HR Placement Review: Part 1 of 2 – Expectations of applying for a placement and key lessons.

Having spent time in a real working environment, I have gathered some comments about expectations, what I’ve learned, what I enjoyed as well as recommendations for new placement students and recommendations for companies giving opportunities to placement students. How do you engage your placement students?

I expected finding a year’s placement in a forward-thinking technology company would be difficult. I jumped at the opportunity for a placement mentor at the University of Portsmouth (UoP), working with Alex Shorthouse. Alex helped me build my resilience, dealing with rejections and providing encouragement. This support helped me understand how much time would be required to apply for and achieve a placement. What support do you receive that helps you unlock your potential?

After completing 7 final stage assessment centres, 20+ applications and psychometric tests, I managed to secure a placement when I accepted an offer with Centerprise. This opened up the opportunity of starting my career in HR to find out what I like/don’t like and what I am good at/need to improve. What do you like and not like about your job?

I didn’t expect to struggle so much to meet university deadlines alongside applying for placements, so I learned this lesson the hard way. However, there was a positive, as I learned this lesson earlier than my peers who didn’t apply for placement. This meant my peers would be going through a similar process when they were finishing their degrees! What advice would you give a placement student in your department?

Something that surpassed my expectations was the insight into the widely varying length of different company’s recruitment processes. This included learning how other placement students and interviewers interacted with prospective placement students. Could you make your process more efficient or engaging?

We are all students of life.

Key Lessons:

Building a good rapport and trust is vital to succeeding (making the most of my placement).

Taking ownership installs trust. Getting involved with ad hoc projects helps build confidence. Therefore, being a team player helps massively. There is no I in team!

Strategic HR and Business Partnering are very interesting. This area provides a holistic view of the company’s capacity; therefore, this allows me to use real examples which could be applied when I study at university. Valuably, exploring HR as a year in industry encouraged me to pursue my other professional interests when I graduated. How can you increase capacity at work?

Expectations and the reality can be competing concepts. An open mind may be helpful. It’s ok to ask for help, change careers, and look at the bigger picture (we work to live, we don’t live to work).