The importance of taking a placement year cannot be understated but many students decide to proceed straight to the final year of University. Reasons for that vary from placements being difficult to secure, to not being confident enough to move to another city (in some cases) and having to come back to all of your friends graduating and having to study with new coursemates.
Even though there’s nothing wrong with that, having a placement year has enormou ammount of benefits! As someone who went on a placement year and had doubts too, I can tell that it changed my career path completely in the best way possible! So, whether you’re a first or second year student, here are some of the best things you could get out of your placement:
1. Opportunity to try yourself in your specialty.
It may happen that after studying for years, you suddenly realise that you want to do something else. What to do? Or, more importantly, how to prevent it from happening? Having a placement year gives you a perfect opportunity to try working in the specialty that you’re studying towards. By doing that, not only you’ll get a feel of what your future career would look like, but may even help you to find a new one, that you would much rather pursue (if you happen to dislike the current one, of course). It is a fairly common situation when by the 3rd year you begin to be tormented by doubts: have you chosen the right specialty, do you want to devote your whole life to it? If you don’t try, you won’t know. After working for a couple of months in full download mode, you will be able to confirm or dispel your own doubts.
2. Opportunity to get work experience in the industry.
Many companies working in a wide variety of fields regularly invite interns, which allows them to find and recruit promising and active employees before competitors do. For students, this is a great opportunity to get acquainted with the subtleties of the profession, acquire the necessary skills and professional experience that will be useful in the future — after all, it is impossible to work effectively with only theoretical knowledge.
3. A placement is an introduction into the team of professionals.
There are a lot of famous companies, in which you may have dreamed of working since childhood. Getting there without any work experience is almost impossible. But it is quite possible to get involved through the internship program. During the internship, you will get acquainted with the team, the peculiarities of the corporate culture and, perhaps, even with the future boss! Thus, when considering a job application, you will have an advantage over other candidates: you are already known here. And, hopefully, from the best side!
4. A great addition to your CV.
The obvious fact is that people with experience are more likely to land an job. If you succeeded in getting a placement (short or a year-long one), consider that you already have the first line in your resume. On top of that, you would also get recommendations from the employer at the end of the internship — which are crucial when applying for a job at the end of university.
5. A nice way to earn some money on top of getting experience.
Paid internships not only allow you to gain valuable experience, but also - some money. An intern works on average of thirty to forty hours a week, although this number, of course, differs for different companies. So, being on a placement also gives you an opportunity to experience having a proper full-time job, and hopefully, save up some money for your final year at university.
6. Opporutnity to get valuable connections and network.
During the internship, you will be surrounded by interesting people — employees of the company with extensive experience and knowledge, managers who know everything about their profession, other interns who will be able to share their experience. Communicate, exchange knowledge, make acquaintances — all this will be very useful to you in the future both in work and in life in general. It’s always useful to have a couple of familiar specialists.
Finally, you never know how the placement is going to go for you. Some students may end up working with a company that they hate, while others find companies that they would want to come back to after their studies. At the end of the day, all the challenges that you’re going to face while looking for and securing a placement are going to be proven worthy, when you apply for a job at the end of the university and will get hired because of possessing some actual work experience.
For me, my placement year helped me to understand the importance of my education, how things I study could be applied at a workplace, as well as helped me to decide that career in communications is the one i wish to pursue!
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Don’t forget to share your own stories of getting a placement and how it impacted your life bellow!
