Is University enough anymore?

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.

We are all aware of the high levels of graduate unemployment and the rising costs of attending university.

It’s not all bad though!  An article in Personnel Today discusses how important undergraduate work experience is, both for students and employers. Maria Floud, senior graduate recruitment manager at accountancy firm Grant Thornton, states that the increase in university fees is making employers reflect on their schemes and realise how important it is to attract students from an earlier age.

“The internship model used as a key pipeline to the graduate programme is very successful. We recently won the ‘Best Placement and Internship’ award by Rate My Placement, due to the focus we put on ensuring this programme to find great talent earlier on.”

Congratulations to Grant Thornton and thanks for our mention – hopefully this will give employers and students the oomph and encouragement to undertake a placement or internship scheme  :)

If you’re a student there is still time to grab a placement or internship this summer so check out the opportunities on http://www.ratemyplacement.co.uk/search

We are also interested to hear your thoughts so drop us a line with your comments below.

Thanks,

The RateMyPlacement Team

The legal profession is full of myths and rumours on what is actually involved in a law career.

All About Law is a website which aims to answer those questions!  Whether you are looking for a career in law or just want to find out more, visit All About Law.

The site contains advice and information on the law industry as well as blogs from in-house lawyers and students on law placements.  You can also search for the latest law placements and internships on RateMyPlacement so what are you waiting for!

Any comments to add?  Make sure you add one below or check out our forum and start chatting with fellow students

Thanks,

The RateMyPlacement Team

Want to know about Employment Law?! Look no further than our guide provided by All About Law

Put Simply…

Employment law covers all matters related to the workplace – whether you work in a small firm or are a cog in a big corporate wheel. Beginning with hiring, it moves through a complete cycle which can end in cessation of employment, voluntary or forced.

Thanks to the ever-changing global scenario, it is a given that Employment Law is always dynamic, jurisdiction-specific and is extensive in its scope and application. One can broadly classify the practice of employment law into two main areas – Non-contentious and Contentious.

Digging in deeper, the non-contentious section can be further sectioned into legislation; rules & regulations; policies & processes to be followed; and governing or regulatory authorities. Contentious employment law, on the other hand will cover breach in compliance with established principles, disputes on a variety of issues such as discrimination, remuneration, career growth, employer negligence & culpability and employee liability, misdemeanour, etc.

Further classification can be done in terms of whether the employment relates to private service, or to public sector work; employer/employee relations, conflicts; and individual versus group/class related matters.

What is involved in Employment Law?

What do you have to do if you want to be an employment lawyer? The obvious first step will be to identify the area in which you want to specialize, look for firms and opportunities where this requirement can be fulfilled. Like the two sides of a coin, employment law is concerned on the one hand with an employee & his rights and obligations; on the other is the employer or work provider, either an individual or a group of people or a large organisation/company; employers’ rights, duties and obligations. Into this equation come matters of legislation, statutory authorities, regulations of conduct and the actual processes through which the law is administered and followed.

A typical work cycle will comprise of hiring resources – advertising of job openings, the recruitment process, new joining formalities, remuneration, promotions/movements of employees, benefits & perks provided, organization restructuring, voluntary exits and litigation amongst many other things. While non-contentious work will be in providing advice, drafting, transactional tasks, and dispute resolution through arbitration and negotiations. Contentious work will cover dismissals, breach of contracts, harassment, redundancy/lay-off, discrimination on grounds of age, sex, religion, disability, age, etc.

Solicitors who represent individuals or a group of employees (a union) where the issue is common to the group; will work on collecting information & research; preparing documentation such as contracts, claims, pleadings, etc; providing advice to clients and conduct negotiations & settlements on behalf of clients.

Lawyers representing employers, on the other hand, will provide advice to companies/institutions on defence against claims, negotiation with employees and/or their unions; HR policies covering all aspects of employment; contractual content on remuneration, early & normal retirements, exits, non-compete clauses, workplace do’s and don’ts, etc.

What is needed for Employment Law?

To practice employment law, a solicitor needs to be agile and adaptable to operate in a constantly changing area, have a clear thought-process, good reasoning, communication and be up to date with the legal & commercial process. You must also have a genuine interest in subject matters on hand. Since this segment involves dealing with the good, the bad and ugly aspects of human nature, it is advantageous to be friendly, empathetic and balanced while handling issues concerning the workplace.

Being a solicitor will allow you to participate fully on the case from start to completion, including advocacy. It is important to remember that the final outcome will depend on the quality and approach you as a solicitor will provide, therefore it is vital that you have a good grounding in interpersonal relationships and have excellent legal research skills.

Current Climate for Employment Law?

New legislation or amendments/supplements to existing laws are a common phenomenon when it comes to employment law. Recent developments include: Introduction of regulations dealing with age discrimination (Employment Equality (Age) Regulations, 2006); employers will need to review their existing policies are in compliance and revise where necessary.

For example, job descriptions where number of years or qualification criteria can be interpreted to show bias/favour towards one set of employees.

