Hey guys! I hope this post meets you well. Today I’m going to talk about one of the many opportunities the Uni of Surrey offers its students, and it is a Placement Year. This is a year out of uni to work in whatever area of specialisation you study. This is a chance to get out into the working field, the time  you get to work on practical and real life projects basically…..the year all your lectures come into practicality.

It usually occurs in your penultimate year of school. One of the very first steps to this whole process is writing a CV. The Career Service here at Surrey have been extremley helpful with my placemnt search personally. At the start I didn’t quite know what was required of me and so I popped into their office to an appointment. I met with one of the advisers, she read through and corrected my drafted cv, she took her time in explaining points I needed to emphasize, the alignment simply because all these little details matter. Your CV is your chance to sell yourself.

I was given leaflets which had guidelines on the job application process in detail. When I got selected for an interview the career service provided an atmosphere for me to practice for my interview. I booked an appointment and met an adviser who ran a mock interview with me, corrected me and basically shoved a whole lot of confidence in me.

I must not forget to mention the placement officers for my course, John Illingworth and Stephanie Evans. They have been so encouraging throughout this process. For my course as well as many others I’m sure, all students have access to the job database and all we have to do either apply online or send our CV’s in to John ans Steph who then send them directly to the companies as the university is in partnership with so many companies and these companies just recruit uni of surrey students.

Anyways, its been an experience for me in my opinion because I’ve got the chance to “sell myself”. My best advice for anyone who wants to embark on the placement search process would be to expect rejection (especially if its your first time going through this) don’t give up, practice more, prepare well and move on. The more interviews you do the better you get, its all about perspective. Don’t look at the rejections as failures but instead as a chance to practice and work better on yourself. On the note I would like to end this post. I hope this is useful to some of you who want universities that offer placement programs, Surrey does and they assist you every step of the way.