For me, graduating from Loughborough University was one of the most daunting experiences. Being released into the real world is something that most students dread. It’s even harder still when after three years of study you still haven’t worked out what you want as a career. This was my dilemma.

I would never have imagined starting a business but today, I am writing this blog post following the launch of my new online fashion store wantherdress.com. The website is a family business and was created with my sister, a graduate of Leeds University.

I had never seen myself working in the fashion industry; I had studied drama so it was a very unlikely move. It soon became clear to me that the fashion industry was the way forward, since all my interests were within it and e-commerce, especially in fashion, is continuing to grow making it one of the most popular ways for customers to shop. Now I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. You don’t have to stick to what you have studied, there are so many opportunities out there and you can adapt your experiences from university to suit the career you love. Charlotte, my sister, knew shortly after graduating that this was her dream career. This made the perfect balance when working together.

The creation of wantherdress.com has taken around five months from the initial idea. Starting a business is extremely difficult, but the most challenging part is having the guts to go for it. We have learnt so much already. As young women and recent graduates, we have found that sometimes it is difficult to be taken seriously by the people we deal with. We have now built more confidence when dealing with suppliers and other partners to ensure that we are receiving the best service from everyone.

The goal for this website is not just to be an online store. As you can see by the name Want Her Dress, it has more of a social context to it. Our eventual aim is for the website to be a social network for girls and women to share their fashion experiences, style tips and photos to encourage others to Want Her Dress.

Tips for students looking to start a business:

• Rather than constantly talking about ideas, take action.
• Don’t be put off by others or talk yourself out of it.
• If you believe you can do it, you’re right. Never give up.
• Never be embarrassed about what you don’t know, never pretend to understand something you don’t, just ask.
• Enjoy it…business should be fun!

Visit our website: www.wantherdress.com. You can also follow Want Her Dress on Facebook: www.facebook.com/wantherdress & Twitter: @WantHerDress for exclusive posts on offers, photos and an insight into the day-to-day workings of the team!

Words by Rebecca Griffiths

Photo by Tomal Price

In the last few months we’ve had a lot going on. In Product, we’ve been putting together and signing off our new brochures for 2012 and early 2013. We’ve also started work on planning the summer 2013 season and the 5 year strategy. Late trading finished selling for summer 2011 and have now moved onto Winter 2011. Early Trading are currently busy putting together information for the turn of year papers, special offers that go out to the national newspapers for January. And finally the placements in Cruise have been looking at new routes and areas for the ships to sail to for summer 2013 and selling the final seats left on the cruise ships for this year.

A few of use have been very lucky and have already gone on resort trips including a cruise around the Canaries, a trip to Majorca and a trip to Mexico. This has been really useful as it has enabled us to see the hotels and areas that we are looking after and really make the most of the product and holidays that we are selling. It has also got to the time of the year that we have all started to think about using the great holiday discounts that we get whilst we are here!

As well as our day to day jobs we have been helping recruit the new placements for next year’s intake. We have all visited a university placement fair somewhere around the country to talk to potential students about the scheme. It’s been a great opportunity to shout about how great our scheme is. We have met some really strong candidates at these fairs and have already carried out one assessment centre.

In November the guys in cruise organised a cake sale, quiz and raffle in the aid of raising money for Children in Need. The main prize was a weekend cruise to Amsterdam. A lot of organising went into this and the whole business got involved – the cakes in particular went down well! They raised a total of £1400, which was a fantastic effort!

We’ve got lots of things to look forward to in December. This includes the Commercial Christmas party, the placement Christmas party and the hanger visits to see our Thomson Airways aircraft undergoing maintenance. It’s going to be a busy month in the office as we all get ready for our busiest time of year in January. We would like to wish you all a Happy Christmas and look forward to welcoming some of you at the next assessment centre.

“Firstly we would like to say hi to all of our bloggers on the Rate My Placement Website! We’ll start firstly by introducing ourselves – we’re Amy and Ben, two of the nine new placements at TUI Travel this year. We’re both in the third year of our courses at Loughborough University. Amy is studying Retail, Marketing & Management, and Ben is studying Transport & Business Management.

The placements at TUI are based at the Head Office in Luton, are are in the Product, Trading, and Cruise departments, which all sit under the Commercial Division. Katie and Max work in Late Trading, Becky and Saoirse are in Early Trading, Holly trades Accommodation Only, Joel and Antoni are in Cruise whilst we’re both working in Product.

