Placements – Undergraduate Blog

Working 9 to 5 – My placement experience at PwC

By Frankie Paterson, BA Business Management with Employment Experience

My first interaction with PwC was at a networking evening during semester one in second year at the Diamond. To this day, I still remember smiles on Associates and Managers’ faces when speaking about the firm. ‘They love their job’, I thought. Little did I know, the recruitment team running the event were people I would be working with on placement.

Looking around the room, I was taken aback by students talking to recruiters with a glass of wine in hand! Surely they can’t work for a prestigious company like PwC if their focus is on the free alcohol? So what did I do? My shy self built up the courage to join them, as I was unsure whether to apply for the HR or Marketing role. Turns out it was the best decision to throw myself into networking, as I gained advice on the application process and psychometric tests.

Fast forward a couple of months, my assessment centre was successful! In January 2019, I was made an offer of a 11-month placement in the Student Recruitment team in Birmingham. I was thrilled! All the hours spent writing cover letters and practicing maths questions was worth it. Great, I’m all ready to go and complete my year in industry in September … or maybe not.

It’s a funny time between accepting and starting your placement. My self-consciousness returned and I started doubting my ability. Would I be good enough for a company like PwC? Was I the right person for the role? Fortunately, all these worries were soon gone after my predecessor Sophie took me out for lunch to meet the team. It is a day I will never forget, mainly because I turned up in smart trousers and a blazer whilst everyone wore jeans and trainers! Yes, my manager included.

Needless to say, the team were all friendly, welcoming and supportive throughout. Here are some of my placement highlights:

One Chamberlain Square – or ‘the new, fancy office’ as everyone called it! The pictures below really don’t do it justice but it was such a fresh, quirky place to work.
Support. As the ‘newbie’ it’s comforting having a group of people you can talk to when you want to ask those silly questions!
The PwC culture. This still resonates with me even now. Matt Hammond (Senior Partner) gave everyone a Friday off work to participate in Sports Day! This was great fun as Senior Managers through to Interns were competing over tug of war.
The perks. Staying at the Park Plaza hotel on Westminster Bridge with a king size bed and room service wasn’t a bad way to end the Christmas party!

As fantastic as these were, the most important part is I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year and can’t recommend one enough. The biggest takeaway was learning a 9-5 desk job isn’t for me. This is because I loved moving around, hosting assessment centres in Bristol or attending a careers fair at Nottingham university. Before I left in July, I had the opportunity to speak to graduates across various departments to discover which graduate programme I would be interested in. As my manager was pleased with the impact I had on the team, I’m delighted to be going back in September (COVID permitting) to join the Risk Assurance practice.

My L’Oreal journey so far!

By Sophie Ruston, BA Business Management

My journey started in my second year when I attended an ‘Assertiveness & Self Confidence Skills Session’ on the 14th November ran by L’Oreal at the Student’s Union. It was advertised as an on-campus evening where I was able to get hints and tips on how to tackle their applications. It wasn’t until I turned up that they told us they would be running a mock assessment centre with the chance to be ‘talent spotted’ and fast-tracked to the final stage of their application!

Around a week later I received an email invitation to their final stage assessment centre in London, exactly a month on from the initial event (14th December). I straight away began researching the company, the brands and preparing for the day. 48 hours before, we received an information deck through with lots of information on potential new Kiehl’s skincare products, our job was to prepare a 20 minute presentation on which product to launch, why, and our omni-channel launch plan.

Fast-forward through 2 days of intense planning and presentation preparing which included analysing data from a survey of my Facebook friends, I was at the assessment centre and presenting to the Head of Digital for L’Oréal’s skincare division. Following the presentation, we were split into groups to take part in a group task which built on the Kiehl’s project, and then completed a numerical and literacy test. Next was lunch and a chance to chat to the current interns and ask questions about their experience and what a placement at L’Oreal was like first hand. After lunch, there was a daunting ‘cut’ where they sent home applicants who hadn’t progressed to the afternoon which then consisted of an attention to detail test, a virtual reality meeting scenario and an individual interview with a senior member of staff.

