Firstly, blogging is not really my thing; it is far to self indulgent for me, so apologies if you find this dull!

As it happens, I was born with a face that over my 24 years has developed and matured to my advantage. It is a face that has natural features I cannot control, such as my brown eyes (often likened to chocolate buttons) and my lips (previously described as kissable), however it also includes features that have been carefully looked after and styled, for example my intricately styled, wavey brown hair.  Throughout my years as a teenager and young adult, I have learnt carefully how to make the most of my natural looks and strive to be as ‘good looking’ as possible. This involves a variety of things all ultimately aimed at making myself appealable to women and someone men can aspire to look like. I style my hair with £20 hair paste, I spray myself with £60 cologne, I spend money on a nice suit and occasionally I have a cheeky sunbed and I am not ashamed or embarrassed about any of these things. In fact, I recommend them all if you want to appeal to a large proportion of the female population!

Often I have been judged by the way I look and my confident belief in myself, and ultimately the word that usually pops up is ‘arrogant’.  Arrogance is defined as “an overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward inferiors” (dictionary.com, 2012). What is most important in this definition is the reference towards being superior toward others – just because somebody takes care of their appearance, speaks confidently, is self assured in the way they look and know exactly what they want and goes out there to get it, does not make them arrogant, in fact it usually makes them successful!

Being good looking and accepting it/making the most of it is not arrogant, it is being honest – being self assured. Being better looking than someone else and gloating about it is arrogant – believing you are superior than that person because of the way you look.

There are a lot of self assured people and a lot of arrogant people in the world, however many people confuse the two. Ultimately someone isn’t arrogant because of the way they look or carry themselves, they would have to say something that insinuated that they believed they were superior to others for them to be arrogant as defined by dictionary.com.

Hopefully this clears things up for those of you who confuse the two! That said, maybe I am just a good looking, arrogant bast*rd!

Chris Nops

As we fast approach Summer, we thought it was about time that we update you all on what we have been doing for the last few months. We’ve now been here over eight months and can’t believe that we’re half way through our time here!

After a December filled with Christmas parties, and an office full of chocolates and tacky decorations, we arrived back in January ready for a busy year ahead. With sales for Summer holidays generally peaking in January and February, there was no time for winter blues! Early Trading in particular have had a big role to play over the turn of year period. They’re continually monitoring prices and changing these according to demand and volume. Late Trading have been just as busy, ensuring that we met all of our sales targets for all the winter season.

Cruise has had a challenging few months, in which they have seen lots of changes to the market, due to recent events. The Planning department have been working hard on setting up the shore excursions, ready for this summer season, on our brand new pre-bookable website (check out www.cruiseexcursions.thomson.co.uk if you’re interested!). They’re also working hard on getting everything set-up for summer next year.

Like Cruise, Product have also been busy working on summer 2013 plans. At the end of last year, Amy went out on a resort trip to Mexico, in order to try and identify any potential new hotels and also hotels that we no longer feel meet our standards and would drop from our programme. She has also been busy pricing her Mexican holidays for summer 2013 and will soon be looking at our next edition brochure. Ben has also been busy following-up on important meetings with our Purchasers from last month regarding summer 2013 plans. We’ll be launching some new destinations which Ben has the pleasure of visiting – watch this space!

We also all had a fantastic opportunity to take part in our national Back to the Floor Day. This was where everyone in head office could go and experience what goes on in one of our retail shops for the day. It was a huge success and we really enjoyed seeing all our hard work in head office paid off and seeing the sales come in!

Finally, some of us have also been taking advantage of some great staff offers – Ben, Amy, Holly and Katie will all be off to the Dominican Republic in April!

Congratulations on all the successful candidates for next year and we look forward to welcoming you guys in August!

James Caan has mentioned in a recent article in The Telegraph that graduates will face one of the toughest times trying to land a job in their preferred field. Having said this, should we expect grads and students to work for free?!

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 !

Hi again all,

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!

Last week we were invited to run an AGR Masterclass at Kings College London. The Association of Graduate Recruiters put on regular events and masterclasses to help educate graduate recruiters and those involved in higher education employment and were keen to run a session around placements, internships and early engagement. Being the experts (even if I do say so myself!), running this event was right up our street…

Prior to the event, I put together a list of the ‘Top Ten Components of a Perfect Placement’ based on all of my experiences around being a placement student myself, working with hundreds of graduate recruiters and having almost 10,000 reviews here on RateMyPlacement. In case you’re wondering how the photo above is relevant – that is the new RMP office, where we like to think we provide our students with the perfect placement!

So, here goes…

Pre-start communication For example, setting up a Facebook Group and inviting all of your new intake so they can get to know each other before starting, arrange accommodation and know what to expect on day one.

