{"id":12383,"date":"2020-02-10T16:56:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T16:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/2020\/02\/10\/finding-a-placement-year\/"},"modified":"2020-11-24T12:03:21","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T12:03:21","slug":"finding-a-placement-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/cy\/finding-a-placement-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding a Placement Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A placement&nbsp;year,&nbsp;often known as a sandwich year,&nbsp;provides students with the opportunity to spend 9-12 months working within&nbsp;their chosen&nbsp;industry, gaining valuable skills and experience&nbsp;which will&nbsp;enhance&nbsp;their CV.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s an opportunity&nbsp;which should be&nbsp;taken&nbsp;advantage of, however, finding and applying for a placement can be&nbsp;challenging.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Research<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carrying&nbsp;out your research&nbsp;is&nbsp;important&nbsp;so&nbsp;you know exactly what sort of placement you\u2019re looking for, and what you ideally want to get out of it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Having an understanding of&nbsp;what the placement year will contribute towards your degree is essential, what percentage will it make up&nbsp;of you overall grade&nbsp;and what is&nbsp;actually&nbsp;required of you during that year?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tailoring your CV<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We all have a generic CV which fits&nbsp;into&nbsp;our day-to-day life and is useful when it comes to&nbsp;applying for things such as&nbsp;part-time jobs. However, when&nbsp;applying for a placement year&nbsp;it&nbsp;needs to stand out&nbsp;amongst the crowd due to the competitive nature of the process.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spend some time working on your CV as it\u2019s essentially what will sell you to an employer.&nbsp;Tailor it specifically to the role you\u2019re applying&nbsp;for and&nbsp;emphasise&nbsp;any experience and skills&nbsp;you have which would make you a perfect fit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/02\/image.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10411\" width=\"498\" height=\"664\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/02\/image.jpeg 765w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/02\/image-225x300.jpeg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your&nbsp;Career Journey&nbsp;account&nbsp;is&nbsp;a platform with multiple tools and sessions to enhance&nbsp;both&nbsp;your career planning and development.&nbsp;It\u2019s&nbsp;useful&nbsp;for tips on how to make&nbsp;both a&nbsp;presentable and professional CV. If you need any extra help or someone to review your CV before submitting it, get in contact with your&nbsp;school\u2019s&nbsp;careers advisor.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Direct Contact<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This links back to research. The more research you do, the more potential placements you\u2019ll stumble across. Use key words relevant to what placement you\u2019re looking for to filter your search in Google. Check out people who are in the&nbsp;relevant&nbsp;industry on company websites, and university websites.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A lot of people won\u2019t&nbsp;be&nbsp;advertising&nbsp;that they\u2019re taking on&nbsp;students for&nbsp;a placement year, so it\u2019s worth getting in contact with them&nbsp;directly&nbsp;by emailing them to explain who you are and what you\u2019re looking for. Ensure you explain what a placement year is, and what is required of it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>LinkedIn<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">LinkedIn is&nbsp;a social media platform;&nbsp;basically&nbsp;the Facebook for professionals.&nbsp;It&nbsp;allows you to create an online portfolio&nbsp;similar to&nbsp;your CV, and connect with&nbsp;a range of people and companies you\u2019re interested in.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/02\/image-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10413\" width=\"490\" height=\"653\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/02\/image-1.jpeg 767w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2020\/02\/image-1-225x300.jpeg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It features extensive job listings, and you can put in your profile that you\u2019re seeking a placement so potential employers can see you! A lot of companies list their placements on LinkedIn before advertising elsewhere, so it\u2019s worth creating an account as it can&nbsp;definitely heighten&nbsp;your opportunities&nbsp;for success.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tutors<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your personal tutor is a great port of call, not only do they know people in the industry, but they may have had previous tutees who have done a placement year!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Emailing&nbsp;or speaking to&nbsp;your personal tutor and asking&nbsp;them&nbsp;for some advice&nbsp;may result in a list of potential contacts&nbsp;for you to&nbsp;get in touch with, and their advice&nbsp;in the application process&nbsp;is&nbsp;also extremely beneficial.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Take Your Time<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although there may be deadlines on processing&nbsp;your placement year application with your school,&nbsp;make sure to&nbsp;take your time and do not rush into anything.&nbsp;You need to make sure the placement is the right fit for you, and there are so many things to consider such as accommodation, funding and transport.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Weigh up the pros and cons of the placement, and whether it\u2019s going to be both feasible and enjoyable. You don\u2019t want to be spending a year of your degree doing something you ultimately aren\u2019t enjoying.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you get the opportunity to do a placement year, take advantage of it and make the most of it!&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A placement&nbsp;year,&nbsp;often known as a sandwich year,&nbsp;provides students with the opportunity to spend 9-12 months working within&nbsp;their chosen&nbsp;industry, gaining valuable skills and experience&nbsp;which will&nbsp;enhance&nbsp;their CV.&nbsp;&nbsp; It\u2019s an opportunity&nbsp;which should be&nbsp;taken&nbsp;advantage [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1775,"featured_media":10420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[244],"tags":[1256,1257],"class_list":["post-12383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jobs-and-work-experience-cy","tag-placement-year-cy","tag-pty-cy"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1775"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12385,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12383\/revisions\/12385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}