Not to brag, but if ‘Fiddy’ rates RateMyPlacement then everyone should…

Although as good as the awards were, idolising the team on his apartment wall may well be slightly unrealistic! Sorry guys!

“Undergraduates looking for work experience can find good internships on the web”

It’s not every day you see yourself in a national newspaper, but today is one of those days! In today’s Independent (page 8 of the Education & Careers supplement, in case you’re interested!), there is a cracking feature on RateMyPlacement with some coverage of the recent National Placement & Internship Awards that we held.

My personal favourite line:

“After graduation, the RateMyPlacement team found separate jobs, but every night they’d come home and log on to their computers and develop the site until the early hours of the morning.”

I can confirm this was not always the case, we did go out sometimes. Plus we left most (all) of the developing to our trusty web developer!

You can read the article in full if you nip down to your local newsagents and spend £1, or you can click on the link below and view it online…

“Get a head-start in work placements”

In spite of the weeks and weeks of snow, which brought most of the country to a chaotic standstill. Our Christmas game allowed users to enjoy the fun side of the Snow in a traditional snowball fight from the warmth of their own homes.

Pelting the three guys at RateMyPlacement proved to be a popular challenge! (Who would have thought?) and as of 5pm last friday our winners were finalised.

The winner and proud new owner of the MPro Pocket Projector (worth £295) courtesy of 3M is Alex O’Keeffe and his pink robe with a score of over 24,000.

Runner up Craig will receive £50 worth of HMV vouchers to spend on whatever he desires!

Thanks to everyone who had a go, there were some great scores on the board and great effort put in! Here’s to next year….

We have over 80 placement and internship vacancies listed on RateMyPlacement, with 50 deadlines due to close within the next three weeks… So what are you waiting for?!

Click here to view all the latest placement and internship opportunities on RateMyPlacement!

Thought about working in a law firm?

Whether you study Law or not you can apply for opportunities in Law firms…

So whether you are in your first, second or final year looking for that vital work experience then we have something for you…

We have 9 Law firms advertising their opportunities on RateMyPlacement – click here to view all the opportunities…

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.

My last blog was kind of a whirlwind tour of the first 3 months of life as a PwC Business Placement student, so I’ll try and include a bit more detail this time…

I last posted at the beginning of the second set of exams, about a month ago. This study period was really intense, especially as I’d got an exemption from one. That sounds backwards, but you have to work on the days allocated to studying for that exam, so the mix of work and learning was quite tiring, but I’ve got some extra work experience in. When I started, I didn’t think I’d get any exemptions from the exams because I’ve obviously not finished my degree yet, but you can if you’ve done the relevant modules so make sure you apply!

Our exams were on the day of the Christmas party, which was a great incentive to work hard because we could let our hair down and really celebrate afterwards. Nearly all the office came along for a proper Christmas dinner, the highlight of which was the first years’ Christmas song. There’s a tradition in this office for the new starters to sing a song in front of the whole restaurant, and unfortunately for us this year was no exception. We’d re-written the lyrics of Jingle Bells with a PwC theme, which got a good reception, and then we sat back and enjoyed awards for ‘worst tie’ and other random achievements. It was a good way to get to see what the people we work with are like when they’re out of work.

The Christmas period here can be very busy, and as a first year I have to do a lot of stock counts. These are one-day jobs where you go out to a client on your own and audit their stock count, checking that they’ve counted, recorded and followed procedures properly. The first one I did on my own was fairly scary, because there’s a massive difference between spending time with a client knowing your in-charge and being on your own at a site. However, because you have to do it a lot, you pick it up really quickly and get a real sense of achievement from doing it yourself. It’s also a good way to get to know a client ahead of jobs, as you’re often booked to the stock count of companies that you’re auditing later in the year.

Looking ahead to January and February is a little scary, as I’m booked to clients back to back until late April, spending time both locally and away in London. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and learning more on the job, as being at home studying does leave you feeling a little detached. But I’m sure I’ll be taking that back in a few weeks when I’m desperate for a day of textbooks and exam questions! That’s the thing that’s great about this placement; it’s a mixture of work in the office, and work studying for exams, just like uni, so you won’t feel like you’ve had too much of a culture shock!

As 2010 is speeding ahead, I have finally got round to uploading all of our piccies from the RMP Campus Tour 2009! We spent a good few months on campus; travelling around the country to attend fairs, events, conferences and presentations to meet all of you students interested in finding Internships and Placements on RateMyPlacement.co.uk.

So heres the best of the rest..

Happy New Year everyone! Here is to RMP Campus Tour 2010/2011.