Your first year of university is a lot of fun. A lot to take in, but everything is new. You’re in a new location, with new pals and new classes.

Although you might not be thinking about work experience right now, it’s actually really important! Why? Becuase employers often get in touch with past placement students and interns when hiring for graduate positions.

Getting work experience before you graduate will put you in a really good position when the time comes to find yourself a graduate scheme or a job after graduation. So we’ve put together a checklist to help you succeed.

You can download your first-year checklist below:

What’s in the checklist?

Think of this checklist as your very own cheatsheet for employability and to help you prepare for placements, internships and insights applications.

It covers a wide range of tips and actions for you to complete while you’re in first year. This includes:

• UPDATE YOUR CV: Have you updated your CV since going to university?
• CREATE A LINKEDIN PROFILE: Think social media, but for professionals. LinkedIn is a great platform for networking and discovering market trends.
• TRY YOUR BEST: Aim for a 2:1, but don’t feel bad if things don’t work out. There are plenty of employers out there who’ll offer you a placement or internship regardless of your grade. Take PwC – they’ve removed their entry requirements altogether as their hiring process is based on talent, not your academic background.

Insight days

What are insight days?

Insight days are work experience programmes that are specifically designed for 1st and 2nd year students. They can last anywhere between one and ten days and take place during the university holidays.

If you want to work in accounting, investment banking, engineering, finance or law, an insight day will give you a good idea of what it’s like to work in these industries.

When can you apply for one?

You can apply for an insight between September and March, but competition for places is fierce so we’d recommend looking for vacancies now and applying before the new year. 

To give yourself the best chance of getting onto an insight scheme, start completing the checklist ASAP! Then hop over to our jobs board to see what vacancies are available.

The post Your 1st Year Checklist appeared first on RateMyPlacement.

From dissertations to exams, planning a graduation fit and looking for a graduate job or scheme, we know there’s loads to think about. So to help you get on top of your applications and secure that all-important role, we’ve created your ultimate graduate job timeline.

Inside you’ll find all the key dates and top tips. Click below! It’s free.

Graduate Tips

Once you’ve downloaded your timeline check out all the advice below to help you slay the graduation application process like an absolute boss.

A Guide to Graduate Jobs

Find out everything there is to know about graduate jobs and schemes, the difference, who’s hiring and how to apply.

Writing a Graduate CV

Your staring point: a CV that shows off your skills and grabs an employer’s attention. We’ve also included a free template!

Writing a Graduate Cover Letter

A good CV comes with a great cover letter. Here’s how to write one.

Be Interview Ready

Have you been invited to an interview? That’s great! Here’s everything you should expect including commonly asked questions and how to answer them.

Feeling ready to jump in? We have over 300 graduate roles waiting for your application. Click below to get started.

The post The Ultimate Graduate Job Timeline appeared first on RateMyPlacement.

It’s easy to compare yourself with your friends, who may have landed a placement within the first few months of applying. But for others, they may be on their 100th application. That’s okay. If you fall into one of these categories, this is for you.

There are hundreds of other opportunities out there just for you, whether it feels like it right now or not. You just need to do a little bit of digging – but that’s where we come in. 

Let’s get into it

• Reach out to your university
• Look for alternatives
• Upskilling yourself in other ways
• Focus on your studies

Reach out to your university

If you didn’t manage to secure a placement year, your first point of call is your university.

If your university course has a compulsory placement year, there should be support there to help you every step of the way, whether that’s looking at other options or other ways of helping out.

They may look to see if there are any campus-based opportunities or projects you can take on as part of your placement year.

You’ll still gain the necessary experience you need to snap up a role after graduation.

Don’t assume that your university won’t help you, all university career departments should be, all hands on deck when these unexpected situations happen.

It’s hard not to get wrapped up in emotions application season. Let’s talk.

Look for alternatives

Finding a placement is HARD (speaking from experience). According to the Institute of Student Employers, there are around 91 applicants per role, so it’s super competitive.

