Hello, my name is Ash and I am a final year Business Management (Marketing) student. I undertook my placement year at the Accommodation Services in our very own University.

Placement in University

Truth be told, I wasn’t too sure whether I wanted to do my placement at University, despite studying at Surrey for two years already, however, I was pleased when I received an offer after the interview. I was not only able to enjoy and gain experience as a student and a staff member, but I was also able to meet with my friends who didn’t do placement and attend societies and events at the University. 

My roles and responsibilities 

My roles and responsibilities included being a part of the Allocations Team and liaising with different departments like Finance, Facilities, Student Services, Placements, Lettings and Court Warden Team. Some of the responsibilities include providing appropriate advice to customers in person or by phone or email. I also had a range of daily tasks such as allocating rooms, booking short term accommodation and processing room changes. 

Managing my first project

During the placement year, I also had the opportunity to work on a number of projects. One of the projects that I really enjoyed working on was reviewing a frequently used process for Lost Accommodation Keys in order to make an improvement.

This project allowed me to apply my academic knowledge as I was familiar with the principles of process design from one of the first-year modules. With this knowledge, I was able to present to my colleagues and managers a clear and viable process compared to the current one for Lost Accommodation Keys. This resulted in successfully implementing a new process, which was used by students at the University. 

Developing workplace skills

Overall, this project helped me to

• develop project management skills through the planning and leading of the whole project,
• set up and chair meetings with my colleagues and managers during the busy period,
• organise the content of a web page for Lost Accommodation Key
• direct and control resources to complete the goals and objectives of a project

My piece of advice  

I am sure plenty of you in the second year are thinking of whether a placement year will be worth it. My advice is to go for it! A year in industry is a great way to trial a career before jumping head-first into a job after graduation.

The best-case scenario of placement is that it can help you find what you would love to do in the future and the worst case is that you decide that particular path isn’t for you. Even if that happens, you will still have gained a professional working environment and gained valuable transferable skills, which I believe is 100% worth the investment. 

To find out more about the application for Accommodation Services, please contact accommodation@surrey.ac.uk. Please note applications is not open all year, however, you are more than welcome to get in touch with the team for more information.