Months of planning, have now been kicked into action and RMP are officially on the Campus tour for 09/10. We will be updating this blog with all the latest tales from our travels over the coming months, so make sure you check back soon!

A had a very smooth journey up to Coventry with Chris Moyles entertaining me. On arrival I parked up and headed over to the venue. The fair was held in the Panorama Room, the set up was brilliant, and there were hundreds of balloons surrounding the building and loads of people milling about handing out flyers to students. It really put me in the mood to have a good day!

I sat through a short briefing with the organisers and went to set up my stand. I was then presented with a Christmas gift bag and inside to my surprise was a bottle of red wine and some sweeties, how lovely!

There was a fairly slow start to the day but things started to pick up around lunch time. I was joined by a RateMyPlacement student rep called Mahdi, who is a student at Warwick. We had a great day chatting to students. I was very impressed by the students of Warwick, they were a particularly friendly and happy bunch!

Thank you Warwick for having us – a lovely way to end the ‘fair season’!

Overall Ratings

• Food: 6/10. Bangers and Mash – Yum!
• Freebies: 10/10. Amazing, I got a bottle of red wine, big bag of jelly babies and some mints!
• Weather: 4/10. A little dark
• Beer: 9/10. I didn’t have any but I was compensated with a bottle of red which I much prefer anyway!
• Grounds: 8/10. Fantastic grounds
• Greenery: 6/10. Yes, Quite Nice.
• Toilets: 6/10. Clean but basicli>
• Fancy Dress Costumes: 0/10.
• Campus hotties: 6/10.

Warwick Total Score: 55/90

Find out what our Guest Bloggers are getting up to. Throughtout the year we will be following the progress of our Guest Bloggers as they find a placement or keep us updated as to what they are doing on their placement. Click here to read all entries from our bloggers or click here to meet them.

You join me as I enter the fifth month of my placement in the London office of Grant Thornton UK LLP’s (GT) Recovery and Reorganisation department. While it would have been advantageous to set off on the journey together, my late arrival to RateMyPlacement.co.uk may at least convince you that the spectacles I am wearing have lost their floral tint.

I shall use this first blog post to offer the most important points from my impression of the firm during my first week. Next time, I’ll give you a summary of my experience to date and by my third post, we should be completely caught up, and ready to go. After the HR and H&S inductions of my first morning, I arrived at 30 Finsbury Square, GT’s modern, spacious office in the City. GT has a buddy system in effect, and there to meet me was my very own buddy, Nick.

At the time, I thought that Nick was the guy to ask all of the thousands of questions that I would have about my work. I am certain his answers would have been accurate, and indeed the queries that I have taken to him have been satisfied every time. However, I quickly learned GT’s secret to the successful training of young accountants… Everyone is incredibly, incredibly helpful.

This isn’t a prescription from the upper echelons of management, it is an organic, cultural thing. I know this to be true as two months later, I was doing all I could to help the new graduates settle in and get started. The result is that today, I feel confident, established and capable of carrying out the requirements of my role. I’ll go into what I actually do next time.

When one starts life in a new organisation, whether it be a sports club, university, religious group or firm, the senses are overloaded as the brain attempts to suck in all of its surroundings’ available information. This initial period of gauging the relative importance and expertise of individuals, identifying good sources of organisational information and making connections with those around you was intense, but enjoyable, at GT. It also became much easier at around 6pm on my first Friday, when I joined a surprisingly large number of my colleagues at a nearby bar.

So before I return to work, if you hadn’t guessed it, the main thing I found in my first week in the office was not about accounting and maths, or business or finance, it was that there were people there. It sounds obvious, and if something sounds obvious it probably is. But this wasn’t to me, and I was pleasantly surprised when they turned out to be so nice.

Comments are welcomed. Until next time, Harry

Find out what our Guest Bloggers are getting up to. Throughtout the year we will be following the progress of our Guest Bloggers as they find a placement or keep us updated as to what they are doing on their placement. Click here to read all entries from our bloggers or click here to meet them.

5/10/09 Thirteenth Week

Monday was the Company Conference at Wembley; we got there around 11 and arrived to a variety of packed lunches and a long wall of Xboxes with the latest games and pre-release’s ready for us to trial. The day kicked off around 12 with 2000 MS employees filing into the main conference hall. George Alagiah from the 6 o’clock news was our host for the day and he turned out not only to be a great orator but also a very amusing man with a sharp wit for all the days’ speakers. We had ‘thank you’s’ for making it through hard times, what to expect from Microsoft in the near and distant future and enthusing speeches from the various segments within Microsoft. The highlight of the day however and what most people were there to see was the closing speech from the CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer.

