The RateMyPlacement Blog

Anyone want to get into sales??

Gooooooooooooooooooood Mooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggggg RateMyPlacement fans!!

To everyone that doesn’t know I’m in the business development team here at RMP Enterprise and I bring new businesses to the website whilst ensuring our current clients use us again next year. We have a range of services here at RMP to help businesses get their messages out to all you top students whether it be online through RateMyPlacement.co.uk, using our team of Brand Managers from On-Campus Promotions, the National Placement and Internship Awards to celebrate excellence in the undergraduate market or finally through our Top Employers Guide (look out for the new edition and Top 50 table around University in September!!!)

So that sums up my role and I thought some of you out there may like to know what I actually get up to on a daily basis, whether it be because you’re interested in going into sales, you want to work for RateMyPlacement or just because you just want to know more about Ed Flower!

7.45 – Meet at Euston station with Chris Wickson. Early start so coffee and Pain Au Chocolat are on the menu for the train journey up to Coventry to see PSA Peugeot Citroen, a client which has been with us from the beginning (so thanks for showing faith in us early doors!).

9.00 – Meeting. We met our current contacts, who we have dealt with for the last few years, plus 2 new contacts in the HR team who will also look after their attraction campaign next year. The idea of this meeting is to find out about how their undergraduate recruitment has gone this year, learn of any trends or possible areas they have struggled in and then run  though how their campaign on RateMyPlacement went this year and made sure they are were aware of all of our services in case any were of interest. I think it was fair to say we were all delighted with their campaign, the fact that every student they took on had used RateMyPlacement and all had used/found the reviews extremely valuable was great! We always take on criticism and new ideas here at RMP so they gave is some food for thought for the new Top Employers Guide which we are now looking in to… so once again thanks for the suggestion!!! This was one of my favourite meetings since being at RMP, because our services have worked so well, they gave us some ideas from their end on how to improve things and also they are all really nice and we had some laughs as well! Top draw meeting!

10.30 –Wit h the meeting wrapped up, it was time to get back on the train down to Swindon to see another client from the past few years. Chris was heading back to the RMP World HQ, and I was meeting Ollie Sidwell in Swindon – meaning an hour train journey to get a little work done (and a quick update of facebook, BBC sport etc).

12.00 – Arrive in Swindon to meet our contact at Intel. Again a good client for the last few years and the meeting was to establish how their undergraduate recruitment has gone this year from their perspective and then their online campaign with us.

Again Intel were really happy with how our campaign ran for them and we were the top performing media for their undergraduate roles!! A big focus for Intel are our student reviews and how valuable they are for prospective candidates.  The reviews are what fuel the Top Employers Guide, which is becoming increasingly competitive to qualify for so well done to all companies who have made it! In order to qualify for the Top 50 employers must have at least 15 reviews from students, which gives them a raw rating. From this we then weight the reviews on different criteria. For instance the higher percentage of students which leave reviews the better, because this shows a more reflective opinion of the scheme. For example a company which has 15 of 20 students reviewing will be weighted higher than a company which has 20 of 100 reviewing. Also the more opportunities the company provides for students the better, for instance a company offering a first year insight, internship and placement will be highly weighted. Again we were given some ideas on how to improve the website, which again we are looking into (all ideas welcome!).

1.30 – Back on the trains with a sandwich from Upper Crust, apple and a bottle of water we head back to London for a final meeting! On the way I tried to get as much information out of Ollie about our upcoming social as possible…. but he was letting on nothing! This is the big one for hitting our yearly targets, so RMP with be in heavy celebrations on Friday 25^th woop woop!

3.30 – Arrive at Herbert Smith for our last meeting of the day with Ali Lindsay and Charlotte Blake the On-Campus Promotions Gurus! This is the exact opposite of the previous two meetings because this is a new company who have never used us before. The law industry is one of our growing industries and we have already signed up 2 new big law firms in Herbert Smith and Baker & McKenzie for RateMyPlacement next year and Herbert Smith will have a team of Brand Ambassadors on University campuses next year (so if you’re interested contact Charlotte Blake or Amber Jones!!). This meeting was to understand what Herbert Smith want to do on campus and how we can all work together to achieve this. It’s really exciting to bring on new clients, because we know how much everyone will benefit for it and its exciting working with new firms and their challenges.

