A placement year is a fantastic opportunity to develop essential job experience and skills. Many students utilize it as an opportunity to immerse themselves in a foreign culture by living and working in nations such as the United Kingdom or the United States for a year.

These year-long work experiences, also known as industrial placements, are typically undertaken in your third year of university.

Work placement years are an excellent addition to your CV and can aid in the development of your social and professional networks. After completing their work experience, some students are even given full-time graduate jobs.

Finding and gaining a job placement year, on the other hand, might be tough. Placement year applications are sometimes as extensive as graduate scheme applications and, in some cases, even more difficult.

To succeed, you must be entirely focused on your application. Here are some things you can do to improve your chances of getting a work placement year:

Start preparing early

If you are certain that you want to complete a work placement year at university, you should begin arranging it as soon as possible.

But what exactly does this mean? It entails attending career fairs, conducting company research, learning what organizations are seeking, and ensuring that you have the necessary grades.

Take advantage of any corporate insight days that your university may provide and use these days to make industry relationships. Adding these people to LinkedIn or obtaining their email addresses will allow you to contact them while looking for jobs.

Furthermore, becoming engaged with organizations or holding a part-time job can allow you to develop vital skills that will help you stand out to employers.

Understand what you want from your placement

A placement year may be required as part of your academic program. Alternatively, you may complete one to increase your chances of finding a job after graduation.

In any case, expressing your reasons for desiring a work placement can put you in a better position to find the perfect situation for you.

Many people are concerned about losing out and applying for placement opportunities they are unsure about. This may result in you being assigned to a year-long placement that you dislike, or the employer detecting that you are uninterested in the work and declining to hire you.

Try to align your placement year to your desired job path after graduation. If you’re not sure what you want to do after graduation, apply for internships in fields that interest you. You’ll still learn a lot of useful skills.

Consider small firms

Don’t rule out smaller, less well-known firms. Experience experiences and smaller firms may be able to give you much more responsibility in projects. 

Your work is also more likely to make a larger difference in a smaller firm than in a large one, due to a smaller number of staff members. 

Perfect your resume

Unless you’ve looked for a part-time job, odds are you haven’t used your résumé in a long time. You might not have one at all.

When applying for your work placement year, whether you have a résumé or not, it is better to start from the beginning. A fast search on Google can provide various resume templates, and most word documents will also have templates for you to utilize.

If you need help starting your resume, here’s how to write a resume with no work experience and further tips on writing a CV that’ll get you interviews.

Schedule an appointment with your university’s career center once you’ve completed a draught resume. They will advise you on how to enhance your resume and tailor it to the positions you are looking for.

Do your research

Before applying for placements, do your homework. This will assist you in determining what you’ll be doing in the position, what the organization is looking for in candidates, and whether the work is a good fit for you.

It is critical to match your hobbies, ethics, and professional goals to the position. Understanding the company’s beliefs and taking notes can also benefit you during the interview stage, as you will have done the majority of your preparation ahead of time.

Placement year applications may be quite competitive, so make sure yours is customized to the specific post and organization to which you’re applying.

Also, don’t forget about the application deadline. That is a sure way to lose the job.

Prepare for the application

Before applying, find out what the application entails. This varies per business, however, most companies detail the application processes on their website.

The recruiting process for major multinational businesses often consists of multiple steps:

Step 1: A preliminary application

You will be required to submit your CV and answer a few questions about why you want the job and what you can add to the position.

Step 2: Online evaluation

You will subsequently be instructed to complete a series of online examinations. These will very certainly be psychometric exams, which will assess your aptitude, personality, and abilities.

They may contain numerical, verbal, and logical examinations, as well as questions about how you would handle hypothetical employment circumstances.

There are several practice psychometric exams available online, so make sure you prepare for them ahead of time.

Step 3: Conduct a telephone interview

This is generally a quick interview in which you will be asked about your objectives for seeking the position as well as your professional experience. You could be asked a few competency-based questions. You may frequently plan ahead of time for these.

Step 4: Conduct a video interview

A video interview is generally the next step. In this section, you will videotape yourself answering various competency-based questions in a set amount of time. It’s a good idea to practice these before the interview because video interviews might be intimidating if you haven’t done them before.

Step 5: Evaluation center and final interview

After that, you will be invited to the office for an assessment center day. On this day, you will participate in a variety of tasks with the other finalists, and the employer will grade you based on how effectively you collaborate with others.

Typically, you will do many interviews on this day. These interviews will be more in-depth than the others, with technical questions regarding the work as well as personal questions about you and your suitability for the post being asked.

Here’s how to stand out to employers in the recruitment process.

Keep going

The most essential thing to remember when looking for a job is to persevere. Nobody ever claimed to obtain a job placement was simple, so just keep going and you’ll get there in the end.