{"id":13658,"date":"2020-11-02T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T08:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/?p=13658"},"modified":"2020-10-26T16:18:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T15:18:49","slug":"my-placement-experience-with-the-reslife-team-and-setting-up-my-own-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2020\/11\/02\/my-placement-experience-with-the-reslife-team-and-setting-up-my-own-business\/","title":{"rendered":"My placement experience with the ResLife team and setting up my own business"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest blog post by current student George Merritt studying BA (Hons) Media Production.\u00a0<\/a><\/h3>\n

Placement Company: ResLifeBU<\/p>\n

Placement Job Title: ResLifeBU Digital Content Creator<\/p>\n

LinkedIn account link: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/george-merritt-a5862b175\/<\/p>\n

One of the most exciting prospects of studying at BU in Media Production was having the opportunity to take a sandwich-placement year in industry. Before I was even at University it was on my mind that I didn\u2019t want to graduate without having had a year\u2019s experience from a professionals perspective as I don\u2019t think I would\u2019ve been ready for the step up when leaving University. Therefore, I made it my top priority in Second Year to search far and wide for placement opportunities across the country. But believe me, this was not a straight forward process.<\/p>\n

The process of finding placement is tiring, demotivating and in general just not very fun. Get ready for employers not reading your emails and just in general not receiving any replies. However, do not take this ever as a personal thing most of the time it\u2019s because these companies are that big and busy your email either slips away into spam or they simply aren\u2019t looking to hire. I think that\u2019s the biggest thing I learnt, once you get past that initial hurdle where you begin self-doubting your own worth in a professional environment you can begin to approach more and more companies without it feeling like a chore.<\/p>\n

Top Tip:<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is another option though. This helped me massively and secured me an interview for what would eventually be my 12-month placement. A phone call. Sounds simple? But you\u2019d be surprised as to how many students are too nervous to call and instead will opt to hide behind a screen pinging the same blanket email out to hundreds of employers! So if you can find a phone number, dial it and just try and get a word in from a personal note as this shows initiative. Trust me it works!<\/p>\n

Highlights of my Placement:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t really know where to start! I\u2019ve been involved with so many fantastic opportunities, when I look back at my favourite parts I would have to say the travelling aspects stand out and this is something I will look for in future work. I\u2019ve gone and filmed on Brownsea Island, at Colour Runs and even down on the beach before the sun\u2019s risen. It\u2019s actually good fun being up at 4am! The team I was a part of helped massively as I worked alongside fellow students on different occasions \u2013 this had it\u2019s downfalls but I\u2019ll get onto that.<\/p>\n

Working with the Home Office and the effect of COVID-19:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Working within a sector of the University on placement created a world of new opportunities through the Uni\u2019s vast array of contacts. So much so that I was the lead director on a project for the \u2018Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service\u2019 in partnership with the \u2018Home Office\u2019. Yes, the Home Office. I couldn\u2019t believe it when they mentioned the idea and with that I grabbed it with both hands and ran away with it. The project was going so well and I was being taken to so many amazing locations including the \u2018Fire and Rescue HQ\u2019 out near Stone Henge.<\/p>\n

However, like a lot of projects and work across the UK it was put on hold by COVID-19 and I doubt I\u2019ll be able to finish this project before my contract ends which is possibly the hardest thing for me to take from all of this as it would\u2019ve been such an incredible project to feature on my portfolio.<\/p>\n

My Portfolio and realising my Future Plans:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being involved with any creative course it\u2019s always important to have a presence online in the world we live in. Before I started placement, I had an Instagram account however it wasn\u2019t up to standard and was a bit all over the place. So, in October of 2019, a few months into my placement \u2013 I started a new account and made it my aim to post 3 times a week. This way I could build an audience and show my craft outside of my placement work. Some weeks there\u2019d be more but I\u2019d always aim for at least 3 posts. After having a meeting with my PDA, I was advised to translate this to LinkedIn in order to not miss out on other professionals not seeing my work. A few months down the line and in March the UK was forced into lockdown and this meant I returned to my family home to work from home where I still am whilst writing this. What I took from this opportunity during lockdown was to grow my portfolio in my local area by offering out free work to small businesses struggling during the pandemic. I didn\u2019t know if it would work, but after one post on Facebook \u2013 I\u2019ve now worked with 6 different brands across the UK including as far away as Birmingham and a brand in Holland who sent me a product. I\u2019m averaging around 500 new people seeing my work each week as well and this is all just weekend work alongside my placement so I cannot complain.<\/p>\n

Having had so much success since the lockdown, I\u2019m beginning to realise my strengths and that other companies regard me as a Professional. Which I guess is the whole point of coming to University right?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I hope this has helped whoever\u2019s lucky enough to be reading this!<\/p>\n

Find out more about studying BA (Hons) Media Production.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest blog post by current student George Merritt studying BA (Hons) Media Production.\u00a0 Placement Company: ResLifeBU Placement Job Title: ResLifeBU Digital Content Creator LinkedIn account link: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/george-merritt-a5862b175\/ One of the most exciting prospects of studying at BU in Media Production was having the opportunity to take a sandwich-placement year in industry. Before… Read more » about My placement experience with the ResLife team and setting up my own business<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":13659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[496,501,12,1638],"tags":[130,323,337,149],"class_list":["post-13658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ug-courses","category-media-film-tv-music-production","category-student-blogs","category-undergraduate","tag-bournemouth-university","tag-bu-placement","tag-placement","tag-university"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13658"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13669,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13658\/revisions\/13669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}