After successfully gaining a place on the placement scheme, I started on the 25th June 2018 as an ‘E-Retail Intern’ in the Active Cosmetics Division. My role consisted of:

Communicating with online retailers to assist with account management and relationship building.
Collating, reporting and analysing sales results, tracking market trends and promotion results
Ensuring all product launches were planned and executed across e-retailers accurately from start to finish
Creating campaign focused assets for website banners, brand pages and social media posts to encourage uplifts in sales, ‘win on the web’ and increase brand awareness.

As much as I got stuck into my day-to-day role, and after an adjustment period, really enjoyed what the job entailed, it was all the other activities I got involved with whilst on placement which made the year so special! I was part of the intern netball team which played weekly matches against other teams around Hammersmith e.g. against the Disney interns. This was a really great chance to meet up with some of the other interns which I didn’t work with, and find out more about their roles in other parts of the business. With over 100 interns across Marketing, Commercial, Finance, Supply and more from 36 brands and 4 divisions, every intern has a totally different role and experience.

Being part of such a large, international company also meant there were occasions where I was able to get involved with corporate events, such as an event at the house of commons, “for Women in Science”, attended by MP’s, Lords and successful business people. This opportunity to represent L’Oréal at such a significant annual event filled me with pride, and also gave me experience networking with individuals outside of the business. I was also involved with charity and corporate social responsibility initiatives within the Head Office, such as selling raffle tickets, working at product sales and volunteering with disadvantaged children in the community.

All in all, my placement year provided me with such a vast array of experiences, I learnt A LOT, developed massively as an individual, but more than anything had such a fantastic time. I enjoyed it so much, that I even stayed at L’Oréal over the summer and completed another internship in a totally separate role, just so I could gain further insight into the business! I have met friends for life, and am back in London at least once a month, I just can’t wait to be back there full time in January 2021 on their Commercial Management Trainee graduate scheme.

International Summer Placement

By Jamie Taylor, BA Business Management

Over the summer of 2019, I decided to do something with my time to make a difference! I would be spending 6 weeks out in Indonesia working towards making the world a better place!

My placement was with an organisation called ‘AIESEC’ that focuses on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), my project was called ‘E-Millennials’ and this targeted ‘SDG 8’- ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’. The main aim of the project was to promote ‘Entrepreneurship and Eco-tourism’ throughout Indonesia and make a difference to help improve people’s lives.

There were 11 other people in my project team, and this gave our team a real diversity with us all being from different countries from around the world including: China, India, Egypt and Canada just to name a few. There was a belief in what we were all trying to achieve, with us all working together towards the same goal! The project was split up into 3 main components that consisted of ‘School Visits’, ‘Company Visits’ and finally an ‘Eco-Tourism Consultancy Project’ on Tidung island (island off the coast of Jakarta).

School Visits

The School visits were so rewarding as it gave me the opportunity to educate and engage with the Indonesian youth about the SDG’s as well as finding out what their future career ambitions were. Of course, I needed a translator as my Bahasa (Indonesian language) wasn’t the best but ‘Google Translate’ quickly became my new best friend. I had some really positive discussions with the students, and it was great to hear about their different opinions and perspectives!

Company Visits

I had the opportunity to visit a number of companies in Jakarta. This resulted in me waking up at 5am and having to catch a 2-hour train but it allowed me to experience what the Indonesian daily commute was like. To give some context, think of the London Underground at rush hour and times that by five!

Some of the companies that I visited were Nutrifood (Indonesian Healthy Food Manufacturer) as well as Qlausa (Digital marketing agency) these were great learning experiences and gave me the chance to spend time with industry professionals. I found it particularly beneficial to analyse the differences between businesses in the UK and Indonesia.