Comprehensive induction Important to remember that for many students, this might be their first ever experience of the corporate world and therefore a comprehensive induction of the way to behave, dos and don’ts and introduction to the company culture to ensure they feel comfortable is key.

Have a clear plan of action and line management Having a clear plan for the student’s entire placement, or at the very least the first 3 months, is essential. Ensure the student knows what is in store for them, manage expectations and equally important is that they have a specific line manager and clear sight of the hierarchy. Also recommended is a mentor who they do not directly work with, for example a recent graduate.

Throw them in at the deep end, build responsibility No-one wants to be sat around reading articles or doing background research for the first few weeks – have a project lined up to get them working on something straight away and then build their responsibility from there.

Provide a wide range of experiences A placement is all about getting experience – therefore make sure that students do gain exposure to a wide range of business aspects to broaden their horizons.

Provide regular feedback and ensure they feel valued It goes without saying, but ensuring that the student is receiving regular feedback and that they are clearly aware of the contribution they are making helps to ensure a successful placement for both employer and student.

Create opportunities and activities outside of work A placement is not just about the work. Students should be given the opportunity to get involved in ‘outside of work’ activities such as charity projects, sports clubs, social committees etc.

Exit interview and feedback As the placement comes to a conclusion, ensure that there is a thorough exit interview and as well as providing the student with an appraisal of their work, they get the opportunity to feedback too.

Review their experiences on RateMyPlacement RateMyPlacement provides an independent but controlled platform for students to leave their honest feedback and therefore provides a valuable tool for measuring success and benchmarking your schemes against others.

Keep them warm with regards to graduate opportunities If you wish to retain your undergraduate intake into graduate roles, have a clear plan in place to keep the students warm during their return to university with fairly regular communication and updates. Another effective option is to employ the student as a Brand Manager for their final year to help promote your organisation on campus.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the above and if you think there are any points I’ve missed or if you have any questions, feel free to comment below.

Hello all,

So last time you were reading my blog it was probably just after I bugged you to ‘like’ it at the bottom so I could stuff my face with a free lunch. Well I’m not going to do that this time…because you’ve already liked it, right? Anyway, standard procedure from me with YouTube clip of the month, Purchase of the month & LAD of the month. If it aint broke don’t fix it and all that…

This months YouTube clip was actually circulated around our office a few weeks ago and had me in tears of laughter. If you ever want to know how not to act when somebody you’re into doesn’t feel the same then check this video out. Crazy girl + her mobile phone + some fantastic New Zealand accents = 7 minutes of comedy gold, enjoy!

Now even though month after month I am scraping the barrel of my poor excuse for a bank account I always manage to find something stupid to spend my money on. This month, although a bit of random purchase, I can still get away with since it is protecting my iPhone, a device I have not had the best luck with in the past (on my third one..). It is my Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES to a lot of nerds (Nick I’m looking at you!), iPhone case. As soon as my housemate showed me a picture of it online I hit the online shopping kingdom that is eBay in search for one. It took me the total of 4 minutes from viewing to purchase and I couldn’t be happier, especially at the measly price of £7.99.

Now we have finally arrived at ‘LAD of the month’. This month’s winner also comes in the form of a YouTube clip that was sent to me today. The guy, referred to as Eddie in the clip seems to be on a date at a basketball game in Washington and gets called down for a half time slam-dunk competition. When it comes to his shot he pulls off the most outrageous front flip and still manages to make the shot, he then dedicates it to his date before returning to the crowd. I think we can all safely say that Eddie got lucky that evening, nicely done sir!

As I’ve mentioned before 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

The tube has to be one of the best and worst things about living in London.  Coming from a rural village in Yorkshire, where buses end around 6PM and the nearest train runs once an hour (if the cables haven’t been stolen that day), a train every 3 minutes is a different level of convenience.  Having said that, it’s surprising how quickly 3 minutes of waiting can go from ‘another level of convenience’ to ‘I can’t believe I have to wait three whole minutes for the next train, now I’m going to be late’.  I think when services are so regular, you subconsciously leave less time for your journey and cut it tighter and tighter, until, inevitably, you are late.  At its worst, the Tube is dirty, crowded, humid, noisy, and generally uncomfortable.  It’s easy to see why people get angry so easily down there.

There are several aspects of the underground that intrigue me, and maybe I’ll talk about them in later posts.  What I thought I’d talk about here, having just watched “The Tube” on BBC2 last night (great documentary, highly recommended), is how to get from A to B as fast as possible.  I’m no expert, having lived in London for a total of 10 weeks, but I have picked up on a few things and I’m a techie so I love a good App.

