{"id":2457,"date":"2017-08-30T16:19:23","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T15:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/copyright.lboro.ac.uk\/students\/?p=2457"},"modified":"2017-09-29T11:01:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T10:01:26","slug":"winning-third-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/students\/arts-english-drama\/winning-third-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Winning in the third year!"},"content":{"rendered":"

So it\u2019s now August, and soon a lot of you will be finding out where you are going to university. Some of you are looking for graduate jobs, placements, internships, taking a gap year or studying abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well where I stand in all this is currently three weeks in to my placement year at the Watford Palace Theatre. How did I get from sixth-form to here? It\u2019s mad.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m working as the Participation Assistant at the theatre (woo)! And it is safe to say I love it. I\u2019m assistant directing Treasure Island (ooooo), working on a film festival (ahh), creating a resource pack for primary school drama and organising our young producers\u2019 event (please hold your applause till the end). The people I work with are great, so supportive and talented. It\u2019s a fun job, something for the C.V., and I get an added Diploma in Professional Studies (that\u2019s after I pass my 5,000-word dissertation of course). But that doesn\u2019t sound too bad to me!<\/p>\n

For the sandwich year, you can go anywhere in the world, you can even build your placement out of multiple internships. And if a placement doesn\u2019t suit your fancy, there is the option of study abroad. Explore a new culture and gain new experiences. Did I mention I studied abroad in Australia? Third time? No couldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

This year, careers at Loughborough<\/a> have literally been a life saver. \u00a0When it comes to giving advice and support I cannot fault them. I went from stressing about applications, to stressing about not having a placement, to stressing about having too many placements to choose from. How ironic. Through the whole process Student Support<\/a> helped me develop my C.V., application, and most of all helped me decide which placement was best for me (who\u2019d have thought receiving multiple offers would be a stress).<\/p>\n

I had offers in Madrid, London, Watford and back home. In all honesty I was stuck. I had my heart set on Watford, but could I afford to live down south? Luckily I was referred to Student Advice<\/a> at the Bridgeman Building who helped me work out how to manage my money. Problems solved!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When applying for a placement, I had a few friends ask me \u2018where do you even start\u2019. Good question. The answer = placement fairs, which run a few times throughout the year. It\u2019s basically an exhibition where you can meet different representatives from companies offering placement opportunities. This is how I found out about Camp America, which I will hopefully be attending next July.<\/p>\n

Secondly, our careers advisors sent regular update emails about potential placement offers and also opportunities relevant to your department. This is how I found the placements in Madrid and Watford. Lastly, there is online research. You can start by researching different companies, search through their websites and find out if they\u2019re currently offering placements or have done previously (this way you can look out for future application openings).<\/p>\n

A lot of companies don\u2019t always reply after your first point of call, so why not chase it up \u2013 it worked for me! I personally don\u2019t think I would be at Watford if I hadn\u2019t had chased things up. Sometimes people worry about being rude or pestering the company; often companies are very busy and you just need to give them a little nudge, remind them that you\u2019re still interested. But obviously there\u2019s a limit to how much you contact people. Be polite about it, you don\u2019t want to be the guy sat constructing his 10th email.<\/p>\n

Another question I got asked was \u2018are you nervous for the interview?\u2019. Weirdly, interviews were not the part I was worried about. Going to Loughborough University has given me so many different opportunities that I have taken, meaning I have gained experience. This meant I wasn\u2019t sat in the interview trying to work how to make my life sound more interesting than an episode of Mr Bean. Instead I was listing things, skills and experiences\u2026 And that\u2019s partly thanks to Loughborough. When universities hand out opportunities you should take them!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not saying that Loughborough will magically prepare you for the world, but I am saying they will support you and help you gain knowledge and experiences. In regards to preparing for your interview, Loughborough can also guide you with a \u2018practice interview\u2019 which will help make you aware of areas you need to work on and build your confidence. Again, you can book this at the Bridgeman Building (that place is like my church).<\/p>\n

Oh yeah one last thing to note, if you receive an offer you want then make sure you accept it! That may sound obvious, but you\u2019ll be surprised. One of my friends received an offer she was super excited about and nearly missed the deadline to reply. Yes, that\u2019s right; some placements have deadlines for your acceptance, so always check.<\/p>\n

Good luck in whatever you choose to do…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So it\u2019s now August, and soon a lot of you will be finding out where you are going to university. Some of you are looking for graduate jobs, placements, internships, taking a gap year or studying abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":2466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"lboro_blog_alternative_thumbnail_image":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-english-drama"],"yoast_head":"\nWinning in the third year! - Student Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gemma, navigates the tricky process of finding a placement, and praises the Loughborough University careers and student support teams.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/students\/arts-english-drama\/winning-third-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winning in the third year! 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