Over the next twelve months, Ben has been placed in the Short Haul team in product, looking after the resorts of Mainland Spain & Portugal, and Amy has been placed in the Long Haul team, working on the resorts of Aruba, Mexico, Cuba & Jamaica. We’d like to give you some information about Product which is central to the whole of the Commercial Division. Our job involves making key strategic decisions – starting with deciding on which hotels we will feature for each of our resorts, what product we’ll be selling, pricing them to ensure a strong profit, then designing and placing them into our brochures. Once this is all finalised and signed off, it gets handed over to our Trading teams to sell and yield manage throughout the season. We also have the day-to-day role of answering queries from anyone across the whole business about our resorts, as well as trying to ensure that they are selling well throughout the year, by analysing sales reports and meeting with the Trading team.

We’ll now give you a brief overview of Trading. They’re responsible for analysing sales and reacting with pricing decisions, depending on many things such as the current rate of sale or the state of economies around the world. For example, if they see that a hotel is not selling well in a resort, they will adjust the price in an attempt to try to increase demand to that hotel and hopefully the resort, too.

Lastly, but not least, the Cruise team have their own Product and Trading teams, similar to the above, but dealing with cruise holidays and the ships which fall under the Thomson & Island Cruises brands.

We’ll now give you a quick outline of our induction period. Lasting two weeks, we had an in-depth overview of TUI, along with some great activities to break the presentations up. Examples of which included a cocktail party activity (unfortunately, no alcohol was involved) which helped us to develop our understanding of the different TUI brands and products, a visit to the Thomson Airways hangar to see the aircraft undergoing maintenance, as well as a mystery shopping activity in our own retail stores to check up on customer service. We were made to feel really welcome by everyone for these first couple of weeks – we even went out for lunch in our teams on the first day!

This week at TUI in the Commercial Division has been People Week. Throughout the week, there have been many activities going on, including presentations taking place, similar to in our induction. On Wednesday night we also had a quiz – unfortunately we didn’t win but we had loads of fun and so many people got involved and had a laugh. The week has been ‘back to school’ themed, so today everyone came in dressed in uniform! (We both won the awards for being the best dressed in our department – great first impressions done for us!). We’ve also got some more exciting social events lined up for us, including team nights out, the TUI Sports Day weekend in Shropshire and, of course, not long now until the Christmas parties start!

That’s it for a few weeks from us, we’ll be updating you again soon. Don’t forget to check out our Facebook group as we’re now recruiting for next years intake!”

Join Tui’s Facebook group for more information, just click the button here. You can also find out more from Ben and Amy at TUI Travel, plus visit the Industry Zones on RateMyPlacement for more personal accounts from students on internships and placements!

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

UBS has been working regularly with Circus Space as part of their training programmes as a means for interns to work on the 7 core competencies candidates are assessed on while having fun at the same time.  Circus Space offers a unique mix of circus skills including:

• Human Pyramid Building
• Juggling
• Double Dutch
• Stilt-walking
• Diabolo
• Tight-wire walking
• Plate spinning
• Plus many more activities to dabble in!

Both Russ and myself were lucky enough to get stuck in with the UBS interns and try our hand at juggling, double-dutch (skipping for all those who don’t know), stilt-walking and human pyramid building. It was a fantastic afternoon and it is clear to see why UBS and Circus Space have formed this unique partnership to develop the raw business skills and professional qualities needed for a career at UBS.

The UBS team enjoyed papping us all during the various activities and it was a great way to get to know your team mates.  As you can see in the picture on the right, trust is very important when you are relying on a group of people to hold you up!

Fancy following in their footsteps? Make sure you check out the reviews at RateMyPlacement.co.uk and find out more about the opportunities with UBS here.

Thanks UBS for a great afternoon

A different approach

At Ernst & Young, we provide assurance and advice to companies ranging from entrepreneurial start-ups to major multinationals. But what makes us so different isn’t just the size and scope of our global business; it’s the value we place on the strengths and abilities of the people we recruit. Our goal is to help students find careers they’re suited to; ones that they’re naturally good at. We developed the Strengths Factor game to give students an innovative – and interesting- way to find out more about themselves and what working with Ernst & Young is really all about. It’s interactive, fun and only takes a few minutes to finish.

Our game is a starting point that tests your ability to organise and multi-task as well as your persistence, mental agility, awareness and logic. The result is a profile of your strengths – which can help you look at your career options in a new and positive light.

