A question that I get asked really frequently, especially by students, is what should they look for when they are thinking about doing a work placement.
I can tell you from personal experience that the choices that you have in your work placement and the choices that you can make can have a profound impact on your career.
Now, before I go into the things that I think you want to be considering, I thought first of all, I would share with you my personal story about how I did a work placement when I was at university.
So I was doing a four year degree where you do three years of studying and in the middle of the course, you do a year out on placement. I was really looking forward to the placement year, I saw it as a really brilliant opportunity to take what I’d learnt in the first two years and apply them into a real world business setting.
And for me, it was a little bit like having a practice because I intended to go into the family business when I graduated, I actually wasn’t that bothered about getting real world experience outside of a smaller organisation like this. So, while most of my course mates headed off down to London to do junior management roles, I was happy to stay more local.
Simon’s mam, my boyfriend then, now my husband, she had a friend of a friend who’d just started a business and was looking for some help and support so I thought that would be a brilliant opportunity. So off I tootled to go and do my work placement with them.
Now being totally honest, the placement was only offering me half of the money that my course mates were earning elsewhere but that’s just one consideration. This was a little craft company and everything seemed to be doing well on the surface, and I’m not going to go into too much detail about what happened. What I will say is if you want to know about that, go and read my autobiography or the six minute entrepreneur book andI go into it in a bit more detail!
Let’s just say, everything wasn’t quite as it seemed and actually the business that I joined was weeks away from going bust.
Now that might sound like a complete nightmare, one that you should avoid at all costs because, if you think about it, joining a failing business can either really knock the stuffing out of you and can put you off the idea of ever being an entrepreneur at all, or, as it did in my case, completely galvanise me into action.
Rather than curl up and roll over, really, I had nothing to lose.
If it all went wrong, I still had uni to return to, but I really didn’t want that business to fail. I saw it as a fantastic opportunity to get in there, get my hands dirty and try and turn things around.
So within less than 12 months, when my placement was kind of coming to an end, the business was back in much better health, sales were up and cashflow was under control. And yes, we had to have some early job losses, but recruitment was back on the agenda.
So things were really on the up, right?
The whole experience taught me that choosing a work placement is about so much more than just adding a blue chip name to your CV or being part of a company that’s making huge profits.
Work placements are about putting yourself in an environment that’s going to challenge you, going to make you grow, or in my case, it’s going to force me to grow otherwise the whole business would have sunk!
So I’ve tried to think about what my top tips would be on helping you choose a placement for any students out there.
Number one, is it a business that you’re interested in or you care about?
Now, it doesn’t have to be your dream. It doesn’t have to be your forever job, but believe me, when the alarm goes off on a cold December morning at five o’clock, you’re going to need a bit of passion about the company that you’re going to work for to get you out of bed.
Don’t underestimate the importance of actually choosing something that you have an interest in. So that’s the first one, choose something you’re interested in.
Secondly, will you have the opportunity to learn?
Now this can be quite difficult to know for sure when you go for an interview and sometimes you’re left with the feeling that you should feel honoured to have been offered a placement there but that in itself can be a bad sign.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions about what you can expect to learn and how you’re going to be able to develop in that role. In an ideal world, you want to see if you can get a chance to talk to people that are actually on a placement there at the moment potentially about their experience so don’t be frightened to ask if you can have opportunities like that.
Now number three, ask yourself, can you really make a difference?
What I mean here is the feeling that you can contribute to the business. Will you be working on projects where you can actually add some real value? Nothing gets me more motivated than seeing the difference that I can make, whether it’s on a project or on a whole business. So don’t underestimate the effect and the impact that that’s going to have on you as well.
Then number four, what is the worst thing that will happen if you take the placement and it doesn’t work out?
When you’re a student, you can probably take more risks than you can in any other time of your life. Now I know that’s not the case for everyone, and I respect those of you that might have children or partners to support, mortgages to pay, but on the whole, for a lot of people, when they’re a student, the work placement should be about what you can get out of the experience not just during the months that you’re completing it.
Now, placements are not a lifelong commitment and this is the beauty of them. They’re an opportunity to go in to learn. So be brave. Choose the right option. Don’t just choose the easy option.
And then ask yourself the question, if you were offered the placement, would you be excited or relieved? Now if the answer’s relieved, then the chances are that you’re looking for a solution, not an opportunity.
Solutions solve problems while opportunities lead to growth.
Now, I know there are lots of other things that you’ll need to factor in like where you’re going to live and how you’re going to pay your bills, but these are all what I would call the hygiene factors. These are all the practicalities if you like, not the main reasons that you should be using to make your decision.
So, I hope that’s helpful. I think sometimes when it comes to choosing a placement, the right decision is also going to be potentially the longest hours or the least money or the worst commute but if that placement really is right and the experience rate is really rich, then trust me you’re not likely to ever regret it so good luck choosing!