4.30 – Now to get on the Northern line down to Stockwell and change onto the Victoria line to get to Vauxhall and then the 4 minute walk to the RMP Global HQ and well earned game of table football!

6.00 – Ready to leave the office and looking forward to a full day in the office tomorrow to write up the meeting notes, send follow up emails and start planning/arranging new meetings. All in all a very successful day though, meeting existing and new clients, with some great success stories and areas where we can improve clients campaigns for next year….. love it!

See you all next month

Eduardo Flower

Since I spend a fair bit of time on the internet, and come across some cool stuff from time to time, I thought I’d share some of it on here.

My primary source of internet entertainment has to be Reddit.  You’ll find everything on here, from news to pictures of cats (a lot), recipes to Life Pro Tips, exercise advice to gaming, all sorted according to how the masses vote.

The onion is a fantastic news parody site.  Sometimes, unfortunately, it’s actually hard to decide if the articles are true or not.

Wolfram alpha can answer almost anything.  Go ahead, try it.  “plot x^2 +2xy +x”.  “how much does a biscuit weigh”.  “next solar eclipse”.  “how old is the earth”.  “how many calories in an egg”.  Natural language processing is the next big thing in computation.  See also: Siri (which actually uses Wolfram Alpha for 25% of queries).

TED has hosted some of the most mind-bending, entertaining, forward-thinking, educational and generally amazing talks in the world.  Personal favourites include:

• A robot that flies like a bird
• Demo of a breakthrough touchscreen (from before the iPhone)
• A stroke of insight
• Innovation to zero

And many more I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement video is very inspirational.

A great collection of pictures from Iran.

Also: App of the month!

Facefighter.  Be sure to unlock the microphone to “Deliver a first-full of feedback and sing a song of suffering!” on your friends’ faces.

That’s all for today.  Come back next month for some more!

As we fast approach Summer, we thought it was about time that we update you all on what we have been doing for the last few months. We’ve now been here over eight months and can’t believe that we’re half way through our time here!

After a December filled with Christmas parties, and an office full of chocolates and tacky decorations, we arrived back in January ready for a busy year ahead. With sales for Summer holidays generally peaking in January and February, there was no time for winter blues! Early Trading in particular have had a big role to play over the turn of year period. They’re continually monitoring prices and changing these according to demand and volume. Late Trading have been just as busy, ensuring that we met all of our sales targets for all the winter season.

Cruise has had a challenging few months, in which they have seen lots of changes to the market, due to recent events. The Planning department have been working hard on setting up the shore excursions, ready for this summer season, on our brand new pre-bookable website (check out www.cruiseexcursions.thomson.co.uk if you’re interested!). They’re also working hard on getting everything set-up for summer next year.

Like Cruise, Product have also been busy working on summer 2013 plans. At the end of last year, Amy went out on a resort trip to Mexico, in order to try and identify any potential new hotels and also hotels that we no longer feel meet our standards and would drop from our programme. She has also been busy pricing her Mexican holidays for summer 2013 and will soon be looking at our next edition brochure. Ben has also been busy following-up on important meetings with our Purchasers from last month regarding summer 2013 plans. We’ll be launching some new destinations which Ben has the pleasure of visiting – watch this space!

We also all had a fantastic opportunity to take part in our national Back to the Floor Day. This was where everyone in head office could go and experience what goes on in one of our retail shops for the day. It was a huge success and we really enjoyed seeing all our hard work in head office paid off and seeing the sales come in!

Finally, some of us have also been taking advantage of some great staff offers – Ben, Amy, Holly and Katie will all be off to the Dominican Republic in April!