This was a man who was handpicked by Bill Gates to take on the reins of Microsoft when he stepped back. He’d been at Microsoft for over 25 years, he was at one time the 15th employee to be employed by Microsoft and now he was in charge of arguably the largest, best known company in world history. He is now worth in excess of $10bn and has the ear of global leaders and power brokers around the world. One of the most powerful men on the planet was no more than 15m from me and he was losing his nut! This guy is crazy, people had stayed to see this man because his stage presence is legendary (honestly YouTube him). Not only is he clearly a very intelligent man but also a very entertaining speaker, when he left the stage I doubt there was a single person left in the room who was not enthused by what Microsoft does.

In the evening we had entertainment laid on in the bar and conference room downstairs, this consisted of a stage where people could get up to sing on the latest ‘Lips’ edition of the Xbox game. The group of interns I was with managed to grab a table that was front and centre of the stage. We proceeded to make full use of the free bar and copious amounts of food. Things took a turn for the better with the decidedly average karaoke ‘wannabes’ off and replaced with a cracking line up of comedians. Dara O’Briain first, Sean Lock followed and Jason Manford closed. Being as we were right at the front the interns had the piss taken out of us most of the evening which was very funny. The evening closed with a constant flow of drunken geeks, managers and muppets pretending they were Paul McCartney on ‘Beetles, the Cock Band’. FYI the Managing Director got 97% on vocals for hey Jude, business as well as musical flare!

I stayed at a hotel with a mate close to Wembley Monday evening after visiting the… interesting, nightlife of Wembley. My mate was in the events team and i had been asked by an ex member of the Server team to help out with odd jobs at the conference Microsoft was holding for IT Professional to show off Windows 7 and other more technical applications. It was a great day and we got to use of the boxes that Microsoft lease which was pretty cool. In the evening I stayed on for some drinks in the press box with some of the more senior influencers that had attended the day’s event. It was another great networking opportunity and nice to speak to senior people from outside Microsoft. That evening I went for dinner with 2 colleagues at their hotel, when we pulled up in the car park it was full of luxury and super cars. Needless to say when we sat down to dinner we felt a little out of place in our Microsoft/Wembley branded football shirts we’d worn for the day’s event! We had a few drinks and laughed it off rounding off 2 great days.

I had the choice to stay for a 3rd day at Wembley which I would have loved but I had to get back to the office for a deep dive session on Oracle our closest competitor for the product I market, SQL Server. We looked at how we thought they planned to approach the market and what we were doing to ensure people chose SQL instead of Oracle. On Thursday I continued with my projects and on Friday I worked out of the office as I had to be in Nottingham Friday night.

Many of you will have seen or even taken part in the recent Kit Kat Challenge that we’ve been running on campuses around the country, in conjunction with Nestle.

Our friends at Career Player recently followed us to the Loughborough Careers Fair to record the event…

To find out more about the Kit Kat Challenge, please click here.

Careerplayer.com – A site dedicated to helping you find your perfect graduate job. If you’re trying to figure out what to do and where to do it, help is at hand. Kiss goodbye to trawling through pages of job profiles, sit back and get the scoop from an industry insider.

You now have only today left to place a nomination for our upcoming inaugural awards!

We have awards available for Employers, Universities, Students and Societies, so if you haven’t already placed a nomination then click here to do so now.

All you have to do is answer a few simple questions and a shortlist of entries and nominations will be announced week commencing Monday 30th November 2009.

Good Luck! And remember the more detailed the nomination the better!

Find out what our Guest Bloggers are getting up to. Throughout the year we will be following the progress of our Guest Bloggers as they find a placement or keep us updated as to what they are doing on their placement. Click here to read all entries from our bloggers or click here to meet them.

Crikey, we’ve just finished week 5! Time is flying, which is not something one wants to happen when one is in final year. This means therefore that we’re already half-way through the first semester of our ultimate year of our undergraduate lives. They do say time flies when you’re having fun, so that must be what’s happening, as we, at Cardiff, are certainly having a lot of fun. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve had another Law Society social, which was a big success, with people dressing up for the Rubik’s Cube theme. I went pretty much all out and was sporting lime-green trousers, a bright yellow top, a light blue v-neck and orange and red socks. I did look a mess if I’m honest, but did fit right in to the theme of the night.