To find out more on this and other interesting Law information from All About Law.co.uk click here

A recent article from the The Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) has called for an end to “unfair” unpaid work experience after seeing an increase in calls from distressed would-be lawyers worried that they are being exploited by law firms.

The article on Lawyer 2B explains how The JLD has ‘lambasted firms that make students desperate to land a training contract do what would be considered by most as fee-earning work for months on end without paying them a penny’.

Chair of the JLD Pro Bono Awards Committee Kevin Poulter said: “We hear stories about people who are working for weeks or months on end with little or no pay and only occasionally an oblique promise that one day there may be a training contract, paralegal position or some ‘time to count’ available. Other people have recounted suggestions of a ‘trial period’ to prove that they’re a suitable candidate or good fit with a firm.”

Poulter goes on to argue in the article that the trend toward making students work for free for long periods of time under the “guise of work experience” is ruling out those who cannot afford to take unpaid employment, creating an “elitist” profession.

We would like to hear your thoughts at RateMyPlacement as you will be the lawyers of the future !  Do you think we should end unpaid placements?

Click here to read more from the article at Lawyer 2B.

Never ones to shy away from the camera, Oli and Ali recently went on the record to chat about Internships and Placements with Career Players, Rob Wescott…

To catch the video in all of its glory, click on the picture below! Hope you find them useful!

A topic that is frequently discussed within Graduate Recruitment is that of supply and demand and the issue of graduate skill sets being appropriately moulded for the world of work…Never has it been so important to have relevant work experience and transferable skills, as well as a good degree classification in order to gain a position within a relevant field.

The CIPD’s latest ‘Focus on Graduate Jobs’ calls for government policy to concentrate on “understanding and meeting the real skills needs of employers” in addition to providing better information about the “realistic” employment and salary prospects available to graduates.

In this climate, arm yourself as best you can and take up as many opportunities as possible. Whether that’s through a part time job, work experience via an Internship or Placement or getting involved with your student union. Plus, be realistic about what is actually achievable!

As always feel free to comment

We have already offered the BEST placement opportunity Ever… Now, we are looking for 25 students to be our On Campus Brand Managers for 2010/2011 and take the BEST part time job EVER!

Be quick to apply as competition is fierce; we only have one spot per campus and we’re expecting applications to come in thick and fast.

To find out more information and to apply click here.

In this recent blog from Grad Expectations, Rob talks about what is good experience and how important it is to pick the right industry and have the right attitude. A timely piece for some, it may help those of you still looking for work experience before September or for your placement year next year!

Ticket to the Table – A degree is not enough!

A stark reality for many Graduates leaving University is that your degree, whilst something you should be proud of, is still just a ticket to the table. It is the piece of paper that enables you to have a different conversation with organisations. But on its own however, it will not guarantee you a job!

If you degree is just a ticket to the table, you must therefore seek to differentiate yourself from your peers!

How do you differentiate yourself from your peers?

If all the other applicants have the same (or similar) degree to you, you have to differentiate yourself by getting the ‘Right’ Experience!

What is the ‘Right’ Experience?

For me there are two types of ‘Right’ Experience:

1. The Right Industry:

Some jobs will require a certain type of industry specific experience. If this is the case, this is what you’ll need to get, which I know is easier said than done. However, the right industry experience does not always mean getting that experience in that exact industry. What I mean by this, is that many employers when looking for industry experience are really looking for confidence that you know the industry and more importantly the vocation you’re applying for. For example, you can still prove that you understand and apply your marketing expertise if you’re working in a department store. You can do this by proving that by applying your marketing expertise you’ve helped increase sales and customer satisfaction. This approach is what we call ‘transferable experience’, because your proving that you can transfer your expertise from one area into another.

I should say however, that some technical disciplines will need specific experience. This is really a way of them sifting through the very many applications they get. However, don’t be put off by this. My best advice here is really get creative in how you will get this experience e.g. placements, volunteering, shadowing, research etc…

2. Right Attitude:

The right attitude is something that recruiters always look for, but those looking for a job find it hard prove. For me, as a recruiter of Graduates, the right attitude is as follows:

• You prove that you have drive and ambition – you get involved in activities outside of study and working part time. This could be anything from clubs and societies through to volunteering.
• You prove that you can achieve real results – it’s one thing to say that you’re involved in different committees etc, but what are you delivering through them? I always look for proof of what people have achieved rather than just their participation. E.g. increased the membership of a club by 500% in 6 months, makes me take notice.
• You prove that you fit their team – this is by far the most difficult thing to prove, but what all employers are looking for is someone who fits their team. What runs through my head is; Would I like to work with this person? They way you prove this is through the description of who you are, your achievements and your interests. Whilst all of the other experience is great, if we see you as someone that we wouldn’t want on our team – you’ve got no chance!!

A Last Word… The key to getting the right experience is to be creative and strategic. You have to be thinking like an employer – that is, what are they really looking for in their future employees? By doing this you can then start to be more creative in the full range of things you activities you get involved in, and you can be more strategic in making sure that those activities give you the ‘Right’ Experience!

