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Industry Placement help

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Well this could belong in student as well i guess, doesn't matter i guess :p

Anyway next year i have to take a year long industrial placement as part of my 3rd year. Im doing Computer Science so obviously an IT placement is what i'm after. Any suggestions or any sites people know are good to look for this kind of thing?

You'd probably tell me to ask my university for help ... well i have ..loads of times and there USELESS, so need to get it done myself.

Any help appreciated :)

Comments

  • JsTJsT Posts: 18,268 Skive's The Limit
    Your right to be doing it yourself, our uni last year were a complete joke and ended up not getting a placement at all!

    Have you tried contacting nearby companies directly?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well i sent off a few applications to some of the big companies that came to our careers fair but there vacancies went pretty quick.

    Not really looked at companies nearby to me actually, i suppose that is something to look at.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Have you tried talking to people in the year above who did one?

    That's worth a shot, you can often find out who had a good time and where offered good placements that way, and if they has a student last year, they may well be up for having one again.

    Don't forget to look at electronic engineering type firms as well as just IT type jobs. Thales Optronics had some great summer placements going if CompSci was your thing when I was looking for one.

    Apart from that, search grad recruitment places, and email letters/write to places and ask.

    Another trick that may or may not work, get in touch with some other uni's that offer a similar course, imply you are a prospective student and ask about what students do in their placement year, where they work etc and use the answer to help you find places to look.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Are you prepared to move anywhere in the country or are you limited to areas?

    When I was looking (same field), I got a list of the top 100 IT companies (think I picked up a paper from a careers fair) and basically went to each of their websites and found their placement section. Just about all of the big companies offer placements and all the recruitment is done online now for them.

    You need to be applying now to big companies because most have closing dates of end of January at the latest.

    I found my placement on my own, even though uni were pretty good at advertising opportunities and helping people get jobs. Most of these were with small local firms, which wasn't the experience I wanted. Did my placement year at IBM, loved it and I'm now back doing software development. If you do decide to apply here feel free to ask me anything about the recruitment process/anything about general working life and attitudes here. :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Cheers for the replies guys. Im not fussed at all about location and all that. I sent off a few applications yesterday and am still looking so we will see what comes of it all :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's also worth thinking about what you want to do in the future and trying as much as possible to get into that sort of industry...if you want merchant banks go for them, if you're interested in the hardware side try intel or hp etc.

    You also need to decide whether you want to be a little fish in a big sea and work for a large company or whether you'd rather be somewhere that you feel known and appreciated. It is a very different attitude that's required from each.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    GoodFella wrote: »
    Well i sent off a few applications to some of the big companies that came to our careers fair but there vacancies went pretty quick.

    Not really looked at companies nearby to me actually, i suppose that is something to look at.

    When I was at Uni I went for an interview at one of the McDonald's Regional offices to work in their IT Dept.

    When i got to the interview (very late cos a storm hit the UK the day before knocking a tree on my train line) I was told my CV was only 1 of 10 chosen to be interviewed out of something like 9,000+

    So applying to big, well known companies isn't always a good idea cos the competition is huge. And this was in the days when you actually had to pay for postage not just email an application across - so I reckon it would be even tougher now.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Try Milkround.com. The majority are grad jobs but there are placements and interns. :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    DG wrote: »
    When I was at Uni I went for an interview at one of the McDonald's Regional offices to work in their IT Dept.

    When i got to the interview (very late cos a storm hit the UK the day before knocking a tree on my train line) I was told my CV was only 1 of 10 chosen to be interviewed out of something like 9,000+

    So applying to big, well known companies isn't always a good idea cos the competition is huge. And this was in the days when you actually had to pay for postage not just email an application across - so I reckon it would be even tougher now.

    :yes: Looking at grad jobs for next year. Microsoft are looking to take on 10 new grads, IBM about 50, HP about 20 in standard IT roles. They are tough to get into. Companies like Accenture on the other hand are looking to take on 200-300 purely because of the type of services they offer.

    I know IBM have 50 - 70 placements this year in IT related roles, their summer scheme there's 12 places avail. When doing careers fairs I never got round to asking other co's about their placement intake so can't give any further info about them.
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