We’ve also had many socials that we’ve attended with various law firms and academics, as it seems to have been a rather busy fortnight in the Law School. CMS Cameron McKenna, Allen & Overy, Eversheds, Professor Simon Hix, Sir Trevor Phillips and various other academics have organised events with the Law School, which has of course entailed a reception before or after their respective presentations (meaning good nibbles and good wine).

Lecture-wise, we’ve, as you’ve probably already predicted, had some brilliant lectures with the legendary Professor Luxton (who you may remember from my last entry). He has begun teaching us about secret trusts now, which (yes, you’ve guessed it) meant him whispering ‘secret trusts’ into the microphone. He’s also got into the habit of saying words which even he finds impressive, causing him to pause, repeat the word in question and say “Gosh! That’s a wonderful word; must remember that one!” which naturally makes us all laugh.It’s lecturers like this, I feel, that truly inspire people, as they bring a subject to life, which if taught any differently, could become very dry and, let’s face it, not all that interesting. We’ve also got a new lecturer for EU Law, Professor Stijn Smismans, who has the Jean Monnet Chair at Cardiff University, meaning he is one of the most renowned EU Law professors in the country. He has begun to inspire his students and often draws on interesting anecdotes of his own in order to bring the subject to life. He has also started introducing pictures of his young nephews who are ‘guiding’ us through the difficulties of decision making in the EU. Strange some of you may think, but it does indeed help us to remember certain aspects of EU law and how competences are distributed amongst the EU and its Member States.

As I’m sure you’ve gathered already, it’s been a bumper few weeks at Cardiff Law School with a lot going on. I am, as I write, preparing myself for another cracking week next week which shan’t be in Cardiff but in the Capital of the UK, London. I’ve managed to secure a work experience placement (not a mini pupillage as the man in question doesn’t do mini pupillages) with the legendary and hugely renowned tax barrister, John Gardiner QC. I am thrilled to have been offered such a placement and shall, of course, let you know how it goes…

Find out what our Guest Bloggers are getting up to. Throughout the year we will be following the progress of our Guest Bloggers as they find a placement or keep us updated as to what they are doing on their placement. Click here to read all entries from our bloggers or click here to meet them.

So we’re now in week 2 of what has already been a very busy start of my final year. This has come as a complete shock to the system after what can only be called a ‘relaxing’ year abroad in the sunnier climes of Passau in Germany.

Being the President of the Law Society this year has of course added to this busy nature of the start of term, but it has been well-and-truly worth it as I’ve already had the chance to meet many of the second years, who I had not met before, and the new members of the Law School, the freshers.

In the past fortnight, we’ve had a highly successful turnout at our freshers’ bbq in Bute Park (attended by over 120 students), our second-hand booksale, our first social (held last night) which was attended by around 200 lawyers who were all dressed up in crazy school-related costumes. It was an epic night, nights which are of course necessary in the stressful life of your average law student.

I have taken two core law modules this year (Trusts and EU), along with German language and the fairly interesting, albeit slightly too historical, module about the German constitution and institutions – I see some of you yawning, but I assure you it’s actually not too bad. Trusts and EU are both turning out to be fantastic subjects, which have so far been taught by highly motivational and hugely charismatic (not to mention funny) lecturers – Prof. Luxton and Dr. Hunt respectively. Prof. Luxton’s jumping behind the lectern during an explanation about a resulting trust (i.e. boomerang trust), pretending to be dodging the aforesaid boomerang was very well received and did command a uproar of laughter from the audience and the man himself being branded a ‘legend’ by many students, after a mere week of teaching.

It’s turning out to be a cracking year and I’m very excited to see what’s in store for us in terms of the academic and, of course, social aspects of our life at law school. I will of course be keeping you up-to-date with the pressures of law school, with the added excitement of being President of the University’s biggest society, not forgetting Prof. Luxton’s ‘stunts’ during lectures. The Law Careers fair is soon to follow also!

Watch this space!

You now have only 2 days left to place a nomination for our upcoming inaugural awards!