Visiting Unilever Indonesia was a fantastic experience and it was insightful to learn about all of the Indonesian brands and take part in a brand activation exercise. However, visiting the in-house Magnum Café was definitely a highlight! I highly recommend trying out one of the milkshakes- delicious!

Tourism Consultancy Project

For the final stage of the project I spent a week on Tidung Island. The real value of this trip was to experience the Eco-Tourism opportunities on the island and to give feedback on them to the tourism board. Highlights included, the Coral Reef Restoration Program, the Mangrove Plantation and the Snorkelling trip! At the end of the week I had to give a presentation to the local committee and produce a ‘SWOT analysis’ of tourism on the island!

Overall, this was a fantastic experience and a rewarding way to spend my summer. I would highly recommend AIESEC to anyone as they have programs all around the world and you will be sure to find one that best suits your interest!

‘Go out there and do something that will make your future-self proud’

Why a placement year is so worth it!

By Sophie Ruston, BA Business Management with Employment Experience

I had always had my sights set on doing a placement year (sometimes referred to as year in industry or sandwich year), however, I know some students are often unconvinced. In my opinion the benefits are never ending, therefore, I have compiled below 5 main reasons why, from my experience, a placement year is SO worth it:

Builds Confidence

The responsibility I was given from day 1 was at times challenging, and there were moments when I wondered what I’d signed up for, but there really is no better way to grow your confidence than through diving in at the deep end. Being immersed into a full time role with no (or very little) experience was at first daunting, but it really pushes you to believe in yourself, get stuck into the job at hand and strive to achieve your goals.

Develops Skills

Granted, university helps you on your path to a great career but your own skills and abilities only grow when you actually put them into practice. There is no better way than to start at the very bottom and learn from some of the brightest and most talented individuals out there. I was lucky enough to have such a brilliant and supportive team but wherever you go and whoever you work with, your own skills will only flourish when they are tested. No lecture can really set you up for the workplace

An opportunity to make mistakes

As an intern, you will be the least experienced person in your business and when you’re learning, mistakes are anticipated. You’re not expected to get everything right first time but you are expected to ask questions; a placement year gives you the opportunity to learn from the things you might mess up first time, but build on them next time around.

Improve your employability

A graduate with a placement year (or relevant experience) is far more favourable to any employer than someone who’s never had a job, with some stipulating a certain amount of experience in a professional role. Everyone knows the graduate market is tough, so gaining experience prior to graduating is one of the best ways you can become more employable.

It’s so much fun!

1 year in a fast-paced environment gives you the chance to discover and develop your skills but also to meet amazing people. It’s unlikely you’ll be the only intern, meaning you’ll meet loads of like-minded individuals but you also get to build a great network of colleagues across your business.

After a placement year, it’s difficult to see why anyone wouldn’t try and do one. If you’re a current student and would like more information or one-to-one mentoring, then make sure you drop into the Employability Hub in the Management School.

What I learnt on my summer internship

By Rhiannon Thefaut, BA International Business Management

My internship was a learning experience. I hated it, but reflecting back, I learnt some really important lessons and developed as a person because of it. I’ve got a clearer idea now on how best I worked, what I wanted from a job and what I was and wasn’t interested in. Therefore, I recommend doing an internship, even if it’s not what you expect – because the lessons learnt are worth it and, honestly, the extra money is really helpful for third year when your maintenance loan lowers.

The first thing I learnt was that I did not want to work in Human Resources – until this internship, I was sure this was what I wanted to go into. However, after learning it was more about policies and following guidelines, rather than directly helping people, I decided it wasn’t interesting to me. The positive from this was that through my project on creating a tool to predict unplanned absence, I learnt I really enjoyed working with data. I’m now applying for master’s in data analysis and graduate jobs that directly involve looking at trends in data. This was probably the best thing that came out of my internship; it allowed me to see what areas I enjoyed working in a practical sense, rather than theoretical.