Looking for potential, not just achievement

When you’re at university, you spend a lot of time focusing on a particular discipline or field. Your achievements are important, but finding out you have other abilities can be refreshing. We want to introduce you to opportunities you might not have thought about, or even just dismissed outright. At Ernst & Young, your strengths can help you start a career with us now.

Visit us and try out the Strengths Factor game. Don’t forget you can apply to our internships, scholarships and insight days from July 1.

To find out more and to apply from 1st July, click the button below!

Ernst & Young Placements and Internships

“Morning all.

So as the title suggests, I am into my last few weeks at Trigger. After a lot of packing I will be heading home for the summer and to start my dissertation prep and prep work for any group projects that I will be a part of in my final year.

My final weeks at Trigger will be spent on finishing up a new European site for one of our main clients (cannot name), touching up on some surveys that will be finishing shortly and concluding any leftover documentation for CO229 (placement module at University for this placement).

I haven’t done as much as I would have wanted in my final couple of months at Trigger but over the course of the entire 13 months that I have been within the company, I have learnt a significant amount within different areas of the business. What I have learnt at Trigger will definitely ensure I take on next year and my future career in a new light compared to how I approached things before placement.

Below is a list of the departments/areas that I have worked within over the past year:

• Testing
• Support
• Support development
• Development

As I will not be on placement through July/August I will be making sure that I get stuck in with finishing (well, starting) sullivandoesdesign.com properly. It will probably be built upon WordPress but totally revamped. It will allow people to see my full collection of previous work, see what I am up to (new blog) and request any quotes for work that they may want me to do. This will go live end of August, ready for the new University year. The new blog will outline what I am doing for my University modules so you can see how I am getting on as the year progresses.

Apologies for not providing as much content on this placement blog throughout the year as I would have wanted. The year has been very busy and I haven’t had that much time left to go into that much detail.

If you are at University and you are thinking of doing a placement, make sure you try your hardest to find one; you won’t regret it in the long run.

Thank you to anyone who has read my blog over the year and special thanks go to Trigger Software for allowing me to work within the company for 13 months.”

Any questions, queries for design work or anything, contact me.

E: aaron@sullivandoesdesign.com FB: http://facebook.com/sullivana

Feel free to leave your comments below!

‘Hi all. I realise it’s been quite a while since I last blogged so I apologise for the lack of updates. It’s been 10 months since I begun at Hays and the recruitment game back in August. To re-cap, working on the Investment Banking Operations Team has been helpful in more ways than one. To give a description of what it is I do, I thought I’d include a few key points from a day in the life of a consultant:

• Specialise in recruiting for the following, but not limited to: Trade Support, Settlements, Loans, Reconciliations, Data/Static Data, Securities/Stock Lending, Pricing/Valuations, Client Services, Payments/Pricing, Corporate Actions/Dividends and Funds.
• Gaining a theoretical understanding of financial products, both exchange-traded and OTC. Covering roles with the following asset classes: Securities (Fixed Income/Equities), OTC Derivatives, Futures & Options, Commodities and FX/Money mar
• Attracting new business in cold-calling new candidates; interviewing candidates from entry level to top-end management level, and advising on current market conditions and potential career routes.
• Attending agency briefings and client meetings in order to understand different business areas and recruitment needs; building and developing long-term relationships with new and existing clients.
• Sourcing new candidates through a variety of different methods; including online sources, and meeting and greeting at various networking events, outside of working hours.

From very early on I took it upon myself to dive into the deep end and get right into the thick of things. Interviewing candidates from entry-level to management/vice-president level has been great exposure. I have a huge responsibility, not only towards the organisation in the image that I portray to candidates, but also to the candidates themselves in regards to knowing my field; being able to advise accordingly on the market, career paths, managing expectations, preparing candidates for interviews, and building a long-term rapport. Having interviewed candidates on a daily basis, I’ve come to realise the power of questions; as a consultant, it’s my job to ask the right questions, and know when and when not to ask certain types of questions, or in fact how to phrase particular questions. Asking the right questions can be the difference between obtaining a key contact or lead on a new job & filling it, and not. This idea of influence is a key tool when used to effect. Having been in this position, I’ve had the opportunity to build long-term relationships with a wide array of candidates, not only of value to the organisation, but of value to myself given my long-term ambitions (a little shrewd I know but without this level of tenacity, it can be difficult to maintain resilience in recruitment, let alone the square mile that is the city).

