I am a third year BA (Hons) Events Management student at BU, currently on placement at Bournemouth University.

In fact, a placement year was one of the most important factors while I was applying for university.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do during my placement year, I just wanted to get as much experience as possible and unlike some of my friends I didn’t only look at massive companies in London. I did some research about smaller as well as bigger companies, just to keep my options open.

I started thinking about my placement quite early, to have enough time to get some experience before applying to make my applications stronger. I volunteered at plenty of sporting events as well as music festivals. All of the volunteering opportunities helped me realise what I really want to do after I graduate. At this point in life I really want to go into music events, preferably music festivals. I even have a dream of having my own festival one day!

Some people don’t understand why I chose to spend my placement year working for my uni, some people even think I just couldn’t get any other placements. The little they know about the whole interview process I had to go through!

Volunteering has opened up doors into my dream career before my year out, therefore I wanted to try something different for my placement. Before I started applying I stopped to think what I needed to work on. It turned out that even though my CV was packed with experience I have never actually worked in an office environment.

I used My Career Hub while looking for a placement, and that’s where I found a job advert for my current placement at Bournemouth University as UK Student Recruitment Assistant.

I liked the fact that it’s not just a typical 9-5 job and I’m not sat at my desk 5 days a week. In fact over the last month I have only been in the office for 3 days!! I have been out at events most of the time. Another perk of my placement is TRAVELLING!! I get the opportunity to visit lots of amazing places all over the UK, places I haven’t been to before.

Going to UCAS conventions enables me to explore even more new places. I’ll have been to 15 UCAS conventions this year – over March, April and June. Each convention is 1-2 days long which means one thing – lots of travelling and staying at hotels all over the place.

My first UCAS was in Manchester, which was really exciting as I have never been up North before. In fact London was the furthest I’d been.

There’s nothing better than an opportunity for travelling for free! I actually get paid to go away and stay in Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Cornwall etc.

If you are looking at picking your placement right now my piece of advice would be: don’t look at what your friends are doing, just pick something that can benefit you and make your CV stronger! And if you get to travel around that’s always a bonus. You will also learn what you do and don’t like during that year. Make the most of it!

By Agata Bak