The second thing I learnt was that who you work with really makes the job – the people I worked with didn’t try to include me, help me or support me. I went to work and didn’t speak to anyone all day and then went to the flat I lived in alone to not speak to anyone some more. Looking back on it, I could have tried more to talk and be part of the HR team, however, as they didn’t try to include me, I didn’t have the confidence to put myself out there. I asked my manager for help 12 times, and each time got rejected and told she didn’t have time for me.

This links to the third thing I learnt – ask for help. If your manager won’t help you, ask someone else. If they can’t, ask another person. It felt so uncomfortable interrupting people who constantly complained how busy they were, but you’re not burdening them by asking – nearly everyone will be willing to help, or direct you to who can help.

My last piece of advice would be to think hard about whether it is worth doing an internship for the whole summer – when you’ve just been away from home for a year. I struggled with home sickness more during my internship, than my year abroad as I really wanted the time with my family after so long and didn’t have the chance.

Adjusting back to student life after a placement

By Juliet Norreys, BA Business Management with Employment Experience

Undertaking a placement year is an extremely formative period in your university life. Going into my year in industry I was quietly confident in my ability to work as a team, be proactive and manage my time well; all the buzzwords which surround employability and were used in my applications for jobs. Little did I know that my year would completely surpass all expectations of how much I could learn and the extent to which my knowledge was lacking initially in practical workplace skills. The processes that I had taken for granted, such as creating an email that is both appropriate and coherent whilst also being professional and eloquent, was something that I thought I had down to a tee. When arriving at work I quickly learnt how not to write an email and realised how steep of a learning curve it was going to be! With this said, my year was incredible, and the investment in my development was second to none – I learnt more than I ever thought possible and have come out of it with more confidence in my ability to succeed in my graduate role.

Just as I had adjusted to my working life, working 8-6 every day and enjoying the freedom that came with my weekend, it was time to return to Sheffield. Initially, I thought that I would slot seamlessly back into student life; I knew it well and had done it for the 2 years previous. I was faced with a weird feeling of uncertainty; Sheffield itself had stayed the same (apart from the concourse near the Students’ Union finally being finished!), and yet I didn’t feel prepared for switching my ‘academic brain’ back on.

Thankfully, it only took a few days to settle back into my old student life, and I quickly felt like I had never left. The biggest difference I found is the mind-set I have now means that I can’t help but pick apart my modules, reflecting on what I learned on my placement and taking a more analytical/practical stance towards my studies. I am also much more productive with my time; the pattern of working 9 hours a days has become habit, and therefore the days of long lie-ins has ended! With these extra few daylight hours it means that I have more time to give to extracurricular activities, so I have thrown myself back into sport and part-time work. The one piece of advice I would give anyone returning from a year in industry is to create bucket list of all the things you have wanted to experience in Sheffield that you haven’t got around to yet. If you want to try out for a sports team, learn a language, or take part in something fun like Bummit, now is the time to do it! The last year goes incredibly fast and therefore you need to make the most of the time that’s left to enjoy Sheffield and student life in general.

My Placement Year at GSK!

By Eloise Howard, BA Business Management with Employment Experience

Why do a placement year?

One of the best decisions I made during my time at University has been to do a placement year. I decided at the beginning of second year that I really wanted to gain experience in a big global company and build my CV, as it is so important nowadays to have more than just a degree. Looking back, I had the best 12 months at GSK – I gained so many skills and I met lots of new friends who I’m still in touch with now. It was a challenging year and I truly developed on a professional as well as a personal level. Not only this, it was also so much fun as there was lots of opportunities to do extra things, such as volunteering.

Finding a Placement

My heart was set on finding a HR role as I enjoyed this module the most and it really stood out to me as something I could see myself doing. However, there are so many different companies to choose from all across the UK so it is a big decision! Luckily, I received tons of support from the University and I was able to speak to dedicated staff in the Employability Hub, who helped me to finalise my CV and provide really helpful advice in terms of where to look for placements and what I could expect from the recruitment process. Not only this, you can do workshops like practice assessment centres, which I would really recommend! My advice would also be to not be disheartened if you have some rejections… there were a few companies I never heard back from or didn’t get past the first or second stage, but eventually I found the perfect one and used all the help available from the Hub to secure the job!