This brings me onto my next point, and something I’ve referred to in my first blog. Long-term, I am aiming – let me correct that – more-so not settling for anything less than Front Office trading eventually, preferrably on the Commodities/Foreign Exchange side of things. Don’t get me wrong, I had my fair share of interviews etc. at leading Investment Banks before being offered the job at Hays (20 interviews in total, after 120 applications for a placement/internship, including various others). Reflecting back, reasons for not securing an internship directly in the Investment Banking scene was perhaps that I wasn’t aware of methods to portray the value I could add in enough depth. So that leads me onto the reasons for choosing to work for the Investment Banking Operations team here at Hays. Having impressed in two other interviews with different teams in the company, I knew this was going to be the team in which I would gain most out of, post-graduation – here’s why. Not only do I liaise with clients, i.e. line managers and on-site teams within the banks, but I’m in a position whereby I am able to build strong relationships with candidates who I can potentially place in a job. As you may be aware, reciprocity is a powerful thing. If you want to know the game of influence, ask yourself the right questions – ‘what is it that he/she wants that I could possibly help them with?’ Like I’ve said, as a consultant, it’s my job to ultimately get candidates working. So when a candidate (s) is reminded of my name after I have placed he/she in a job whereby they are utilising their previous experience and it looks to be something they can progress in, what do you think are their thoughts? Hence I refer back to reciprocity. As shrewd as it may seem, each candidate that I place is a potential connection, a connection to maintain good relations with even throughout my last year at Uni. So when it comes to graduation in 2012, my foot in the door may well lie with these key contacts that I’ve made. That’s also where the Mountbatten Internship Programme comes into play – but that is for another blog!

Much has been debated about the famous recruitment consultant, and I have to admit there are, like anything else, positive and negative opinions. Essentially, the ultimate name of the game for a consultant is to ‘fill jobs’, although there is alot more required of one to become an expert, a specialist consultant, in your field.

Regular contact with clients are a great way of getting to know our specialisms, the market, and generally what’s ‘hot’ in a job-market sense. Recruitment is very cyclical in that respect given that this information is fed back to our candidates in order for us to match job-seeker to job so to speak. I think it’s important to have a degree of intelligence and a fresh tenacity that would naturally be apparent in the younger workforce, i.e. 20-35. There exists a sales element is in the sense that I believe one must possess a certain flair when developing new business and generally ‘selling’ the benefits of using our business services. However, it’s important not to come accross as used-car salesmen, and rather portraying that we are consultants who know our markets/clients, and are able to display our specialisms knowledge – this way we are emphasizing our value to the market – ‘subliminally selling’ if you like.

With two months left to go, I’m draining as much value out of my position as I can in order to maximise my time left. Having been studying for the CFA Level 1 since January also (an exam with a 300-hour recommended reading time), I think my time has been utilised well in relation to long-term career goals. The market is picking up again following the hit that we all experienced during the consecutive Bank Holidays. So expect another update very soon whilst I keep plugging away, and I’ll leave you with a quote of the day: “To gain what is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.” ‘

A great entry from Rishi, please leave your comments below!

We have been named in the final 3 of the Barclays ‘Take One Small Step’ Competition for London, which means we now have a 1 in 3 chance of winning £50,000 to help us grow the business!

And to win, we need your help! The winning company will be the one that has the most votes by 9am on the 27th June so we would really appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to visit the takeonesmallstep.co.uk website and vote for us!

Simply click on the button below, hit the ‘Vote for this entry’ panel on the right hand side and enter your email address. You’ll then need to click on the link in the automated email that you receive to ensure your vote is counted!

Click below to vote online and text too!

You can vote once online, as well as once via text message. Text RMP to 62555. SMS votes will be charged at your standard user network rate.

As many students will be be graduating in the next few months, it seems they are joining a crop of graduates that are already struggling to secure employment. A common phrase you’ll hear from many of these students is.. “I seem to have missed this years crop, so I’m going to fill my time and try again next year…”. The article below, which sights RateMyPlacement as a great source for finding a Placement or Internship, an experience often leading to graduate employment, is named “Graduates: The forgotten generation”. The full feature, by Sam Barrett, can be viewed on Moneywise.

Graduates: The forgotten generation

It seems a degree is no longer a guarantee of a job: one in five graduates left university without a job in 2010, according to the Office for National Statistics. More worryingly, the unemployment rate among new graduates is increasing more rapidly than for the UK workforce as a whole.

