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

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!

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

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 !

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!

The three placement students are feeling rather fragile in the office on this fine Friday afternoon so I thought what better therapy than to express myself through a pre-weekend blog. You will be brought the usual collection of YouTube, my best purchases and ‘LAD of the week’ and as ever I want to hear from you. Abuse, praise…your phone number, I want it all! And for god sake, like the blog at the bottom of the page, I really want the free lunch that comes with blogger of the month!

Since it was ‘Viral Day’ in the office on Wednesday I had a host of videos to choose from for the ‘YouTube Video of the Week’. We saw a mixture of some YT classics and some of those amazing viral ads we all love to see sent round the office from time to time. This week’s award though goes to a video that comes from a series of videos by a bunch of guys that call themselves ‘Epic Meal Time’, and epic they are! These young gents get together once a week for one reason and one reason only, to concoct the biggest and most outrageous meals you have ever seen. These include a 138,000 calorie burger, a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig and an 84 egg sandwich. There are recurring jokes throughout the videos that just keep you laughing the whole way through; it’s a classic example of how we love to believe that bigger is better. The video I have decided to choose is one where they make a “Fast Food Lasagne”. It strangely gets me very hungry…

Since my financial situation in these recent months haven’t led me to making many purchases outside of the standard food, travel and booze-fuelled night out I have decided that for this blog my “Purchase of the week” would be something I wish to purchase. As you can see from the picture below this is such a simple product, with such a crucial purpose. Everyone loves a bikky with their hot beverage, but sometimes this desire comes at a cost. For instance, you make two drinks; you need both hands so how do you carry the biscuits? You can’t. You stick them in your pocket, they’re crushed. The person you are making the drink for is furious they can’t enjoy a nice dunk of a biscuit and an unnecessary argument has started. This product solves all this! Some may complain it only holds one biscuit, I think that this is a good thing, everything in moderation

‘LAD of the week’ this week goes to a man who put himself through a week of hell in the name of a good cause. You have probably seen either me or one of the team begging you for sponsorship for our Sport Relief, well this man puts us to shame and goes the extra mile (well actually an extra 290 miles) to raise money for a good cause. He has battled exhaustion, severe aches and pains, sickness and sleep deprivation since setting off last Monday. Bishop has endured a 185-mile cycle, rowed across the English Channel and completed three marathon distances. He has raised £1.6M thus far and despite being a scouser fully deserves a massive salute from LADS across the country, you have done us proud!

Quick shameless plug…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

It was found that many organisations target specific universities based on the amount of applications they receive from each university, as well as the relationships built with each university career service.

So my first few questions to you are who have you seen on campus and do they seem to feature regularly in on- campus events? If so what also have they done to inspire you? Should more organisations be getting out on campus to come and visit you? Would this make you want to apply more for their roles?

An event that happened at Plymouth University not too long ago sounded fantastic. The event featured four well renowned organisations (can’t name names unfortunately) who put students in a hot seat and gave the students a chance to have a 2 minute test interview! This is definitely for the brave souls out there but what a great way to promote your brand to the student population!

Now that tuition fees have risen as well, it was found that the universities students will now choose to go to will change as students cannot i) simply cannot afford to attend certain universities ii) are confused as to what course to choose to gain them a job in their future iii) whether to go to university locally because it is cheaper and they can live at home.

Currently organisations all seem to be fishing in the same talent pool and are being encouraged to “fish around” – Organisations are being encouraged to be more pro-active and discover what other universities can offer them.

We would love to hear your views on this subject and find out what is going on at your university! Also what do you think organisations new tactic should be to ensure they are hitting the right universities and gaining the best student talent out there!? How should they form their target university list?

Please make sure if you comment to put your ‘Name, Year, Degree as well as your say’

I look forward to hearing from you all!

However, in some cases the collective ‘tat’ that is available in certain high street stores just doesn’t feel like you’ve made the effort…believe me I used to attempt to sell it online for one of these retailers!

