| Hi, Laura - could you spare a few minutes to talk about the work placement you did last summer? |
| I'm thinking of doing one myself... |
| Hi, Tim. Sure. |
| Didn't you do yours at an environmental services company? |
| That's right... |
| It's only a very small company |
| and they needed someone to produce a company brochure, |
| and I wanted to get some business experience |
| because I'm interested in a career in occupational psychology in a business environment. |
| It was good because I had overall responsibility for the project. |
| What kind of skills do you think you developed on the placement? |
| I mean, apart from the ones you already had... |
| Did you have to do all the artwork for the brochure, the layout and everything? |
| We hired the services of a professional photographer for that. |
| I did have to use my IT skills to a certain extent |
| because I cut and pasted text from marketing leaflets, |
| but that didn't involve anything I hadn't done before. |
| Do you think you got any better at managing your time and prioritizing things? |
| You always used to say you had trouble with that... |
| Oh, definitely. |
| There was so much pressure to meet the project deadline. |
| And I also got better at explaining things and asserting my opinions, |
| because I had to have weekly consultations with the marketing manager and give him a progress report. |
| It sounds as if you got a lot out of it then. |
| Absolutely. |
| It was really worthwhile... |
| But you know, the company benefited too... |
| Yes, they must have done. |
| After all, if they'd used a professional advertising agency to produce their brochure instead of doing it in-house, |
| presumably they'd have paid a lot more? |
| Oh, yes. |
| I worked it out - |
| it would have been 250% more. |
| And I thought the end result was good, |
| even though we did everything on site. |
| The company has quite a powerful computer |
| and I managed to borrow some scanning software from the university. |
| The new brochure looks really professional; |
| it enhances the image of the company straight away. |
| So in the long run it should help them to attract clients, and improve their sales figures? |
| That's the idea. Yeah. |
| Well, all in all it sounds very positive - |
| I think I will go ahead and apply for a placement myself. |
| How do I go about it? |
| It's easy enough to do, |
| because there's a government agency called STEP |
| S-T-E-P |
| - that organises placements for students. |
| You should start by getting their booklet with all the details - |
| I expect you can download one from their website. |
| Actually, they've got copies in the psychology department - |
| I've seen them there. |
| I'll just go to the office and pick one up. |
| Right. |
| And then if I were you, after I'd looked at it I'd go over all the options with someone... |
| I suppose I should ask my tutor's advice. |
| He knows more about me than anyone. |
| One of the career officers would be better, |
| they've got more knowledge about the jobs market than your personal tutor would have. |
| OK... |
| And then when you know what you want you can register with STEP - |
| you'll find their address in the booklet. |
| And once you've registered they assign you to a mentor who looks after your application. |
| And then I suppose you just sit back and wait till you hear something? |
| They told me at the careers office that it's best to be proactive, and get updates yourself |
| by checking the website for new placement alerts. |
| Your mentor is supposed to keep you informed, but you can't rely on that. |
| I don't suppose it's a good idea to get in touch with companies directly, is it? |
| Not really... |
| But it is the company who notifies you if they want you to go for an interview. |
| You get a letter of invitation or an email from personnel departments. |
| And do I reply directly to them? |
| Yes, you do. |
| STEP only gets involved again once you've been made a job offer. |
| Right... |
| So, once you've had an interview you should let your mentor know what the outcome is? |
| I mean whether you're offered a job, and whether you've decided to accept it? |
| That's right. |
| They'll inform the careers office once a placement has been agreed, |
| so you don't have to do that. |
| Is that all then? |
| More or less. |
| Only once you've accepted an offer you'll probably have to supply a reference, |
| because the placement will be conditional on that. |
| And that's something you should ask your own tutor to provide. |
| He knows about your academic ability and also about your qualities, like reliability. |
| Well, thanks very much for the information - |
| I'm starting to look... |