How to…find a placement year

With the option of a taking a placement year as part of your course now available to the majority of level I students here’s our guide to finding and applying for a placement year.

Your Placement Year Search

It’s hard to know where to start with online searches and jobs boards so here are our recommended starting points if you’re looking for a placement year.

My Careers Centre is Hope’s online resource. Here you’ll find graduate jobs alongside student placements and internships. A quick search for ‘placement year’ in ‘Liverpool’ returned 286 results whilst just clicking the ‘placements’ list returned 664 opportunities.

Rate My Placement is a great resource specifically aimed at placement year students. You’ll find national and international opportunities alongside student reviews so you can get a real insight into what it’s really like working at the company you’re applying to. The majority of opportunities are with well known, blue chip companies so those willing to relocate for a job will have a higher chance of finding a role on here.

Talk to a Careers Adviser our team of qualified advisers can help you find opportunities suited to your course or career aims. With a wealth of experience we can help to identify companies that might be recruiting, expand (or narrow down) your options if you’re finding it hard to identify the right role for you and we’re here, free of charge, to help you every step of the way.

Target Jobs national opportunities from large graduate recruiters. Useful for those looking for a structured placement year with a well known company.

Your Applications

Apply!

It can be easy to talk yourself out of applying for a role…but the 1 guarantee I can give you is that you definitely won’t get the job if you don’t apply. If you’ve looked at the job description and thought ‘I could do that’ and looked at the company and thought ‘sounds like an interesting place to work’ why not apply for the job?

Do 

• spend time on your application.
• make sure you’ve answered each question fully.
• demonstrate how you fit the person specification (give examples to evidence what you’re saying).
• do your research and detail why you want to work for that particular company.
• get your application checked before you submit it (via Careers Express).

Don’t 

• rush an application.
• copy and paste from previous applications (it’s tempting but unless the question’s exactly the same you might not be fully answering the question posed to you. Even worse, you could be referencing the wrong company in your application!)
• be put off if you don’t meet every single one of the criteria on a list – see it as a wish list… if you’re matching most & think you could do the job, give it a try.

• leave an application until the deadline. Some roles will close ahead of an advertised closing date if they get a high volume of applications (an early application shows you’re organised and keen).