Congratulations on all the successful candidates for next year and we look forward to welcoming you guys in August!

Apparently 63% of shoppers wait for special offers and promotions without buying anything they want. 58% hate paying full price for anything!

So, on that note I wanted to help everyone in getting a good deal and ensuring that ‘not paying full price for anything’ stays that way.

I know what you’re saying to yourself now, well how do I do this!?? Well from pedicures to pizzas, I’m going to help us all become canny consumers so that we never have to pay full price for anything again.

Below are some great websites and tips on how to save those pennies and get a good deal. Read away and enjoy!

Debenhams Beauty club – www.debenhams.com/beautyclub

Who knew there was a Debenhams beauty club!? Well I didn’t. Apparently you can get one of these at the till free of charge. It works very similar to a boots advantage card where you earn points for every pound spent, and is redeemable against cosmetics, beauty treatments and fragrance. You even get free makeovers and free delivery on all online orders.

Asos Premier – www.asos.com

So if you enjoy shopping at Asos this really is a no brainer. For £14.95 a YEAR, you will get unlimited free next-day delivery and early access to new arrivals and sale items. To give you an idea of how much you would save… well each next day delivery cost is £5.95 alone per order!

Itison – www.itison.com

This is apparently the latest, coolest discount website to be part of. Signing up for FREE will ensure you get sent daily deals for your city – from heavily discounted hotel rooms to haircuts, and also which I believe makes this website unique, FREE invitations to all the best events near you….awesome!

If you want to add more discount vouchers you can also join these websites which are pretty good too:

http://www.groupon.co.uk/ http://www.wowcher.co.uk

Net Voucher Codes – www.netvouchers.co.uk

If you have a Smartphone this is one app you shouldn’t be living without. This established new coupon website now has a Local Deals app, which uses GPS to find deals close to where you are – and even directs you to the shop to pick up your bargains! You can expect to receive discounts everywhere from Sainsbury’s to Schuh.

Everything £5 website - http://www.everything5pounds.com/

So my friend told me about this the other day. If you love the 99p store you will love this. It is pretty much what it says on the tin where everything is £5, however where it differs from the 99p store is that it is mainly for clothes. You can anything from dresses, jackets and shoes. Ok yes some of the items are a bit alternative to say the least but hey it’s only £5!!

Right that’s all from me now.

Let me know if these have helped you in saving some pennies. If you know of anymore websites that will help us all never pay full price for anything again let us know about it.

Enjoy!

Charlotte

James Caan has mentioned in a recent article in The Telegraph that graduates will face one of the toughest times trying to land a job in their preferred field. Having said this, should we expect grads and students to work for free?!

As the Summer approaches, many of you will be contemplating what to do. Travel, work or generally relax after a hectic year at university?

James Caan states ‘The next few weeks will be crucial for students to make sure they stay one step ahead of the competition. It’s tempting to take the summer off and enjoy a well-earned break after all those exams and dissertations, but now is the time for students to organise work experience and internships to impress their future employer’.

Here at RateMyPlacement, we offer summer internships and placements where you can gain that all important work experience BUT also be paid for it! Win, win situation…

Getting experience will definitely help with securing that dream graduate job…Let us know how you feel about working for free and comment on the blog

Good luck !

Im always keen on doing new and exciting activities, some say cycling in London should be exciting enough, I disagree and in this nature my awesome girlfriend surprised me with a day of swinging through trees (literally), 50 feet above the ground at Go Ape. I had no idea what I was going to be doing until I had to strap a harness to myself with various ropes hanging from it. We got briefed (briefly) on how to be safe when navigating through the foliage and were set off on a mini adventure in a mini woodland.

