Advice on undertaking a work placement?

[Stupidlikeafox]

Hi all,

I know I’ve emailed a few of you guys on here with regards to careers in accountancy (and many thanks for the replies), but this is a slightly broader question regarding work placements.

I’m looking to do a 1 year work placement/internship next year to form part of my 4 year sandwich degree. Ideally, this would be in an accounting area, either in a practise or a larger company’s finance division. I actually did a week of work experience in Npower’s finance department when I was at school so the latter option actually rather appeals to me.

I’m looking to work local to where I live, which is at home in Worcester at the moment. So I’m looking at areas such as Cheltenham, Hereford, Droitwich, Kidderminster as well as Worcester itself. However, despite the number of companies, I don’t really want to go to Birmingham.

I’ve made a list of some companies that could be possible options, who I plan to send my CV off to along with a covering letter, and so far have 24 on the list.

So, a couple of questions:

1) Does anyone know of/work for an accountancy practise/large firm with finance department in those locations I’ve mentioned? If so, could I have the name of the firm please?
2) If you were recruiting for a finance intern position, what would you expect to see on an applicants CV? Any critical skills etc? I can post up my CV if it helps, I’m slightly worried as it seems a bit thin at the moment!
3) Any other advice about how to secure a placement?

Many thanks.

[jammiedodger26]

Hi,

Can't help with the accountancy side of things, but having secured a placement at Toyota GB in the marketing department for my sandwich course, I can offer advice in terms of securing a placement.

I sent out a lot of speculative emails/letters and phone calls to marketing agencies and client-side companies. There were the obvious "no, not interested" replies but also there were some companies who were quite impressed that:

a) I was being pro-active at finding a placement
b) I'd gone to the time to find out who to speak to within the specific company
c) The professional manner in which I applied to them.

So my advice would be to send out standard speculative emails that you can adjust to each company you send to, and hope you get luck y and somebody picks you up.

I was fortunate that a couple of MDs saw my emails and invited me in for interviews, I ended up being offered 2 jobs plus the one I took at Toyota.

Best of luck, placement was the best thing I did in my whole education! It certainly helped me get a job after uni.