New Law in Industry programme - 1st year Autumn term

Undergraduate Law programmes have now introduced the Year in Industry, where students can now do a placement in the third year.  

There are numerous benefits of doing a placement year :

> you have the opportunity to apply your knowledge and understanding of Law theory from your first two years at Royal Holloway to practical workplace situations. 

> This will improve and develop skills and give an understanding of the day to day running of a company and managerial skills needed in Law/business.

Law Programmes including a Year in Industry:

BSc Criminology and Psychology

BSc Criminology and Sociology

LLB Law

LLB Law with Criminology

LLB Law with Sociology  

We ran a launch introduction evening event in October for Year in Industry . Emily Howard, one of our current Management YIB student who returned from a very successful placement year at Microsoft did a talk about her placement. Emily spoke about how she had worked as a Mid-Market Sales intern focusing on Bing development and was enthusiastic about the opportunities offered by a placement year. This talk proved to be a  great way to engage new Law students and to promote the success of doing a placement year.

We find that  the legal profession is continually changing and evolving in response to business and economic needs, bringing new challenges and rewards. In w/c 13th November The Careers' team organised a Law week with a series of events which included presentation/ networking with Employers. This was open to both law students and non law students and it was great to also see many of the Year in Industry law students present.

Law Week events included:

>A Beginners Guide to Law presentations  

-        >  Facebook Live Q&A  Louise & Gemma, Careers Consultants for Royal Holloway School of Law were available to answer any  questions relating to law and careers. Students are encouraged to interact early with the Careers team careers@rhul.ac.uk

-        >  Spring board to Law part 1 - this was an interactive workshop organised by RHUL Law Society and the University of Law  -essential preparation to kick start a career within Law. The workshop gave a key insight into what law firms are looking for and how students could make sure they had the skills to make them stand out from the crowd. A Springboard into Law Part 2 workshop took place the following week.

-        >  Law Networking evening was a great turn out and provided an excellent opportunity to meet with alumni  working as lawyers, along with other representatives from the legal profession. Attendees were paralegals, solicitors, barristers and judges, all wanting to talk to new students. This was an evening to help students gain a unique insight into the profession, learn the secrets of their success and allowed students to gain useful contacts. 

-       > the Applying for Vacation Schemes and Training Contracts - For students thinking about a vacation scheme or training contract, this was a great opportunity to boost their chances of making a successful application. In the workshop, Alison Peyton from Aspiring Solicitors was talking about making applications for vacation schemes and training contracts and crucially, how to decide who to apply to.

Additionally over the term the Careers' Service have organised a series of workshops which have been valuable to Year in Industry students including CV/ Covering letter preparation, interview skills, Linkedin Days, summer internships.

C    

       In the second year there is a compulsory taught course for all Law students, regardless of pathway, which covers employability elements such as CVs, interviews, assessment centres. In addition one-to-one support is offered in the form of career guidance meetings and interview practice with a member of the Careers Service. More information on the Careers and Employability Service can be found here https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/students/jobs-careers/home.aspx

Thank you to all students for actively participating in Law launch session Year In Industry careers’ events. Keep checking Facebook and email for details of more events to help in your preparation for placement applications next year.

MBA student on Placement: Dhwani Naik

We are delighted to have a guest post from Dhwani Naik who is one our MBA students on YIB programme. Dhwani is currently on her Placement with The Mandy Network Ltd which is the #1 Jobs platform for jobs for Actors, theatre, cast and crew in the media industry  based in London https://www.mandy.com/about-us

Dhwani says: " It’s been exciting time for me to do my placement, currently working on a dual project manager and business analyst type of role. My key job responsibilities involve managing the technical projects from project initiation and requirement meeting to user acceptance testing and project delivery. I work as single point of contact for the technical team and act as a key link between the business and technical team. I manage the job application portal and prioritise the changes, suggestions or any bugs reported by the users. 