Once you get up there you deal with the task at hand and luckily I dont fear heights. Several courses are spilt up with various ways to pass from one tree platform to another. Shimmying, leaping, swinging and everyones favourite zip lining are all welcome here. Extra points are awarded for style of which I had very few points awarded as you can see in the video here >> zip lining

A Tribute

Sadly, an artist that shaped my adolescence passed away recently. Adam Yauch AKA MCA from The Beastie Boys passed away on May the 4th after a 3 year battle with cancer. I was first introduced to the BB’s by my brother with the Licensed to Ill album which featured the notorious Fight for your right (to party). This was my first introduction to Hip-Hop and a genre that shaped the way I grew up. I was lucky enough to see the BB’s 3 times in one week when they were on their ‘Mix Up’ tour in 2007. A friend and respected UK DJ (DJ Pager) passed myself and a friend some free tickets to see them in Brixton at the Academy, later that week a few of us went to Bestival where they performed twice. Needless to say they amped up the crowd and it was an amazing experience. The BB’s had a wealth of musical influences and styles at their disposal such as punk and funk, rap and rock and for all of those that dont know much more than their classics such as Fight for your right, Sabotage and Intergaltic, heres a spotify playlist ive made for your enjoyment, just click the link >>>>>>>>> RIP MCA

And on a lighter note

see ya later

Hi again all,

You might remember that this time 3 months ago (that’s flown by) I had a bit of a shocker with the commercial holiday that is Valentine’s Day. To relive my pain you can check out what I did here.

I’m just recovering and I think that Jay (the girlfriend) has forgiven me now. Although, I do get some evils whenever we see flowers on discount or any Marks & Spencer bouquets. So, I was determined not make the same thing happen again when it comes to her birthday in a weeks time (15th May).

7 Days Ago…

It’s convenient having 2 shopping centres (Bluewater and Lakeside) virtually on my doorstep, so I decide I’ll take a trip to Bluewater, and get everything done early, let’s not have a repeat of the Valentine’s Day fiasco I say to myself.

Now, one thing I urge men to do when shopping for your girlfriends is buy something you can add to for years…for exactly this situation. My particular item is a charm bracelet I bought about 3 years ago and have been adding to for more or less every Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Anniversary and Birthday since….(hmmm I wonder if the element of surprise has been ruined)…ah well!

So, in confident mood I stroll to Dower and Hall, where I’ve always purchased these charms from, but as I edge closer, past Zara, past GAP there’s a sense of foreboding and there’s the space where the shop used to be…my saviour…my one sense of security in an otherwise doomed shopping trip is gone…it’s Valentine’s Day all over again.

4 hours later and carrying no bags, I’m a disheveled mess. Trudging round the 1.6 million square foot, 330 store retail centre in desperate search of something meaningful, thoughtful and heartfelt, I can’t believe that there’s nothing that meets my reasonable criteria.

At 6pm, I’m getting hungry and I’ve still got 7 days left, why don’t I call it a day I hear you ask??

…Well the last time I did that my girlfriend of 4 years got some discounted flowers a day late…I was adament this cannot happen again.

So in the car and over the bridge to Lakeside…surely there’s something here for me to express myself. With renewed hope I’m inside lakeside and the first thing that strikes me is the number of chavs that frequent the place these days.

Nevertheless, I was on a mission and just two hours later I’d done it success…and here’s what I’ve bought:

This might seem a bit of a random assortment of stuff but there’s method behind the purchases, I expect the main questions will be revolving around the Stephen Hawking book, but after months of consistently watching The Big Bang Theory, she appears to have developed into the female equivalent of Dr Sheldon Cooper.

You might also be thinking…why, if the birthday isn’t till next week has he listed all the presents here now…what is she reads this? Well, here’s where the tragedy comes in…

On Friday night about 2am, there I was lying in bed, a content man after my shopping exploits, then all of a sudden I’m suddenly rotated about 45 degrees as my £400 bed decides this is the point it can’t take any more (this is due to weight by the way and not any form of amorous activity) and snaps.

Rolling out of bed, a night on the sofa is the result…this can get fixed in the morning we think and settle down for what has to be the most uncomfortable nights sleep ever!

So morning comes, we go about fixing the bed…off comes the matress, we survey the damage…and then I remember I’ve hidden the presents under the bed, and the inevitable comes, eagle eye spots it and the surprise is ruined for another year.

