Placement Essay (Crisis Averted)

This weekend I finally managed to finish the introduction for my essay. I have made an action plan and now all I need to do is follow the steps and continue writing. I have given myself a deadline of EOM (end of month).

Step one of my action plan is interview employees of Company X on essay topic. Until now everyone has been really helpful so this should be easy enough. I guess this is kind of similar to the interviews I did for The Times 100 Recruiters. At least I will finally have an answer to a question that has been wobbling my head - can you get any useful information from a non-written source?

Bonus, Bonus, Bonus !!!

Placement year is just awesome. I just found out there is another bonus coming up. When I was applying for the placement, I though: "Hugh will pay the bills" but wow I have been paying much more. I have already had three bonuses since I Started work and there are rumours of a third. I am just so impressed how students are taken so seriously and treated as full-time employees. Should keep working hard and get even more (so greedy already).

Placement Essay (Crisis, Crisis!)

My netbook broke down last week and with it all my research is gone for good. Two moths of work are now stuck in an UN-bootable device and as the computer company support people said "there is no guarantee that any of [my] data will survive". As you can imagine been the ignorant positivist that I am, I have not backed up any of the data. It is just sensible that we come to...

TIP NUMBER 11 FOR ASTON (PROSPECTIVE) STUDENTS: Backup all your data!

Coming back to my story. I was doing a recap and action plan of what to do next. First, I have mentioned most of the research in the proposal that I handed in to my tutor and the placement office, that still ought to be in my sent files. Then, I can just start having fun with the most amazing Aston tool ever - the e-library. This has saved me so many times now that I should say: "God bless the kind people from the Library services for creating the e-library!"

The e-library is an add-in to our online uni account that let us access journals, essays, etc. 24-7 no matter where we are in the world. In basic terms the site is like a search engine with all a student needs (especially one that needs to do coursework research).

So I guess this week will be my week of research fun. One of the best thing about Company X is that the let me do uni work while on the job so I can just book one hour in my calendar each they and spend it in the "library". Of course, I will keep you posted.

Moving-In//Moving-Out (continued)

I have completed my application for the uni accomodation for the final 2010-2011 year. Everything seems to have changed already since I started attending Aston. The towers will be gone by the time I graduate and last week I could only apply for Lakeside and Stafford. What is most interesting, though, is that the new dorms will be opened for first tennants. Living in only a five bedroom flat in an en-suit room will change uni experience entirely. A part of me misses the old times when we had to queue for the bathroom in Dalton and when we used to crowd in the kitchen. It looks like the final year will be a totally different experience (a quite posh'er one for sure).

One thing has not changed, though - when you apply for the uni dorms you can just select your preferences but may not be allocated in your first choice. This saves the excitement so familiar from the first year and brings me back to when I was pre-UK'ish. Anywho, I have to get back to work since, even though I am alowed to allocate time for university related matters in the office, I do not want to exploit company resources too much.

Moving-In//Moving-Out

In every student's life there comes a time of the year (and I mean every year) when he/she has to move to a new flat. This is inevitable and here are the reasons why:

• if you live in dorms the first year of uni you need to move out the second (0nly first, final and international students are allowed to live in the dorms)
• if you go on a placement or exchange (and most students do) you will need to move, again, to the town (and/or country) you are going to work/study at
• when you go back to uni in the last year you are bound to not leave on the streets

Thus, my tail begins. For the past three years I have been moving every summer and applying for new flats every February. The first year it was Dalton. (Good old Dalton will be torn down sooner or later so thank God I have photos of it to remember it by.) The second year it was Aston Brook Green (My impeccably dirty house was the coldest place on earth.) This year my Swindon flat in Gordon Gardens. (Finally some comfort and heat.)

So, as you may have already guessed now I need to decide and apply for a new apartment. The more I think about it the more I see that living at uni just seems to be the best offer there is. So, Aston Accommodation office my application is on the way.

Top 20 Placement Companies

Here is something useful for all students applying for or wanting to go on placement. The top 20 Employers for 2010 were determined yesterday. Here I give you the top 10 with ratings:

1. Microsoft 8.35
2. Grant Thornton 8.20
3. BDO 8.19
4. KPMG 8.09
5. Intel 7.96
6. PWC 791
7. BAE 7.91
8. Morgan Stanley 7.87
9. BAE Systems 7.80
10. Pinsent Masons 7.76

It is great that Aston has connections with most (if not all) of those employers. I have friends working in almost all of the top 20 companies. You can see the full list by following the link below:

http://www.ratemyplacement.co.uk/articles/top-20-employers/

Placement Essay (The Proposal)

After a lot of time loss and inefficiency I have managed to spend the time since New Years in writing my Placement Essay proposal, that I handed in last week. Actually (I know it sound fallacious) I have had so much fun writing the proposal. I think that maybe it is the working nine till five routine that has got me missing uni and writing the proposal I felt like I was back in Dalton again trying to finish one of the economics courseworks.

What is to follow now is writing the actual essay and although I have already done all the research there is one last thing I need to take care of - the interviews. As an option for the essay research I can take interviews with employees of company "X"that are connected or working in the field/problem I am writing about. This out to be fun, I mean, I enjoyed the last interviewing job I had so much last year. So, the placement essay adventures must continue...