You might be thinking…God this guy is depressing…but given that my work for Valentine’s Day started in November, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me, but what I want you to do is give you a What Not to Buy Guide for next Valentine’s Day and beyond, mainly based from things I’ve seen…and regrettably some that I have done!

So let’s start with the Cards

A few things here, firstly don’t be frugal at special occasions like this, is your loved ones not worth a few pounds on a high quality card with a heartfelt message?…if not, why not try this for next year.

Apparently, this card sold out in the Asda store in Dumbarton, not too sure what this says about our society? Would love to see the look on someones face when they open this up!

If you are the type of person who can stretch to more than 7p for a Valentines Card then, congratulations you old romantic!

Maybe a Scribbler card is the type of thing that you’d be looking for, although this is not for the feint-hearted. Make sure your relationship is as solid as a rock before you even consider sending one of these cards, or you could find yourself reading Nat’s blog post on ‘A Singleton’s Guide to Valentine’s Day’ pretty soon!

It takes a brave, or stupid person to purchase one of these, so here’s the one I bought:

and if I’m honest…didn’t get the reaction I was hoping for (I was hoping for laughter and amusement and it evoked more anger and disappointment!) so to make up for it I bought some beautiful roses…which, as you’ll see later didn’t have the desired effect either!

Finally, if you’re a bit of a player but you can’t afford to keep all your many admirers happy then remember to look out for Morrisons next Valentine’s Day, as you never know when their Buy One Get One Free offer will be available again!

Just goes to show that even the big supermarkets can get it a bit wrong! Make sure you don’t make the same mistake 14th February 2013

The all important gift

So, once you’ve nailed that all important card, it’s important not to neglect the importance of your present, whether it be the classic flowers and chocolate or something a little more exotic, there’s a lot to think about. Firstly, avoid the tat!

I spent 18 months selling stuff like this online and it’s a sweet relief to not be surrounded by it everyday, sure there has to be something more sentimental than this…

Although, maybe it could be worse…how about buying flowers a day late and at half price!…Guilty Man right here!

Having felt very bad about the shocking reception the card got, I thought flowers was a safe bet, I’d bought in the flowers, she was loving it, arranged them beautifully and on the sideboard they went in all their glory. Then disaster struck…

The one thing I’d forgotten in what otherwise would have been the perfect crime…the receipt! She spots it, sees the £15 discount, and the illusion is shattered!

All in all a bit of disaster on my part…in case your wondering, she made me a home-made and very tasty heart-shaped cake, shown below, made with TLC:

What did I get her…an offensive card and half price flowers, she’s a lucky lady…in fact maybe I’ll just read Nat’s blog!

Thanks for reading and if you need any advice for not what to buy for Mother’s Day, check back soon!

Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day

When did it all start?

There are various theories on the origin of Valentine’s Day, but the most popular dates back to the time of the Roman Empire during the reign of Claudius II, 270 AD. Claudius didn’t want men to marry during wartime because he believed single men made better soldiers. Bishop Valentine went against his wishes and performed secret wedding ceremonies. For this, Valentine was jailed and then executed by order of the Emperor on February 14. While in jail, he wrote a love note to the jailor’s daughter signing it, “From your Valentine.” Sound familiar?  No actually, I’ve never had a letter written to me from a prisoner in jail?!

Flowers

• 73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine’s Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.
• 15% of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day – wow, is that desperate?!

Roses

• The red rose was the favourite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love.
• Red roses are considered the flower of love because the colour red stands for strong romantic feelings – never would have guessed that one…
• Approximately 110 million roses, mostly red, will be sold and delivered within the three-day Valentine’s Day time period – anyone interested in opening a rose shop for 3 days a year?!

