5 reasons to do a placement:

”So it’s back to Uni for me, after a fantastically challenging year at Microsoft I’m back to working towards my Microsoft degree. The difference is that I now have a more mature attitude to studying and I am much more focused on getting on and doing things. Firstly, this means I’m much more likely to achieve a 2:1 or more than if I hadn’t completed a placement year.

If that alone doesn’t convince you then the prospect of having a better chance at graduate jobs should help you take the decision to do a placement year. Not only have I got all this fantastic experience on my CV to stand out against my competitors when applying, it really helps when going for interviews. After a placement year you will have so many great examples to give in an interview you’re much more likely to impress the employer and get that job! You will also have a much better idea of what an employer wants from an interview having developed a great interview technique after searching for a placement and learning from mistakes.

Some employers also use their placement scheme as their tool for graduate recruitment, meaning you could go for a graduate interview whilst still on placement and have a graduate job lined up before you even finish, Wouldn’t that be nice in your final year?

Finally, employers are now listing a sandwich placement as part of their essential criteria. Big names like Google, L’Oreal and TUI graduate schemes all prefer candidates with placement experience. So there really isn’t any reason not to do a placement!!”

Tell us what you have learnt on your placement!  Have you any interesting stories to share?  We are also on the look out for new and interesting content for the website so add your comments below

”Time is continuing to go so fast on my placement year.  I am approaching 4 months and am still learning every day.  Since my last blog, we have opened applications for Industrial Placement students for 2011.  I still find it surreal that I am managing the Industrial Placement scheme for Global Manufacturing and Supply, as I am an Industrial Placement student myself.  Having so much responsibility is definitely empowering, and means that I am never bored.

I found the build up to application opening day thoroughly interesting and a real learning experience.  I had no idea how much work goes into ensuring opening for applications goes smoothly.  It is important that the materials for application forms and the subsequent materials for screening of applicants are correct.  You have to work closely with the communications department to ensure information and application forms are ready to go live on the external website.  I also had to attend a large meeting with the people that will be carrying out the application screening on our behalf.  It was insightful to see what is considered good and what was deemed to be poor examples to answers to an application questions.

There is also the marketing side of industrial placements that needs to be considered.  I attended a meeting with a large external marketing company to decide which national publications we would target.  I then had to liaise and form relationships with Universities career services as well as discipline lecturers to get our opportunities publicised.   I really enjoyed getting in contact with Universities are part of our marketing campaign.  I felt like, as an IP myself I was in an invaluable position to discuss the advantages of doing a year in industry. Continually networking with different stakeholders is also an excellent opportunity to improve communication skills.

Every month I meet with my manager for an hour to discuss my development.  I am undertaking a PDP (Performance Development Plan) during my year at GSK, and we use this time to work on this.  I was pleasantly surprised how much time is dedicated to my personal development.  My manager is continually pro active in ensuring I am being stretched and gaining exposure to interesting and challenging things.   This helps you feel like a valued employee of GSK as they want you to perform to your potential whilst working for them.   I have already set myself targets and goals for the year, as well as identified other areas of the business I would like to gain knowledge in.  There is always the opportunity here to shadow other departments or speak to senior figures.

This week I have spent a lot of time doing event planning.  I am organising and facilitating to large events in early 2011.  This has been a completely new experience to anything I have ever done before, but has been very enjoyable.  I am looking forward to both the events, and although there is a long way to go before the day itself I like having some long term projects to focus on.  There is so much from a logistical point of view to remember when running events for large numbers of people….being organised is proving vital! I’ll keep you updated and explain more about these events as they continue to take shape!”

Find out more from Sarah at GSK, as well as our other Guest Bloggers over the coming year!

Feel free to add your thoughts below! Would you like a placement at GSK?

The end is near unfortunately for my time at Microsoft! I have just 2 months to go, and am part of the induction week team for the new batch of interns. They get a week’s worth of ‘Welcome to Microsoft’ together, learning from us and other key people in the business on what to expect from the year and how to make the most of it. And of course fun stuff; like activities (last year we played human table football) and (some) drinking to get to know each other. If it’s anything like our induction week it will be a really good way to start the year! I then have a week’s handover with my new intern to get her on an understanding of what she’s meant to do for the rest of the year!

Aside from planning a fun week, I have done a couple of events myself this month. Firstly I attended TechDays which was a weeklong series of events for developers and IT pro’s in the U.K. It was held in a cinema which had its benefits but were long days starting at 7.30am. I also ran my student event at Microsoft campus for the Imagine Cup competition (technology competition to design software solutions) which was great fun, but again I felt exhausted at the end of the day. We managed to source some really good speakers and had an exclusive demo of project Natal for the students to make it a really great day.