I coordinate negotiations with third parties for designing, solution building and any other outsourcing which involves getting quotations and finalising the vendors. I create the pre project budgeting and post project cost comparison and report anomalies. I am also taking care of the recruitment  which involves initial screening and interview process for new hires in the technical team.
Overall, the placement has been a very fulfilling experience as I am getting a chance to perform multiple roles, learn all aspects of the business and actually see how my work benefits the company"
 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhwani-naik-ba4068a7/

Well done to Dhwani wishing her very all the very best

Also on this note we would like to congratulate Igor Karzov, another Royal Holloway MBA students who has had a very successful placement as a Business Development manager at the Russian National Tourist Office www.visitrussia.org.uk. Well done Igor.

Gabriel Raad's placements with EI- Technologies (France) & OVUM (London)

This is a guest blog article from Royal Holloway BSc Management with Marketing (YIB) student, Gabriel Radd, who is spending his placement year doing 2 placements, in EI- Technologies (France) and OVUM (London).

Students are typically advised to undertake a single 12 month placement to maximise their learnings and responsibility within one company. There are occasions though, particularly with overseas placements which are often shorter, when students may complete their Year in Business in 2 different companies. We are delighted to hear how well Gabriel is getting on with his 2 different placements.

Gabriel writes: "Prior to this 3 month internship, I have done two summer internships of around a month each. Although relatively rewarding, I was not able to fully immerse myself within the organizational culture and to actually fully understand exactly what I was doing and why I did it. However, the YIB 3-month internship at EI-Technologies, a French IT consulting firm, allowed me to properly immerse myself. I learned how to use Salesforce and worked on my first project with ENGIE, a French energy and gas company.

I was placed in a team of 4 and we equally allocated tasks and I was regarded as a junior consultant although I was officially an intern. Things started slow, as I had to learn how a project works and how to competently utilise the weeklong Salesforce training session to my advantage. This internship taught me the importance of listening. Since I did not have a large amount of experience, I had to listen and learn about how organizational culture works and how a project is successfully executed. 

Of course, I made several mistakes before understanding certain things but it is important to be rigorous even if the problem you are faced with does not seem to have a solution. Additionally, I learned that the informal aspect of the firm is more important than I thought. Successfully integrating oneself is important as it allows one to make connections/network and feel comfortable at work. Although I learned a lot while working on the project and visiting the client, speaking to different people in an informal setting proved to be essential. It is very easy to get lost in dry and technical areas, and talking to different people within an informal setting lets you understand organizational culture allowing you to receive a 360 view on why an organisation does what it does.
 https://www.ei-technologies.com/fr/home-page/

 When I completed this internship, I moved to London and started another one with OVUM for 6 months. Ovum sells research/data for technology companies and are also specialised in IT consulting. I am in the marketing department and I am glad as it has nothing to do with my previous internship. I think that it is important to vary as much as possible to see what you enjoy/don’t like. I learned that when you get older, it is less appreciated by employers to see someone who constantly switches jobs. The time to experiment is now! Since this internship is longer, I will gradually obtain more responsibilities and OVUM is investing in me to equip me with skills that will allow me to perform well during these 6 months. 

I think that it is very interesting to do two placements in two different countries because it allows you to gain experience in different markets and that looks good on a CV. Additionally, I’ve noticed a huge cultural difference in the workplace between these two internships. They are professionally and socially dissimilar as people have different thought processes and do things quite differently. Personally, one of the most interesting parts of this YIB is to experience different things (professional and informal) and to see how different cultures react, perform and work together in the workplace.
 https://ovum.informa.com/about/about-us

Moreover, I am officially admitting that I have utilised contacts to obtain these internships. Yes, I know, some people will look down on you and tell you that it’s the “easy way out” and I absolutely see where they are coming from. However, using contacts is something that is essential both professionally and socially. If I am lucky enough to have certain contacts that can assist me then why not take advantage of this? Networking and utilising contacts is an essential part in obtaining an internship, and my piece of advice for the YIB application process is to apply to MANY placements, and to not be afraid or embarrassed to utilise every contact that you can think of."

See link to previous blog article about the value of networking: http://yearinbusiness.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/networking-guide.html