If you do miss out, think about the things you were going to gain through doing a placement year and how you can achieve them without doing one.

Ask yourself these questions: 

• Did you have any goals you would’ve liked to set yourself? 
• Was there a certain skill you wanted to learn?
• Did you want to get over your fear of presenting in front of people?
• Was there an area of the business that you were excited about learning about?

Your main goal should of course to be enhance your employability with relevant industry knowledge and real-life work experience. 

So, what can you do to gain this without a placement year? Read on to find out.

Upskilling yourself in other ways

Not doing a placement year isn’t the end of the world, but you’ll need to find ways to stand out above the rest.

Here are some other ways you can gain the skills and industry knowledge without having to do a placement.

These are all great ways to make sure you’re getting the experience you need. You need to make sure you are doing things that other candidates aren’t necessarily doing.

This way you’ll have;

• more experiences and skills to add to your CV
• more to discuss in your interview
• more of a chance to impress your employer.

Go and take control of your career progression, because it’s only you that can make it happen.

Depending on what time you’re reading this, it’s potentially not too late to apply for a placement either. Most of our roles go live between September and February. Check out what’s still available.

Focus on your studies

If your placement isn’t compulsory, you may just have to return to university to complete your final year. Which isn’t a bad thing at all.

With no placement disrupting your university mindset, you can focus on being an academic weapon and spend more time on your readings, essays, coursework, exam prep and of course your big dissertation.

Try and bridge the experience gap by doing as well as you can.

REMINDER

Focus on applying for graduate roles right away. Many students don’t realise that they start to open in early September. Here are some examples of transferable skills that you’ll need to include in your application.

So you’ve now found out about the available opportunities. What are your next steps? Whether that’s looking into insight schemes or reaching out to do some volunteer work, we want you to know.

Not finding a placement is only a small bump in the road, it’s not something you massively need to worry over, either. Just do your best, as that’s all that anyone can ask for.

Remember things happen for a reason, there may be your dream grad role still waiting for you after your final year.

Good Luck!

The post What Happens If I Don’t Get A Placement? appeared first on RateMyPlacement.

Adulthood comes at you hard and fast. One minute you’re dreaming of what you want to be when you’re older and suddenly the decision, along with where you’re going to relocate to become it, is imminent.

With the UCAS deadline around the corner, we’re here to help you decide which university you should choose, and why. We’d like to introduce to you (drum roll please)… our Best Universities table updated for 2024.

To consider all angles, we looked at the Times Top 100 Universities and ranked them according to the following factors: 

• Times Higher Education ranking
• Student satisfaction
• Graduate prospects
• Average weekly accommodation costs 
• Cost of an ‘inexpensive’ meal
• Cost of a pint (domestic beer)
• Cost of a one-way ticket on local transport
• Cost of a monthly fitness membership
• The total number of nightclubs

We’ve created a detailed index for 2024 covering all of these. So, whether you’re looking for the best place to study or the university with the cheapest pint – we’ve got you covered.

The best UK universities overall

The top 10 universities overall covered a lot of ground. Overall, St Andrews University in Scotland is the best UK university for the second year running, scoring full marks across the board and the best for student satisfaction. This was followed by the University of Sheffield and the University of Bath who both moved their way up into the top three from 2023.

The best UK university for graduate prospects

The area you choose to study in can also have an impact on your post-university career and it’s useful to think of the next steps open to you – especially if you’ve already relocated to University you may want to find a graduate job in your new stix. 

This year, Imperial College London knocked St George’s University off the top spot with the highest graduate prospects in the UK (94.2). The University of Cambridge (93.1) also beat last years’ winners St George’s University of London who moved into third place (92.4).

The best UK universities with the cheapest accommodation

If only studying was the single factor for choosing a university. Unfortunately, the reality of it is that budgeting, finance and cost of living have to be taken into account when choosing the right university for you.

To make things easier, we’ve extracted the top 10 cheapest universities based on their accommodation costs.