Greeting Cards

• Women purchase approximately 85 percent of all Valentines – are you going to let this go guys?!
• Teachers will receive the most Valentine’s Day cards, followed by children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets – teachers, really?!  Think they missed out my school in this survey…

And… More fun facts about Valentine’s Day

• Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Australia, Denmark, United States and Italy.
• The most fantastic gift of love is the Taj Mahal in India. It was built by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan as a memorial to his wife – Mughal definitely set the standard with this one
• Every Valentine’s Day, the Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare’s lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet – do they know it was a story?!
• About 3% of pet owners will give Valentine’s Day gifts to their pets.
• In the US, 64 percent of men do not make plans in advance for a romantic Valentine’s Day with their sweethearts – typical!  

44 days long days since my last blog. You must be having serious withdrawal symptoms but I’m back to give you your fix of YouTube, stupid purchases and LADS.

The last six weeks have been very busy, I have been up to Scotland forChristmas, back home in Jersey for New Year and up to visit all my university friends in Hull. Since I have been seeing so many people again there have been a lot of hugging going on, which makes me very happy. I love a good hug! There are so many occasions for one as well, a welcome hug, a well done hug, a goodbye hug, a hello hug, a drunk hug, a comforting hug, even a three-way hug! They are so underrated and way underused. So because of all the hugging I have been doing lately as soon as I saw this video I knew it was going to be my ‘YouTube Video of the Week’. A hug makes someone feel better, it makes people smile and nothing bad has ever come from a hug! So in dedication for this video I want all of you who read this (Hi mum!) to take this weekend and do three types of hugs…

1. Hug someone you should do a lot more often – There is probably somebody in your life who you love to bits but don’t ever show it enough. So show it with a hug.
2. Hug someone that seems upset or down – If someone is feeling low and hasn’t had the best of days, just take 5 seconds to give them a big fat hug. I bet they will be the best 5 seconds of that person’s day.
3. Hug a stranger – It doesn’t matter where you are, just make eye contact, smile and ask somebody if they would like a free hug. Don’t be shy, the worst that can happen is they say no and it’s their loss! When you do get someone, give him or her a warm, platonic hug. That means you wrap your arms around them over their shoulders or just below their arms and maybe pat their back gently a few times. (Try to avoid being a creep and touching people below the waist and no need to touch hips either!)

Many of you will just think this is odd, and you are the one’s who are missing out. I have no doubt that if you complete all three of these you will feel great and you’ll have a big smile on your face by the end of them.

Now it’s on to my ‘Purchase of the Week’ feature, which I’m surprised, is even happening because of how broke I am. This probably makes this decision easier since I haven’t been able to buy much! My purchase of the week is my ticket to UK Bass Culture at the 02 Academy Brixton on the 2^nd of March. Now I’m not sure how many bass heads read the RMP blog but those of you who are will know this line-up is absolutely amazing and will be an incredible night! I have friends coming to visit me from Jersey for the event and it’s going to be a weekend to remember, but one I am most likely to forget!

Finally we are on to the ‘LAD of the week’ feature. This isn’t actually a story from this week, but it was after my last blog and because of what this guy has gone through he more than deserves it! On BoxingDay, in the middle of the busy Christmas football period, Gillingham faced Crawley Town in a league match, little did winger Chris Whelpdale realise it was going to be a game to forget. In a collision with an opposition player late in the game he took a knock to his “man area” after originally thinking it was nothing too bad he had a look and turned out he had tore his scrotum! OUCH! The 24-year-old had to have 5 stitches and his manager described the injury and “disgusting” adding “I don’t think his wife would be happy either!”

Now the injury alone may just warrant this award. The main reason, however, for Whelpdale being dubbed ‘LAD of the week’ is because once he had taken the expected LADS banter from the guys in the changing room and got himself stitched up he returned 4 days later to play Dagenham & Redbridge! When we look at the likes of Carlos Tevez who are sitting on the bench sulking for half their career and compare them to the likes of Whelpdale who even with a “broken zone” manage to turn up for a scrappy League Two encounter there is only one winner in my eyes! Chris, we salute you sir!

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