Find an internship

Employers are increasingly using internships to cherry-pick candidates. There are thousands of these available, ranging from ‘open days’ to year-long placements. Oliver Sidwell, a founder of ratemyplacement.co.uk, says: “An internship can look very good on your CV and many employers will pick the majority of their graduate recruits from their interns.”

This is what happened to Kimberley Low, 21, from Hinckley in Leicestershire. Now in her third year of law at Oxford University, she had an internship with Linklaters at the end of the second year. As well as being paid £350 a week during the placement, Kimberley also bagged a training contract with the company.

Details of internships can be found through university careers services or by trawling the internet, with sites such as ratemyplacement.co.uk… full of the latest opportunities.

Tough times for young people

Kimberley says: “I applied as soon as details of internships became available at university and spent time making sure my CV and applications really stood out. The application process was pretty tough, with thousands of applicants being whittled down to 30 places. I would definitely recommend it, though. It’s a great way to compare different companies and I learnt so much about the legal profession from the experience.”

Kimberley’s tips for anyone looking to secure an internship are to prepare rigorously by finding out as much as possible about the organisation; show you’re well-rounded by including plenty of extracurricular and work experience on your application form; and be enthusiastic.

“Apply early too,” she adds. “Although the deadline may be months away, some firms, especially the smaller ones, will have filled their internships long before this date.” But not every internship is as positive as Kimberley’s, and horror stories abound of weeks spent making tea or filing for low or even no pay. This is particularly the case in competitive sectors such as the media and architecture.

Improve your Employability

If your reading the article thinking you need to secure a Placement or Internship… look no further! Visit our Jobs section for the lastest Placement and Internship vacancies.

Already secured your Placement or Internship? No problem… why not check out reviews from your peers? You can see what to expect from your Employer, as well as all the other stuff, such as the social life and cost of living! To view 5,000 reviews from students who have been there, done it, take a look at our review section.

The National Placement & Internship Awards

It is important to point out that Kimberley Low, mentioned in the article, was a winner of “Best Intern”, at the 2011, National Placement & Internship Awards. If you think you’ve got what it takes to win an Award, or to find out more, visit our Awards website here.

Kim managed to exceed all expectations during her 4 weeks at Linklaters and her knowledge, manner and quality of work was likened to that of an Associate rather than a Vacation Scheme student. Standing out in a programme full of good people makes her achievements even more fantastic, a worthy winner of the Best Intern Award.

Please leave your thoughts below, we’d love to hear from you! To view the full article, click here to visit Moneywise.

The summer 2012 brochures are now stacked neatly on the shelves, the placement students are recruited and are waiting to start in August and we’ve all made the most of the travel benefits we have here at TUI… it’s been a great few months!

After months of hard work from the product team, the summer 2012 season went on sale on the 5th May. Now the trading team are in full swing of pushing early bookings so if you want to get away, get in there quick! There has been more hype around this launch as the brand First Choice has moved to the “Home of All Inclusive”- now only selling All Inclusive package holidays from summer 2012 onwards. This brand differentiation is a big move for TUI and is a first in the Travel Industry. So to celebrate TUI hosted a beach-themed day in head office. Going with the All Inclusive theme, the canteen was transformed into a free bar with a live guitarist and the cocktails and beer went down nicely. Besides all the cocktails, we had stalls from the Orlando, Tunisian and Porto Santo tourist boards as well as a cruise stand and numerous product stands. All the staff were dressed in summer and beach themed clothes, one of the placement students even went as far as coming into the office in a wetsuit bringing along a canoe- our Managing Director was very impressed with the effort!

Keeping inline with the hectic schedule, we were also joined by the new placement students on launch day. The day was really important as the students were able to meet each other and their colleagues for the first time. They took part in numerous activities, learnt more about their specific job roles and were give information about the local area. The evening saw both the current and future placements hit Luton Town for an all you can eat Chinese buffet, a few games of bowling and a few drinks in the local. All the forward planning meant the day ran smoothly and we’re looking forward to officially welcoming the new students when they begin in August.

Time is creeping up on us as we only have 3 months left here. We’re still making the most of the fantastic travel opportunities, taking holidays to places such as Jamaica, The Canaries and cruises around the Western Med.

During the next few months, product will be working on 2nd edition brochures, late trading will be pushing last minute summer holidays and early trading will be focusing on the launch of summer 2012. All in all, another busy few months…

What do you think of the TUI Placement Scheme? Would you like to work here!? Comment below!