As shown above, Staffordshire University, in Stoke-on-Trent, has the most affordable accommodation – costing an average of £80 per week. This is followed by the University of Huddersfield (at £81 per week) and Teesside University (at £88 per week). 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, our top two most expensive accommodations were based in London. LSE was the most expensive at £261 per week, followed by the University of Greenwich (£238 per week) – and then Edinburgh at £222 per week.

The best UK universities for the most affordable lifestyle

What about beyond campus life? Fear not, we know the nightlife, the wind-down opportunities and the local costs also come into play when it comes to opting for the next step in your higher education.

For fitness-minded students, Stirling is still the most affordable monthly fitness membership at £16.99 per month – followed by the University of Portsmouth at £22.60 and the University of Central Lancashire at £23.40. The index also shows that the average cost for students wanting to keep fit has seen an increase since 2023 of £2.32 a month.

Warwick has the most expensive local transport, with the price of a one-way ticket standing at £7 – followed by Durham (£5), and Lincoln (£4.75). The most affordable was the University of Stirling at £1.40 – followed by our two Surrey universities (University for the Creative Arts and University of Surrey) at £1.50. 

Whether you’re financially driven, career-prospecting or simply looking for the best place to be educated, our index should help make your decision ahead of the UCAS application deadline a little bit easier.

The help doesn’t stop there, once you’ve made your decision take a look at our 1st Year Checklist to ensure you’re well-prepared for your next adventure.

The post The Best Universities in the UK appeared first on RateMyPlacement.

For many, university can be an exciting but daunting chapter of life. Thinking about all the opportunities and experiences you’ll have is going to be a huge plus, but this can become slightly overshadowed by anxiety. 

Here are some ways you can help manage these fears to allow yourself to have the best time at uni.

• Missing friends and family
• Making new friends and keeping up With old ones
• Breaking bad habits
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Missing friends and family

Almost everyone I spoke to at university in my first year shared the common fear of really missing friends and family and worrying about the amount of time away from them. Especially if they’re living away from home for the first time. 

I thought a lot about how I would be able to make friends and change my habits of seeing family every day, as I had previously lived at home. 

The best advice for this is: 

• Try and understand that loads of people are in the same boat. You’ll most likely not know anyone there and that’s ok because neither does anyone else!

• Consider what you can do to give yourself home comforts, even something as simple as a warm cup of tea in the evening or joining a dog walking society if you are missing pets from home.

Making new friends and keeping up with old ones

Try pushing out of your comfort zone as much as you can by going to freshers’ fairs, meeting accommodation house/flatmates, and attending societies (this in particular even if you decide not to go in the long run, you’ll meet some amazing people).

ON THAT NOTE… don’t be afraid to ask for people’s social media. Everyone will be doing the same thing. If it doesn’t even go beyond an add or a follow, that’s okay. But you don’t want to regret not being able to contact a potential new friend.

Scheduling when you’ll next talk to or meet loved ones from home is also a really good way to put your mind at ease as you know you’ll be talking to them soon and have something to look forward to if you are struggling. 

You might even end up going to the same university with some of your friends from home. While it will be nice to see familiar faces, don’t let that accidentally stop you from meeting new people. Maybe set a date in a few weeks to get together and talk about all your experiences so far.

It’s finally here, move-in date secured. Heres…

Breaking Bad Habits

For many, university is the first time being independent and self-reliant, so enjoy it! Make sure to look after yourself and become your own accountability tracker.

If you find yourself getting into the habit of not going to lectures for example, I would suggest at least trying to go to the library or leaving your accommodation during the week (not just leaving to go food shopping or for a sweet treat).

I joined university slightly later than everybody else and I was afraid everyone would have already made friends without me.

Throughout your time at university, you’ll find that friendship groups and people individually are always changing and evolving. I found that simply just saying yes to every social opportunity offered to me was helpful as it pushed me out of my comfort zone and exposed me to new people and situations.

One thing I love about university is that, unlike high school, there are no “popular people” (there are literally thousands of people at uni), so you can start fresh without judgment.