Plus, a rigorous complaint to the bed shop results in them having to come out and ‘survey’ our bed meaning it’s plenty more nights curled up on the sofa…which isn’t as good as it sounds.

So…we’ve come to an end of my birthday present disaster…maybe third time lucky and all that!

Here’s to our anniversary in November.

Take care guys and hope you have more luck than me in whatever you do!

Last week we were invited to run an AGR Masterclass at Kings College London. The Association of Graduate Recruiters put on regular events and masterclasses to help educate graduate recruiters and those involved in higher education employment and were keen to run a session around placements, internships and early engagement. Being the experts (even if I do say so myself!), running this event was right up our street…

Prior to the event, I put together a list of the ‘Top Ten Components of a Perfect Placement’ based on all of my experiences around being a placement student myself, working with hundreds of graduate recruiters and having almost 10,000 reviews here on RateMyPlacement. In case you’re wondering how the photo above is relevant – that is the new RMP office, where we like to think we provide our students with the perfect placement!

So, here goes…

Pre-start communication For example, setting up a Facebook Group and inviting all of your new intake so they can get to know each other before starting, arrange accommodation and know what to expect on day one.

Comprehensive induction Important to remember that for many students, this might be their first ever experience of the corporate world and therefore a comprehensive induction of the way to behave, dos and don’ts and introduction to the company culture to ensure they feel comfortable is key.

Have a clear plan of action and line management Having a clear plan for the student’s entire placement, or at the very least the first 3 months, is essential. Ensure the student knows what is in store for them, manage expectations and equally important is that they have a specific line manager and clear sight of the hierarchy. Also recommended is a mentor who they do not directly work with, for example a recent graduate.

Throw them in at the deep end, build responsibility No-one wants to be sat around reading articles or doing background research for the first few weeks – have a project lined up to get them working on something straight away and then build their responsibility from there.

Provide a wide range of experiences A placement is all about getting experience – therefore make sure that students do gain exposure to a wide range of business aspects to broaden their horizons.

Provide regular feedback and ensure they feel valued It goes without saying, but ensuring that the student is receiving regular feedback and that they are clearly aware of the contribution they are making helps to ensure a successful placement for both employer and student.

Create opportunities and activities outside of work A placement is not just about the work. Students should be given the opportunity to get involved in ‘outside of work’ activities such as charity projects, sports clubs, social committees etc.

Exit interview and feedback As the placement comes to a conclusion, ensure that there is a thorough exit interview and as well as providing the student with an appraisal of their work, they get the opportunity to feedback too.

Review their experiences on RateMyPlacement RateMyPlacement provides an independent but controlled platform for students to leave their honest feedback and therefore provides a valuable tool for measuring success and benchmarking your schemes against others.

Keep them warm with regards to graduate opportunities If you wish to retain your undergraduate intake into graduate roles, have a clear plan in place to keep the students warm during their return to university with fairly regular communication and updates. Another effective option is to employ the student as a Brand Manager for their final year to help promote your organisation on campus.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the above and if you think there are any points I’ve missed or if you have any questions, feel free to comment below.

Hello all,

So last time you were reading my blog it was probably just after I bugged you to ‘like’ it at the bottom so I could stuff my face with a free lunch. Well I’m not going to do that this time…because you’ve already liked it, right? Anyway, standard procedure from me with YouTube clip of the month, Purchase of the month & LAD of the month. If it aint broke don’t fix it and all that…

This months YouTube clip was actually circulated around our office a few weeks ago and had me in tears of laughter. If you ever want to know how not to act when somebody you’re into doesn’t feel the same then check this video out. Crazy girl + her mobile phone + some fantastic New Zealand accents = 7 minutes of comedy gold, enjoy!