We have our leavers ball in a few weeks which will a sad evening. A group of interns have climbed the 3 peaks this weekend (not me!) for various charities so there is a good community spirit here. Now my placement is coming to an end, I appreciate it even more and really don’t want to leave.

If you’re about to start your placement make the most of it!

In my last blog I spoke about doing a student event called X48 (a gaming event for computer enthusiastic students) which was a big success – sold out and the quality of games produced was really high, plus a lot of energy drinks and sugary sweets consumed. It’s also really good to ‘get out in the field’ at these type of events to talk to techie students and really understand the audience. In my mind I would always encourage you in your role to get out there and understand your customers/audience in their everyday role and situation to improve overall marketing sales and/or service to them.

The next student event is the Imagine Cup (a student technology competition to solve the world’s problems) here at Microsoft HQ in Reading so I’m trying to make that a really great day for the students involved which looks like a lot of dominos pizza plus some cool swag to give away. We’ve hit the target for students entered into the competition which is really great, and is a good story to tell at the end of the year.

Just recently interviews and assessment centres were held for the new me, Sarah 2.0, which I shadowed my manager on and my job has been given to a lucky girl called Sam. It was really interesting sitting on the other side of the interview and picking up what to do and what not to do (note: fart jokes in the lift with your new employer are not good!). My manager appreciated the feedback I gave on candidates – after all I’m the one doing the day to day job so I have a good understanding of the type of person it would suit.

This also got me thinking about my return onto the graduate scheme and what I need to do in my last 4 months to really stand out from the thousands of applicants that apply to Microsoft. So the next 4 months are really around planning and strategic thinking, leaving my mark, for the next year and Sam to take over from me. I’m also trying to take as much training as I can from now until then, of which there are a lot of opportunities at Microsoft to expand knowledge and skills.

Good luck with the interviews if you’re having any!

It’s been a busy month for me in January, besides the usual work at Microsoft I was lucky enough to be invited to the RateMyPlacement awards in Oxford which was a great afternoon of networking and awards. I didn’t win but now I know what I need to do to win next time around!

Microsoft won the best internship employer based on reviews and it’s not hard to see why when I’ve been given as much responsibility as I have. I’ve also appeared in the Sunday times to showcase the great opportunities there are at Microsoft for Interns and grads which was fantastic to be chosen to represent Microsoft. I did get a lot of funny comments from my team about my family!

I’ve also been helping out to make a video to give an even better insight into what it’s like to work at Microsoft; you can see the video here. The past 6 months feel like they have flown by and now I only have another 6 left, and it’s nearly time to start recruiting for the new me – it doesn’t feel like yesterday since I was being interviewed.

So now I’m getting really into my role it’s nearly time to leave, but not before I leave a few more marks. I’ve been working on planning and organising the Imagine Cup Student event at Microsoft to make it a fantastic day for the competitors. It’s also getting very close to X48 which is 48 hours of hard core coding to create a working game in less than 48 hours – a challenge I am told, but I don’t hold a deep technical understanding. Instead I deal with the marketing and PR of the event to ensure it is a great event and also it generates some positive stories in the press.

I’m also lucky enough here at Microsoft to have great access to training to give my CV that edge we all want. I’ve got to make the most of the next 6 months, so I’ve been doing a marketing course from the Kellogg School of Marketing, as well as more practical exams such as Excel, Word etc. I’m also doing a copywriting course to improve writing skills so that my CV will be jam packed with experience. Ah well, back to revision!

Now I’m enjoying a well earned break over Christmas (working makes you really appreciate the holidays by the way!) I thought I’d let you know what I’ve been up to.

As it’s been party season, funnily enough we have had a fair few parties. I’ve had a couple of nights out with my team and we had a night out in London on a river boat down the Thames for our intern party, then onto a club. It was great to see nearly everyone, as there are 70 interns here and we don’t always get the chance to see everyone!

Microsoft also laid on a Christmas lunch for everyone which was great fun. Unfortunately the snow got the better of us last week and meant the office was snowed in. Luckily we are all equipped to work from home with laptops and headsets so nobody had to go in!

So the past month I have been involved in some extra activities outside my job role to support the recruitment process. We are in the making of a new video to showcase what life is like at Microsoft for an intern and graduate so I have been busy filming all sorts of people across the business. I’m also helping out an open day we are holding in the New Year to talk to potential candidates; it’s scary to think that was me a year ago!