Never do anything that makes you feel unsafe or pressured. If you’re able to, try and excuse yourself to leave or reach out to anybody else, university officials or safety officers for support in your situation.

More on mental health and what you can actively do to look after yourself

Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help

If you are finding you are struggling, even in the first couple of days, and don’t know who to turn to, remind yourself that there is help and support out there. 

Universities will have support initiatives and professionals that will be able to help you, don’t be afraid to ask! There is nothing wrong with asking for help from a university.

You definitely won’t be the first or last person to ask for support, you are not alone. Even an email to the relevant team is a great step towards getting support.

Universities will always have services for you if you’re not doing too great and need a little help. Here are some of those:

All in all, university can be the best three years of your life. Just remember that you’ll ALWAYS have people around to support and guide you—just reach out! 

The post Looking After Your Mental Health At University appeared first on RateMyPlacement.

Luckily I have no regrets (well, maybe the hangover weekdays) but there are some things I wish someone had told me when I was a fresher…

• 101 to making friends at uni
• Ways to budget
• You’re more than your grades
• First Year = Fresh starts

101 to making friends at uni

First and foremost, be kind to everyone!  

This should be obvious but you’ll come across people who just aren’t friendly…That is okay! Try not to take it personally, you’ll be much happier knowing you maintained your kindness and values. 

On my first night, I invited all the flats in my block for a lil’ get-together, knocking on their doors with a big smile and managed to round up six of them. Don’t worry if your flatmates aren’t people you immediately click with, some things take time. You’ll be surprised how quickly you gravitate towards your people – be brave to take the first step, go knock!

Invite everyone to everything in those first few weeks. The more the merrier.

I went to surfing socials even though the sea TERRIFIES me because a friend invited me. Turns out I ended up making some great friends. Go to everything you get invited to (within your comfort zone) and vice versa.

Need a little bit more inspiration? Here are 8 ways you can make friends at university.

Ways to budget

The broke student stereotype is all too true, and with the cost of living crisis at the top of many students’ worries – there’s a lot to think about. But, there are ways you can make and hold on to those coins…

If you can, pick up a side hustle or part-time job, a lot of the time you will have big gaps in your day, so try to utilise this.

Here are some side hustles I did;

• Sell on vinted 
• Babysit (there are loads of apps available to help find parents)
• Sign up for a mystery shopping website 
• Part-time roles in retail or hospitality (the free food is a blessing!)
• Anything with flexible hours, the extra money will be a lifesaver.

There are also loads of ways you can make money around campus too! Whether that’s a job in the library or the SU coffee shop, you might not need to look far. 

You could even become a brand ambassador. It’s a great way to earn some cash, meet people and bag some work experience. Here are 8 more reasons to become a brand ambassador.

Don’t overspend on food shops. Take the first couple of months to evaluate what is essential/what goes out of date before you eat it. I wasted so many spinach and carrot bags, (random) yet continued to buy them.

Try to have a shopping list that you can make at least five meals from and budget for a couple of fast food takeaways as well. You need comfort and ease sometimes.

If you want some more money-saving hacks, find out how below: 

You’re more than your grades 

Try not to put too much pressure on yourself, it is easy to forget that in the first year, you only need to pass!

Of course, try your best (don’t get me wrong, the academic validation is always nice).

Really try to participate in seminars as much as you can, I was shy for so long and it hurt no one but myself… No one cares more than you, and that wrong answer you gave on a random rainy Tuesday morning will be forgotten as soon as you step out of those doors, I promise.

It’s important to get yourself into a routine halfway through the year so that you don’t struggle much when the second year rolls around (quickly might I add) but for freshers’, prioritise getting loads of the experience! 

As long as you find a balance, do not stress if you aren’t top of your class.

First year = Fresh start

Remember anything that held you back in the past gets wiped at uni. Nothing is ever that serious, and you get to live a double life at uni if you want to.

