Many courses at Bournemouth University involve a range of different length placements, and they are a great opportunity to gain further knowledge and experience in industries. Whilst the idea of finding a placement can seem daunting, the University provides great support to help you in the process.

Careers Hub

The ‘My Careers Hub ‘ is an online platform available for Bournemouth University students and graduates within 3 years of leaving. The platform provides key services such as booking an appointment with a careers advisor. It also has a job portal that lists current vacancies which includes placements.

CV’s and cover letters are required by the majority of industries and improving the layout and presentation of them is something that can be very beneficial. The Careers Hub provides many opportunities to develop your skills and CV to increase employability. There is also templates and booklets with valuable information and advice on writing cover letters and constructing CV’s. A CareersBU newsletter is emailed to student emails every Friday informing upcoming careers and recruitment events.

My experience with Placement searching

Being a second year student who has the opportunity to do a one year placement with my course, I began working on my CV in early September. Whilst I was able to create a CV, I found that there was so many ways it could be improved and so I booked an appointment with the Careers Centre.

The Careers Centre advised me to read and use a booklet they provided on CV templates before I had my meeting. This was very valuable advice as the booklet helped me minimise the amount of text that I had included and helped my main strengths and experience stand out more on the page. The meeting was very easy to book and offered an online option using Zoom that allowed me to share my screen to present my CV. The Careers adviser was really friendly and not only gave me constructive criticism on ways to improve but also congratulated me on areas of my CV that were strong. After making the changes, I found not only that my CV was more visualy professional, but that I began receiving more interviews when applying to companies on Linkedin and went on to be offered a placement role.

What to take away from the blog

Whilst finding placements isn’t always the easiest process and can be at times disheartening, making the most of the University resources and the Careers Centre is something that can make the greatest difference. It’s never too early to start thinking about using different services and perfecting your CV!