Business Management (final year student)
I had a look around quite a few universities including UWE, Bath, Bradford and Newcastle. I wanted to do business regardless and was sure that I wanted to do a placement year to help m employability. As the placement office here has a really good reputation, it was the deciding factor in my choice.
I worked at HESA in Cheltenham a year and a half ago. My role was initially as a business administrator liaising between the different funding councils and attending meeting from a student perspective, taking minutes etc. It was a good experience and I liked that I was part of a small organisation as I felt that I had a bigger part to play. My job role then changed and because split between business admin and data management. At the end of my placement they asked me to stay on for an additional 6 weeks.
The biggest thing that helped me was gaining self-confidence. I was used to delivering presentations to 20 or 30 students so when you have to do it in front of business people, it’s not too different. I heavily used the placement team during my placement year. They constantly helped me when I was searching for placements and gave me advice with my CV and what it would be like at various organisations. This obviously helped me as I managed to get quite a few interviews including Xerox and Tesco.
I would definitely recommend them to focus on doing a placement. I had no idea what I wanted to do career wise before I went on placement but having that professional experience has given me a better idea of what I want to do and it also gives you a competitive edge over other candidates when you apply for a job.
Business Management at the University of Gloucestershire