A familiar idea that is frequently discussed on RateMyPlacement; this latest blog from Grad Expectations is all about making the most out of your placement. A timely piece for some, it may help those of you starting your placement year over the coming months to set off on the right foot!

Sitting in the Corner

On Thursday this week an email arrived in my inbox with a spreadsheet attached. In that spreadsheet was a list of all the Graduates and all the placement students in our company. As a Graduate Programme manager I make sure that I know everyone of these people. However, on Thursday as I scanned through this new list I saw a name that hadn’t been there before.

‘That’s interesting,’ I thought to myself as I checked out who this person was on the directory. Under their name it said that they were a Placement Student. Instantly I picked up the phone to find out more. It turned out that this was true, Mark was a placement student who’d been working in the company for the last 8 months. He’d been brought in through one of the ‘alternate routes’ rather than through the central system, which sometimes happens. And it was only now that the standard reports were showing that he ‘existed’.

“So are you planning to apply for a job with our company once you Graduate?” I asked Mark after he told me his story. “Probably,” he replied. “But I haven’t really enjoyed my time here,” he continued. “I don’t really know anyone and all I’ve been doing is sitting in the corner and analysing spreadsheets for the entire time.” ‘Wow,’ I thought, ‘poor guy.’

After setting him up to talk to some other people so he could find something more interesting to do, I wondered why he wasn’t doing more to get the most out of his placement.

Get the most out of your Placement

Generally I see that there are 3 reasons people do a placement:

1. Their course requires them to
2. They want to get the experience to build their CV
3. They want to land a job with that company once they Graduate

Regardless of the reason you’re doing a placement, it is essential that you use the opportunity to the best of your advantage. And, unlike what Mark was doing (i.e. sitting quietly in the corner) this means doing 3 key things:

1. Know what you’re seeking to achieve Whenever you start any new job or project, always think about what you want to get out of it! This doesn’t mean being purely self motivated, but on a placement you have a great opportunity to develop new skills and new contacts. So if you start with clear goals in mind, you can be more focused on achieving them. For example, if you want to get experience in a specific area of work, then make sure you tell your manager this, as they will usually help you achieve it.

With Mark, he had a goal of trying to get a job after Graduation, but I had to ask him to find that out. If he had made his goal explicit, like other placement students, he would have hunted me down and told me what he was trying to achieve, and then I could help him.

So morale of this part of the story is that if people don’t know specifically what you want to achieve during your placement, they can’t help you – you have to have goals, and you have to make these goals known!

2. Build Your Contacts One of the things I find is really common in organisations is that most managers are happy to spend time talking to new people. And more importantly, they’re happy to talk about themselves to new people – managers love talking about themselves!

With this in mind, against the goals of what you want to achieve, make sure you build your contacts. This doesn’t mean you have to be a ‘networking freak’ who cold calls every manager in the business, but I would encourage you to pick out certain managers and schedule some time to buy them a coffee. When you do this, make sure you start the conversation asking them about their current role, their experience and then, any tips they have for being successful. Then talk about yourself and what you’re trying to achieve. Every manager I know (including me!!) loves this because it makes them feel important as they impart their worldy wisdom to help someone, which gives you the perfect opportunity to build your contacts.

As with my statement above, after they’ve talked about themselves, make sure you tell them what you’re trying to achieve. If they don’t know this, they can’t help you!

Even 30minutes of some-one’s time can open up a range of opportunities for you, if you’re prepared to ask. So do not sit in the corner, get out and make the time to talk to people. This is how you’ll get known and how you’ll find out about new opportunities.

3. Use your Initiative to Get Involved When you start your first professional job, knowing where the boundaries are can sometimes be tough. For many Students and Graduates, the fear of getting it wrong too often prevents them from really showing what they’re capable of. This to me is a flawed approach. With any Student or Graduate, what I want to see is them using their initiative and getting involved in things. If you just sit there doing only what you’ve been asked (as with Mark and his data analysis), you’re not really adding a huge amount of value to your boss or your company. So…seek to get involved.

How do you get involved? – One way is to use your initiative to look for simple things that aren’t working and fix them – I call this positive dissatisfaction and positive impact! Over my years of working I’m yet to see an organisation where every-thing’s perfect. This therefore gives you plenty of opportunity to do other value adding things to show what you’re capable of. And, a good place to start with this is to find out what’s keeping your boss awake at night.

As you look for things to get involved with or to fix, be sure to start small and build up. I’ve seen too many people take on too much too quickly and fail to deliver. So be sure to start with ‘quick wins’, or ‘low hanging fruit’ as they say, and build up to bigger things from there. It’s amazing how often fixing the simple things will help you get noticed…so don’t ever be afraid to show your initiative and get involved!

A Last Thought… Regardless of the reason you’re doing a placement, it is essential that you make the most of your opportunity. However, to do this you have to drive it – you have to make it happen. Within every organisation I’ve seen there are always people or managers who will help you, but as the saying goes – you have to help yourself! If you sit there in the corner like Mark waiting form someone to find and help you, it’s unlikely to happen. But…if you know what you want to achieve, if you get out and make contacts, and, if you show people what you’re capable of, then you will get the most out of your placement!