Back to the day job and I’ve been helping to plan X48 for students, a 48 hour code-athon for keen gamers to come along and build a game in 48 hours in teams at University. I’m involved in planning the event (with the help of others) as well as the PR side of the event to raise the profile and awareness.

I’m also working on the Imagine Cup Finals which is the worlds premier student technology competition, to invite the final UK teams who have entered the competition and choose the winner who will compete in the World Wide finals in Poland. This is amongst other jobs I do regularly each month, including the newsletters, so the new year will be a busy one!

Take Care,

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!

It’s been a while since I wrote my last blog – apologies! But it’s been a really busy couple of months. I’m much more settled now, as the first month was very much getting used to Microsoft and my role. Not being technical I soon found myself learning lots of technical terms, but this isn’t the case for all roles.

So what have I been doing during September? Well the great thing about Microsoft is you get a lot of real responsibility from day one, so I managed and executed my own marketing campaign around DreamSpark which involved writing agency briefs and then monitoring the activity by the agency to ensure marketing goals are met.

I also manage the Microsoft Student Partner programme in the UK, who are university students studying technical degrees passionate about Microsoft, and evangelize our products and services on campus to other students. I manage this programme in the UK, which includes promoting the programme, hiring the MSP’s and managing them throughout the year. I feel like I’ve done lots already.

I’ve also sent out the first copy of the StudentZine newsletter this year – a newsletter that goes round to thousands of students which is really exciting. As it is technical content, and I am not technical, other people write articles for me and I act as editor making sure each article is written in the best possible way. It’s great to think that so many people are reading what I have organised and sent out.

The best thing about this month – the UK company conference where we saw a lot of really cool inspirational presentations including Steve Ballmer (CEO of Microsoft) who is one crazy guy. The atmosphere was amazing especially as we were on the second row from front; he manages to create a real buzz and makes you feel proud to work there.

I’m going to be very busy for the next month too as I visit lots of different universities to tell students about my experience and what it’s like to work at Microsoft. This isn’t part of my marketing role, it is an extra intern role I have taken on to pass on the wisdom! So look out for me at your University and come say hi at the Microsoft recruitment stand.

I’ve been at Microsoft for about a month now and doing my job role for around 2 weeks. I’m still learning a lot, as there are set procedures that need to be followed when doing pretty much anything as with any large organisation. Luckily my team are really friendly and I can ask anyone questions and they all help me. If it’s one thing I’ve learnt so far is – it’s ok to ask questions and you shouldn’t feel like you’re asking too much! It’s better to ask and get it right than struggle on your own and get it wrong.

So what am I doing now? I’m currently working on a marketing campaign for DreamSpark which requires a lot of organising! And I’m also going on holiday soon, so I need to make sure everything is wrapped up and done before I go as no-one will be there to cover things while I’m away. Something else you will no doubt learn whilst on placement! I also work with Microsoft student partners and play a big role in managing and executing the programme.

What other stuff am I doing? Well I applied for an intern role here at Microsoft, which I know a lot of big companies have, and successfully got an extra role. An intern role is something you can take on outside of your assigned job role, for example I’m working on recruitment support, which means I may be coming to a campus near you to talk about my experience in person and encourage others to apply. It enables you to challenge yourself in other areas, and gain skills outside of your role. There are so many opportunities in Microsoft to do pretty much anything you want. I’m also half way to becoming a Microsoft certified master (sounds fancy!) by taking all the Office exams.

I still have a lot to learn though, and new projects to take on!

Will keep you posted…

Well the first week is over and what a week it’s been! I’ve seen a lot of presentations, met a lot of people and learnt a lot of things.

We started off the week with HR Presentations and the necessary, and moved onto more of how the Microsoft structure works as there are a fair few departments. I got some very good tips from senior managers including the UK Managing Director!

With 70 other interns it’s quite difficult to get to know everyone, but I think I’m nearly there. Staying in a hotel for the first week really helped everyone mingle with each other. We also had an activity day playing inflatable volleyball, human table football, archery and laser pigeon shooting. All put on for us interns, working in teams allowed us to get to know each other better.

We also went to a company BBQ on campus grounds, and enjoyed some good food with other interns and the rest of Microsoft, great way to end the week! And had a couple of nights out during the week for interns, so there were plenty of opportunities to get to know everyone.

The whole process of induction week is managed by current interns, so is really well ran as they know what they are doing! Also it feels relaxed as the interns aren’t going to be your managers and won’t judge you for asking silly questions as they were in your shoes this time last year.

I would advise asking the company you work for if you can stay in contact with the previous intern as they will be a great source of advice. Some of the new starters still have the previous interns working with them so they get a good handover period. Brilliant start to the year, have a feeling it’s going to be a good one!