Placement panic

[Westernstar]

Hoping that I can hear some positivity

My youngest (despite lots of nagging) left it very late to start applying for placements for his sandwich year. He had put all his hopes on one that he was so sure he had but just heard he hasn’t got.

He has till mid august to find something but doesn’t seem like there is much left, I’m trying hard not to panic and he is really down. Skipping the placement year doesn’t seem like a possibility as no accommodation for September - any advice would be so helpful. Still a few irons in the fire but feel like we need a plan b.

Sorry OP to hijack your thread but I had a question that someone more knowledgeable may be able to help with. DS has a summer internship with PWC for a month in July, then he has a year long placement in September in BDO.
He says its likely that after the summer placement, he will be offered a place on the graduate scheme for the following year ( after he completes his final year).
However, he says that if he does the year long placement in BDO, then he won't be able to take up the pwc offer as he will then be starting his final year at university?
So , we are wondering whether he should turn down the BDO placement and just do the pwc summer internship in the hope of being made a graduate offer ? Is there a huge advantage in working for pwc ( audit) as opposed to BDO??
Dh and I are both in healthcare professions so we don't have a clue about how much of an advantage big 4 will give over BDO?
Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated!

That’s a plan I favour @Decorhate but he seems very negative about it. At least then he’ll have bases covered. At the moment it’s all about Glastonbury and I can’t get him to focus until he’s back (going to a friends tomorrow). As a small child he has the attention span of a gnat and clearly it’s not got much better. I wanted him to get a couple more applications in today but he’s already out of time and going out. I think I’m the more stressed at this point!

@user1471556443

My advice:

Do not turn down the BDO internship in anticipation of being made a permanent offer from PWC, as

1. This isn't guaranteed,

1. He may not like PWC - the big 4 aren't everyone's cup of tea,

1. If PWC do make an offer, they may allow it to be deferred - my godson did that with one of the other big 4, enabling him to go travelling for 8 months after graduation.

Thanks so much lastday, thats excellent advice.
Yes, you are absolutely right, the graduate job isn't guaranteed either with BDO or PWC.
If he did turn down BDO and later wasn't made a graduate offer, then we'd be gutted.
So probably the best course of action is to do both.
It's really encouraging to hear that your godson was able to defer his offer, in the event that he is made an offer perhaps this is something he could try to do.
Many thanks again for your advice

Also westernstar, nothing useful to add, but I just want to say best of luck to your ds in trying to get a placement, please do encourage him to apply for everything and anything as honestly these applications are so competitive, ds applied to countless companies, there were so many hoops to jump through, after at least 30 applications, he managed to get these 2.
Just keep trying, I'm sure something will definitely come up very soon

@Westernstar

Joining you with a student still looking for a placement. The university she's at, whilst very good at giving them mock interviews once they've secured one, and helping with CVs hasn't been much use at finding possibilities to start with, that's been very much left to the students.

Mine has had 4 interviews so far, the nearest she came was getting down to the final 3, and has another in her university marketing department in a fortnight.

There are still loads being advertised, it's true, DD has a spreadsheet with 68 jobs to apply for on it, but obviously there are lots of people for each job.

If all else fails, dd will go into her 3rd year and maybe do a master's or internship afterwards. I think the trick is to stay optimistic and keep applying.

Good luck to your son and anyone else still looking!

@ASighWasMadeOfStone sorry to hear you are in the same boat too, it sounds as if you dd is really doing everything right. Fingers crossed for them both.

Has he looked at Rate My Placement? There are still some on there. The other option would be to take a shorter placement.
Marketing Internship at Comdal Limited | RateMyPlacement

My daughter was great at helping him with interview prompts and questions and he’s had his CV checked by a few acquaintances.

This is why I suggested he go to his University's Careers Service @Westernstar . Your DD and friends may be giving him good advice, but university Careers Services are the experts and they will have years of collective experience in advising students specifically looking for graduate placements & jobs. They have resources and databases your DS may not have access to. THey know the market & they will often have connections in terms of having placed previous students.

The careers people at my place will help with CVs, they run workshops on interview prep, including mock interviews - all sorts of things that might be useful for your DS.

THe other resource I direct my students to is the Arts Admin email letter. A lot of creative industries posts are advertised in it, which don't reach standard jobs adverts. Marketing is quite a big thing in arts administration, and it might be a good way in to his preferred field. Might be worth him googling.

Thank you! I’m not sure if he has but will send him this one too. I’ll not get any sense out of him now until after Glastonbury

Thank you. He emailed the careers service and they’ve come back to him, he’s going to do a live chat style meeting when he gets back as not on campus now.