HR at GSK

GSK is a healthcare company with 3 global businesses: vaccines, pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare. I worked in one of the specialised HR departments in the Head Office in London. This was really exciting moving to a new city, and GSK were great as they put you in contact with all the other placement students in a Facebook group so that you can find people to live with. My role varied as I did project work including Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP), mySkills (an application to assess employee skills) and Global Inclusion and Diversity. Typical day-to-day tasks were developing communication materials; writing emails andcreating help guides and articles. Plus, I had roles in Project Management and was a key point of contact for global colleagues in Inclusion and Diversity. One of my highlights would be presenting the team updates to the CEO of Consumer Healthcare! Overall, I gained so much varied experience and it helped me to work out that I definitely want to go into HR in my future career. This experience has also made me much more confident in securing a graduate job as I now have so many experiences to talk about in an interview!

My placement experience – Lloyds Banking Group

Hi, I’m Rosie and I am a final year BA Business Management with Employment Experience student. This blog post is about my placement year which I have just returned back from, the skills I developed and how I would recommend a placement year to everyone and anyone… so here’s why!

The application processes can be brutal, as you’re spending considerable time on applications and often hear nothing back. I’m happy to say it’s all worth it when you finally secure a placement and know that it’s not all been for nothing. The sense of achievement is a great feeling when you’ve successfully got your first job and got your foot in the door. My placement was at Lloyds Banking Group. This is where your journey – and potentially your entire career – starts.

My placement began a few weeks after my final second year exam. My team were welcoming, supportive and most importantly I had a ‘proper’ role within the team, not just making the cups of tea and filing away documents. Without getting into too much detail of what I did in my day to day role due to confidentiality, I worked in the PMO (Project Management Office) for the Risk Division. We ensured all running projects were in line with their scope; finance, resources, planning, time and internal and external governance. So what did I learn from this role? The ability to question the status quo. The team had to complete numerous, tedious tasks, I booked myself on excel courses and took it upon myself to automate these tasks which are now heavily embedded into the team. Definitely got myself some brownie points there.

Come Christmas time, the company was undergoing a huge restructure. It was good to experience this as it occurs quite often in larger organisations. I could see that morale of certain individuals dipped and others seemed happy to have the chance to do something new. Time for a team away day and a team building football game!

On the back of the restructure, my role did change and I became a Risk Strategic Analyst. This meant that instead of checking projects whilst they were in the process of being delivered, I now decided which projects were to go ahead. With a set budget, which projects would benefit the group the best? To do this, my communication skills had to be excellent. I was now dealing with the board, the head of risk as well as many other senior members of staff. I had to learn how each individual preferred to be contacted, when was appropriate and be clear with why I was contacting them. Daunting to say the least.

So my year at Lloyds Banking Group was coming to a close. I enjoyed it so much I decided to go for the graduate programme that Lloyds Banking Group and the Risk Division had to offer. I’m happy to say I was successful! I will be returning in September 2019. I would recommend a placement year just purely for the experience. I gained so much confidence, belief in myself and now as a Futures First ambassador for the Management School I will happily lead lectures for 200+ first year students. You definitely wouldn’t have seen me doing that a year ago!

My Marks & Spencer placement experience

Hi! My name is Rebecca Hubbard and I’m a fourth year Business Management with Employment Experience student. Four years at university and, boy, has it flown by!

A key reason I chose Sheffield was due to the help and support available in helping students get real life business experience before entering a competitive job market. I still remember being in my first semester of second year when the word ‘placement’ was mentioned by a group of returning students who had just returned to university from their year in industry. After hearing from Lily, a girl in the year above me, about her 12-month internship with Arla I decided I’d give it a shot. As my placement mentor, Lily helped me gain confidence and gave me practical tips throughout the recruitment process. We would meet up when necessary to discuss next steps and chat through any difficulties I encountered.