Embarrassing moments can and do happen, but trust me, they will be forgotten within 24 hours.

I definitely didn’t stack down a flight of stairs walking into my lecture… But if I had, I would just need to remember that in a university with 30,000 students, no one is going to remember that ten-second palaver, even though it got a laugh at the moment.

Finally, push yourself to try new things, as daunting as it may be, the time will fly and you will likely only regret the things you don’t do.

If you’re still a little unsure, that’s okay. Everything is new! But there are ways you can ease into doing the tasks that you’re not used to. Read on for more.

Good luck for freshers’ week, you’ll have a fab time! Be open to trying new things, and just remember to always be true to yourself and follow your instincts  

The post 4 things I Wish I Knew as a Fresher appeared first on RateMyPlacement.

There are probably a whole bunch of questions swirling around your head right now: How do I do it? When can I fit in me-time? What role did I apply for again? Trust me, I asked myself all these questions, and more, when I was applying for a placement.

It’s so important to take the time to plan so you don’t stress yourself out. Read on for some tips on how to slay your uni life and manage your placement applications.

• Know What You Want
• Know Your Uni Deadlines
• Company Cheat Sheet
• Don’t Compete with Those Around You
• Schedule Time for Your Friends, Family and Yourself

Know What You Want

Have a look around and see which companies you like the look of.

RateMyPlacement’s ‘Register Your Interest’ feature is a great place to start. You’ll see jobs before anyone’s for roles that take your fancy, and we’ll let you know when the application period goes live. We also regularly post stories with current ‘Register Your Interest’ Roles on our Instagram @RateMyPlacement_offical (give us a follow while you’re over there!). 

This can help you prepare your application ahead of time so as soon as that window opens you can submit your application.

Also, you’re allowed to be selective! Don’t just apply for a company because you can think about yourself in that role and environment. Would you enjoy it? If the answer is no, there’s probably a role a lot more fitting for you out there.

Know Your Uni Deadlines

Deadlines tend to creep up on you. To avoid the jumpscare, as soon as you know when you have to hand in your assignments or do an exam, write it down. Have a list of them above your desk, have them down on your calendar, and do whatever you need to do to make sure you don’t forget about them. 

Make a plan of action for when you do want to start writing your assignments or revising for your exams. There’s never any harm in starting early either.

If you’ve got a RateMyPlacement account (which we 20000% recommend, obvi), you can keep track of all your applications and your saved companies and roles all in the same place. 

I know I STRUGGLED to keep track of where all my applications were, even more so if it was a portal that needed a login and password (also my fault for never writing down the passwords).

If you’re still struggling with stress, read our blog on how to manage stress during university.

Company Cheat Sheet

It’s really easy to lose track of what the company does, what values they hold and what you’ve applied for. And, what makes the whole process even harder is that sometimes you have to wait months in between application stages which can result in you forgetting what you’ve applied for.

So to help you keep track, we’ve put together a FREE company cheat sheet for you to fill in during your job search. We’ve included an example to get you started, don’t forget to delete it before you fill it in.

Some key things to keep note of about a company you’re applying for:

• What do they do?
• What are their values and how do they align with your own?
• What is the role you’re applying for?
• What does this role entail and how would your experience help you do it?
• Where is their office based?

Keeping a cheat sheet will make your application journey go so much smoother and you’ll be able to better manage those quick turnarounds! 

Don’t Compete with Those Around You

Being around people who are also placement hunting is a double-edged sword. On one side, you get to share the highs and lows with those around you, but on the other, it might be hard to not see them as your competition. 

Just because one person secured their placement in September doesn’t mean you are behind. Always do your best, but don’t push yourself to be at someone else’s best.

Keep doing what you need to do, attend your lectures, take time for yourself and apply for the roles that take your fancy. Never bring yourself down because you see other people handling placement applications and uni differently. There’s not one right way to deal with this year. 

Just keep going at the pace that works for you.