The first step is to get an Oyster card, set up auto-top up so you never have to use a machine — or god forbid — queue for a ticket desk again, and buy a travelcard (contrary to the name, it’s not a physical card – just something you ‘load up’ onto your Oyster card).  Make sure you plan your route beforehand; after all you wouldn’t want to frustrate the locals and appear to be a tourist. Tube Map can help with that, and it works offline so you can still use it 200ft down.

When you have got your Oyster card and stashed it safely near the outside of your wallet (so you can scan through without taking it out), remember to walk fast and stick the the left of the elevator (what if there is a train waiting in the platform?!).  If you get down and see a train leaving the station, make sure to remember where the doors were so you can stand in position for the next one.  To decide which carriage to get on, Tube Exits is well worth purchasing at just £0.69.  It calculates your journey and tells you which carriage to get on at so you are next to the exit when you arrive at your destination.  Perfect for cutting those valuable seconds out of your journey time.

The Live Map of London Underground is also very interesting.  It uses live data from TfL to estimate where the trains are along the track, so you can time your walk to the station to perfection.

When on the train, if it’s busy it’s often worth trying to move down into the middle of the chairs so you are first in line to sit down if someone stands up.  Having said that, don’t forget to give up a seat to the elderly or less able.  If you are only on the train for a few stops it’s probably not worth fighting for a seat, and you might be better being near the door anyway.

Other than that, it’s just down to luck.  Staying safe is ultimately more important than getting to your destination on time, so I cringe at those who stand mere inches from the edge of the platform just to be first on the train, or jump through the doors as they are closing and proceed to get stuck.  Take care.

Maybe I have taken this ‘efficiency’ thing too seriously, but every 5 minutes extra working at RMP is worth it.  Make sure to like this post, I’m donating 10p/like to our office sport relief fund!

As you all know, tomorrow is St Patrick’s day. Being the only Irish in the RateMyPlacement Office, I feel it is my duty to blog about this special day.

VERY happy St Patrick’s day is on a Saturday this year, meaning I have the entire day to celebrate.

The stereotypical Irish person’s St Patricks day:

1. Wake up early to eat a fry. It’s important that your stomach is lined for the long day ahead.
2. Drink LOTS of Guinness – even if you don’t like it…you will drink it.
3. After drinking a few Guinness, you will be convinced you can Irish dance.
4. Wear as much green as physically possible. If you can pin some shamrocks to your outfit/wear facepaint – the better.

What I’m up to this St Patricks day? All of the above.

St Patricks Day You-Tube Video 2012 – some sneaky Irish dancers in London…If only I could dance like this/ look as good in a morph suit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C9nZrrOlFg

If you enjoyed this blog, then please give it a like/tweet. Free lunch goes to the best blogger in the office. I do enjoy a free lunch!

Happy St Patricks Day…and drink responsibly!

Jamie

Last month the London Careers Group hosted ‘Winning Internships’– an event focusing on the impact internships are having in the workplace, and the legalities surrounding them.

Robin Kennedy, CEO of WEXO, opened the event by identifying the key differences between Work Experience, Internships, and Apprenticeships.  For each position, the criteria differs and therefore determines whether the young person should be paid, and if so, how much they should be paid.  Below is a table which details some of the differences he sees between all three:

Jon Heuvel – Chair of Skills and Employment Forum in the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, spoke about the blur between unpaid work experience and internships.  He elaborated on the “excluded categories” of people in the workplace who are not entitled to National Minimum Wage. These are:

(1) VOLUNTEERS who are working for:

• a charity
• a government organisation
• a social enterprise

(2) STUDENTS ON A SANDWICH DEGREE because they are being ‘trained’ as part of their degree.

(3) APPRENTICES (from Oct 2012 new legislation came in to ensure apprentices are paid at least a minimum wage of £2.60 hour).

According to current legislation, there is no recognised category for interns, and so they are deemed an “excluded” category.  Employers are therefore not legally bound to pay interns, even if they are contributing to the bottom line.  If employers choose not to pay their interns, then interns should be entirely voluntary and should come and go as they please, as well as only doing work shadowing.  Jon said that interns shouldn’t even do any photocopying because that is deemed “productive”!

On the day I found out some interesting statistics, such as the fact that 70% of students do internships, but only 43% are paid (Graduate Prospects, 2012) and that 40% of all interns go on to have full time jobs (The Careers Group & WEXO).

Furthermore, 28% of graduates who left UK universities in 2007 were still unemployed 3 years later (HESA).

Other speakers on the day included Philip Donnelly of Step Enterprise, Julie Price of Dennis Publishing, and Anne Marie of AGCAS.

Hello 5 people that read my blog. How are we?

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