As well as making the most of the advice I gained from my placement mentor, found it essential to take advantage of all the help and support available from the Employability Hub within the Management School. I kept up with their weekly emails advertising different employer talks and skills sessions, managing to gain insight into different recruitment processes. From this, I got to sit in on talks from businesses such as L’Oreal, IBM and Rolls Royce, and find out from them what they looked for in a placement employee, as well as attend skills workshops such as practice assessment centres. I also had a one-to-one meeting with a Careers Advisor who helped me build up my CV and think critically about my applications.

After an application process involving psychometric tests and an assessment centre, I was thrilled to receive an offer for a placement with Marks & Spencer. During placement I worked in six different Marks & Spencer stores around South West London, from small Simply Foods stores to larger department stores. During my time there my role included managing staff, assisting with recruitment processes and selecting candidates, and leading trade during the key events in the year such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. All of this meant that no two days were the same, and that the experience that I came out with was really varied. Having been in the retail industry for a year, returning back to university was surreal! Knowing that I could apply all that I’d learned from my year in work was great, and it has definitely helped me with my work during my first semester back. I would advise anyone starting university with the Management School to take full advantage of all the amazing services it offers – it’s a great feeling to know that I’ve gained invaluable experience that I know will put me above other graduates when I finally finish this year.

IBM with an Industrial Placement

By Elise McDonald, BA International Business Management

Hi guys! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.

Slightly weird post this time as I’m actually writing this from the UK nearing the end of my incredibly long Christmas/semester break. I am definitely so excited to be returning to Vienna next week.

Towards the end of last semester, I started applying for industrial placements to add in to my course before returning to Sheffield for myfinal year. The main reason I picked the IBM course at Sheffield was actually because it was the only University I could find that offered the opportunity to complete both a year abroad and a placement. I was so surprised to find out that I’ll be only the 2nd person on this course to do both, so I just thought I would share my experience of the application process with you all to encourage you to consider doing the same as me!

So, I started applying for placements towards the end of November which was fairly hard to manage with my final exams of the semester, but definitely doable. To be honest, most of the application deadlines weren’t until the end of December/January so it worked out perfectly with the holidays. If you’re worried you won’t be able to attend interview/assessment centres due to being abroad, don’t be! These days most of the application process is carried out online and I was therefore able to do telephone interviews and videos whilst in Vienna. Although, even if you do need to fly back, the company tends to pay for your travel expenses. Logistically, there have been no issues for me during this whole process (if anything the long holiday has been ideal!). Throughout the whole recruitment process I was able to talk about my experiences abroad, which was so helpful. Not only was I able to talk about my interest in international business, but also my ability to work in multicultural groups which is definitely a selling point.

Now comes the bragging… but I promise I’m only mentioning it to show you all how amazing the year abroad looks on your CV and application. I was lucky enough to be offered a Marketing placement at the FMCG Giant Unilever. Some of you might be reading that with a blank expression, but I’m sure you’re all familiar with Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, Lynx, Marmite, Persil, Domestos and PG Tips, to name a few! Well, Unilever owns all of those brands. I was also invited to the final stages for Microsoft, Hyundai, Bosch and Panasonic but was unable to accept these due to my place at Unilever. So, my advice to all of you considering doing IBM instead of another normal Business Management course – please do! Not only will you have the most amazing time but you’ll also make yourself much more employable.

I should also add that I also took the decision to work for a year in a junior office role before attending University and I also do some temporary office work in the summer holidays – I have been working at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles during my semester break. It’s therefore also a good idea to make the most of your time away from Uni to gain some valuable work experience. Don’t underestimate how important work experience is for a Business undergraduate’s CV.

Sorry to deviate away from the usual study abroad blog post, but I thought it might be something interesting to share with anyone that was considering a year in industry, like me.

I will keep you updated with how the next semester goes as much as possible!