Schedule Time for Your Friends, Family and Most Importantly Yourself

Putting together a burnt-out job seeker and a burned-out student into one person is never ideal. These two negatives, unfortunately, don’t make a positive. 

So, it’s crucial that you make that time for yourself and the people you love. Even if it’s just going for coffee with your friend, calling your family on your journey back from uni, putting on your guilty pleasure film while you cook dinner or getting yourself a sweet treat for simply waking up (I recommend all of the above). 

Small acts of self-love go a long way so please prioritise them if you still find yourself struggling. Find out more:

Whatever you do, don’t be too hard on yourself. Placement hunting and going to uni is so difficult and as long as you’re making it through, that’s all that counts. 

Always reach out to your uni career officers, uni wellbeing team, friends and family for extra support if you need it. There’s never any shame in asking for help.

The post How to Balance Placement Hunting While at Uni appeared first on RateMyPlacement.

“My disability doesn’t make my any more special than anyone else. But I do believe it has given me something extra, a ‘plus’.” (Helen Cooke; CEO & Founder MyPlus Students’ Club)

When it comes to disability it’s easy to think about all the things you can’t do, or that you can no longer do. However, when it comes to searching for a placement or a job, it’s helpful to think about what you can do and what skills, strengths and competencies you have.

We all develop skills as a result of our experiences, and this is especially true when you have to manage a disability on a day-to-day basis in a world that wasn’t designed with you in mind. These are skills that employers are potentially looking for.

By identifying the strengths you have gained through managing a disability you can market your disability as a ‘plus’ when applying to jobs and make your application stand out from the competition and catch the eye of the recruiters.

At MyPlus Students’ Club we provide essential information and advice for students on managing your disability* during the recruitment process and into the workplace, as well as profiling disability-confident recruiters looking to engage with you.

1. Identify your ‘plus’

There are many ways to identify your strengths however a good starting point is to reflect on your own experiences, including those related to your disability, to understand where your strengths lie.

By finding real examples in your life where you have overcome disability-related challenges to achieve success, your talents and character strengths will become clearer. A good way to do this is to consider what you must do daily that your non-disabled friends don’t.

2. Communicating your ‘plus‘

For each of the strengths and skills that you identify as having developed because of your disability, you will need to be able to provide a couple of examples. The examples should be related to your disability; ideally, each skill will be developed by a different experience.

On your application form or during an interview, think positively about your experiences of disability and articulate a couple of strengths that your disability has forced you to develop that will enable you to achieve results in the future.

By communicating these strengths in an interview, and discussing the disability-related challenges you have overcome to achieve success today, you can begin to really stand out as a candidate with a ‘plus’.

3. Relating your ‘plus’ to the role

As you identify your strengths, remember that the aim is to show the employer that you have the relevant competencies and attributes to succeed in the role. Read the job description carefully and familiarise yourself with the requirements of the role.

You can then match your strengths to the job and explain how these will enable you to achieve the best results in the organisation.

4. Leveraging your disability as your differentiator

Once you have chosen your strengths, you can prepare one or two supporting examples to demonstrate how the strengths you have developed through a disability have enabled you to excel or why this strength will be an asset to the organisation.

By drawing upon personal experiences to illustrate your strengths, you can set yourself apart from the competition.

For more advice and information, become a member of www.myplusstudentsclub.com, and explore our career guides covering a range of topics such as disclosure, making an application with a disability,  and requesting adjustments by clicking on our Resources section here.

MyPlus Students’ Club is a free online resource for students that offers comprehensive guidance on all aspects of applying for a job or internship with a disability, as well as providing connections to, and jobs with disability confident graduate recruiters

*Disability includes, but is not limited to conditions such as visual and hearing impairments, mobility impairments, autism, diabetes, epilepsy, dyslexia, dyspraxia, mental health conditions, speech impairments and major illnesses such as cancer and MS.

Author: Helen Cooke, Director and Founder of MyPlus Students’ Club

The post 4 Ways to Positively Position Your Disability to a Potential Employer appeared first on RateMyPlacement.