We have awards available for Employers, Universities, Students and Societies, so if you haven’t already placed a nomination then click here to do so now.

All you have to do is answer a few simple questions and a shortlist of entries and nominations will be announced week commencing Monday 30th November 2009.

Good Luck! And remember the more detailed the nomination the better!

Find out what our Guest Bloggers are getting up to. Throughout the year we will be following the progress of our Guest Bloggers as they find a placement or keep us updated as to what they are doing on their placement. Click here to read all entries from our bloggers or click here to meet them.

Hello again!

I’ve been busy this month with various projects including starting a new internal marketing newsletter. It feels really good to be trusted with the responsibility of starting something new, and also allows me to talk to different people from across the business, finding out what they are doing!

Microsoft, and many other companies I suspect, is all about networking – it’s not what you know it’s who you know that counts. I’m lucky in that respect to have met some really credible people across the business, including senior members as well as newly returned grads that give me such a different perspective on work, and generally life! Taking the time out just to chat to people you work with on a daily basis can be refreshing too, as you may not always be listening when you’re busy working. So I’ve had a lot of coffee at the Starbucks on site this month!

Earlier this month I spent a couple of days with my team at an offsite in a nice Hotel in the country which was great to get to know people better and understand what makes them tick, and of course making some good contacts. There are so many different characters from different backgrounds at Microsoft I could talk for hours and still end up with questions!

We had an interesting couple of days with a guy named Mike Pegg who focuses on building ‘super teams’, and challenged us to become creative problem solvers around the 5 C’s: Challenges, Choices, Consequences, Creative solutions and Conclusions. The focus was around what is and isn’t controllable, so when looking for your placement think about what you can and can’t control.

You’ll be surprised about how much is in your control – your C.V, work experience, Grades, Interviews are all in your power of control. So it’s within your power to shape your career and focus on your strengths. He also made us become much more aware of our choices we face and the consequences, often people say ‘I didn’t have a choice’ but people always have a choice. So my message to you guys is: you have lots of choices while at University and where you go on placement so make the most of those choices!

Find out what our Guest Bloggers are getting up to. Throughtout the year we will be following the progress of our Guest Bloggers as they find a placement or keep us updated as to what they are doing on their placement. Click here to read all entries from our bloggers or click here to meet them.

A couple of weekends ago we went on our one night cruise from Harwich to Southampton on one of the Thomson cruise ships, the Spirit. On the cruise there were other TUI employees but also customers. When we first arrived in the ship we had a tour from one of the entertainment team onboard the ship; we got to visit the presidential suite (unfortunately we didn’t get to stay in there but it was nice to have a nosey!), the onboard facilities such as the cinema, swimming pools, spa and restaurants / bars. We then had a talk on shore excursions from the excursion manager which was interesting as we found out the range of excursions on offer such as a one day trip to St. Petersburg and to Jordan, White water rafting etc.

Following the daytime presentations we got to experience the all inclusive buffet which was taken advantage of! In the evening we all dressed up to go to the gala dinner where we went all out and tried unusual foods such as snails..then we went to the Motown show where the entertainment team sang and danced to well known songs which got us all in the mood for the night ahead! After the show we went to the onboard nightclub and partied until 5am! It was a good night, but the 8am departure wasn’t so good and we all felt a little worse for wear on the journey home!

Over the last few weeks we have been doing page and panel sign offs – this is where we need to check all brochure content very carefully to ensure they are accurate. This requires good product knowledge and attention to detail. We also attended a Time Management workshop last week run by Adrian from HR. We both found this really useful as recently we have had a very busy workload and tight schedules to follow so it has given us some useful tips of prioritising and organising our workload.

This week I (Faye) have been heavily involved in the new design of one of our products, so this has meant I have had a chance to give feedback on how I would like this to look and what I would like included. I am a brochure guardian of Simply which is a specialised brand hoping to give customers a more authentic experience of the culture they are visiting. Everyone in our department is a brochure guardian and this has given us a good opportunity to see what goes into the production of a brochure.

This weekend all the placement students, Tom the placement manager and some friends of ours all headed up to Skegness for the Twentys Reunion. We got to see loads of different acts such as Keith Harris and Orville, Pete Tong and Judge Jules. On Saturday night we all dressed up with some of us as superheroes, cartoon characters and Ghostbusters. This was a good chance to see everyone outside of the work environment and was a really fun weekend.