned by Disney in Lake Buena Vista. On this programme we were working with people from Australia, Hong Kong, France, Morocco and Italy. I was working in Parade Audience Control, so my job involved working the parades and fireworks in Magic Kingdom, ensuring guest and performer safety. I absolutely loved my job, there was a really big team of us and we all got on so well and had so much fun at work. On our days off we spent a lot of time in the parks, or in the outlet malls, but we also had plenty of time to explore the restaurants and nightlife in Orlando. Again after the programme we had time on our visa left to travel, and so I spent 5 weeks travelling the West Coast, me and a friend drove from San Diego to San Francisco and then flew up to Canada to travel the Rocky Mountains.
Finally, I undertook a professional internship in Canary Wharf at the Financial Conduct Authority. This internship was completely different and gave me an entirely different experience. I gained so much professional experience, built up contacts, and gained an insight into my future career, whilst earning a decent wage! I was working in Authorisations and dealing with shareholders buying additional shares, gaining control, or takeovers of firms. I was given so much responsibility and from day one I was dealing with businessmen owning huge firms, and at no time was I treated like an ‘intern’ or my competence doubted. I was allowed to shadow other departments, and get involved in as much as I wanted to gain the additional experience I needed. One of my favourite things was also getting a taste of graduate life in London, and the social scene that accompanies graduate jobs!
At the end of our internship we had to give a presentation to a room of managers, and had an additional interview. From this I was offered a graduate role with the company starting in September after my graduation. The internship was so valuable, from the application and assessment centres being great practice, all the way through to the actual job and people I met, I really had a great summer and it meant I went into third year not having to deal with graduate applications and could focus on my exams!

Careers support for your future success

By Livia Burridge

At the Management School we are lucky enough to have our own Employability Hub. The Employability Hub gives students access to careers information and supports students throughout the graduate job application process. They run many events throughout the year, such as the Careers Discovery Series which gives students the opportunity to network with graduate employers such as Boots, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and Lloyds Banking Group.

I attended a session held by a member of Morrison’s marketing team as part of the ‘Marketing Careers Discovery Week’. This session gave me a unique insight into the marketing graduate scheme at Morrison’s and provided me with the opportunity to ask questions and find out whether the scheme was right for me. The speaker gave us lots of hints, tips and information which was not available online or through any other source. This was all very useful when completing the application form, and at interview I believe it gave me a real advantage over other applicants.

The Management School’s Employability Hub is a facility I use regularly and their events are a great place to network with graduate employers and access information further to that provided by companies in their graduate recruitment literature. These events are free and I would encourage all students to attend as many of these as you can, it really opens your eyes to careers that you didn’t even know existed.

You can also book a one-to-one session with one of the careers advisers to talk through your plans for after graduating or to get help with arranging a placement or internship. They also run great skills sessions on CV writing and interview techniques as well as running practise assessment centres, it really is a great resource that we are lucky to have!