Ruby's placement

Course: Airline and Airport Management 
Name of Placement Employer: GE Aerospace 
Job Title: Commercial Operations Management Placement Student 

Overall, describe your placement experience

I would say that my placement experience was good overall and insightful. Living away from home was also an interesting and enriching experience as it was completely different from moving out to go to university, and my placement was based a lot further away. It was a good experience to live away from home, be independent, try out a completely new routine, earn some money, and valuable experience. 

Describe a typical day within your placement job role

A typical day would involve me checking emails, monitoring the status of bids and proposals I was working on, preparing to talk about this during meetings, preparing models, decks and financials and templates that would support the progress of a proposal, undertake training, and admin work.

What were the areas of your placement you were most worried about before starting, and how did you overcome these?

I didn’t really have any areas of apprehension before placement. I was only slightly concerned that I wouldn’t have a good social life and was unsure of how this may play out. But in total, there was 50 placement students on the site that I worked at and the remaining 50 spread over the sites in the UK. I met a girl who I became very close to as she was on the same scheme as me – we were the lucky ones as we were the only department with two placement students! This helped this worry a lot and we formed some friendships with others, too.

Best part of the placement year

The best part of placement year was seeing the personal progression and development of myself and the tasks I would undertake. Seeing your work pay off and gaining responsibility because of this is very rewarding. Working for a large corporation was also very interesting and something I have not done before, so of course the Christmas parties were fun.

What are the skills you developed as a result of the placement year?

I developed a lot of transferrable skills as well as awareness of the commercial world. I would say networking skills, communication, presentation skills, excel skills and just general MS Office and time management skills. 

How do you think your placement year will benefit you within your final year, and applying for and securing a graduate role?

My CV and job applications stand out a lot more because I undertook a placement year and it's definitely given me more to talk about in interviews. I'm hoping this will help me secure a graduate role.

Would you recommend other students carrying out a placement, if so why?

I would recommend other students to carry out a placement as I think it’s really important to come out of university with experience, and it makes you stand out a lot more. Sometimes companies also really value students to give them fresh and diverse perspectives on practices they’ve had for years.