Now even though month after month I am scraping the barrel of my poor excuse for a bank account I always manage to find something stupid to spend my money on. This month, although a bit of random purchase, I can still get away with since it is protecting my iPhone, a device I have not had the best luck with in the past (on my third one..). It is my Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES to a lot of nerds (Nick I’m looking at you!), iPhone case. As soon as my housemate showed me a picture of it online I hit the online shopping kingdom that is eBay in search for one. It took me the total of 4 minutes from viewing to purchase and I couldn’t be happier, especially at the measly price of £7.99.

Now we have finally arrived at ‘LAD of the month’. This month’s winner also comes in the form of a YouTube clip that was sent to me today. The guy, referred to as Eddie in the clip seems to be on a date at a basketball game in Washington and gets called down for a half time slam-dunk competition. When it comes to his shot he pulls off the most outrageous front flip and still manages to make the shot, he then dedicates it to his date before returning to the crowd. I think we can all safely say that Eddie got lucky that evening, nicely done sir!

As I’ve mentioned before if you enjoy this blog then why don’t you see how I micro-blog it up all over Twitter. Search “@ThomasWilson21” and see what I have to say (most of it’s pointless)

It’s been fun, but it’s time for me to shut up and you to get on with some work!

Adue, Kwa Herini, Auf Wiedersehen and Goodbye!

Tom

The tube has to be one of the best and worst things about living in London.  Coming from a rural village in Yorkshire, where buses end around 6PM and the nearest train runs once an hour (if the cables haven’t been stolen that day), a train every 3 minutes is a different level of convenience.  Having said that, it’s surprising how quickly 3 minutes of waiting can go from ‘another level of convenience’ to ‘I can’t believe I have to wait three whole minutes for the next train, now I’m going to be late’.  I think when services are so regular, you subconsciously leave less time for your journey and cut it tighter and tighter, until, inevitably, you are late.  At its worst, the Tube is dirty, crowded, humid, noisy, and generally uncomfortable.  It’s easy to see why people get angry so easily down there.

There are several aspects of the underground that intrigue me, and maybe I’ll talk about them in later posts.  What I thought I’d talk about here, having just watched “The Tube” on BBC2 last night (great documentary, highly recommended), is how to get from A to B as fast as possible.  I’m no expert, having lived in London for a total of 10 weeks, but I have picked up on a few things and I’m a techie so I love a good App.

The first step is to get an Oyster card, set up auto-top up so you never have to use a machine — or god forbid — queue for a ticket desk again, and buy a travelcard (contrary to the name, it’s not a physical card – just something you ‘load up’ onto your Oyster card).  Make sure you plan your route beforehand; after all you wouldn’t want to frustrate the locals and appear to be a tourist. Tube Map can help with that, and it works offline so you can still use it 200ft down.

When you have got your Oyster card and stashed it safely near the outside of your wallet (so you can scan through without taking it out), remember to walk fast and stick the the left of the elevator (what if there is a train waiting in the platform?!).  If you get down and see a train leaving the station, make sure to remember where the doors were so you can stand in position for the next one.  To decide which carriage to get on, Tube Exits is well worth purchasing at just £0.69.  It calculates your journey and tells you which carriage to get on at so you are next to the exit when you arrive at your destination.  Perfect for cutting those valuable seconds out of your journey time.

The Live Map of London Underground is also very interesting.  It uses live data from TfL to estimate where the trains are along the track, so you can time your walk to the station to perfection.

When on the train, if it’s busy it’s often worth trying to move down into the middle of the chairs so you are first in line to sit down if someone stands up.  Having said that, don’t forget to give up a seat to the elderly or less able.  If you are only on the train for a few stops it’s probably not worth fighting for a seat, and you might be better being near the door anyway.

Other than that, it’s just down to luck.  Staying safe is ultimately more important than getting to your destination on time, so I cringe at those who stand mere inches from the edge of the platform just to be first on the train, or jump through the doors as they are closing and proceed to get stuck.  Take care.

Maybe I have taken this ‘efficiency’ thing too seriously, but every 5 minutes extra working at RMP is worth it.  Make sure to like this post, I’m donating 10p/like to our office sport relief fund!