The Student Room Group

Industrial Placement Concerns

I am a 2nd year Computer Science student and I have acquired a years placement at a data solutions company. They deal in large amounts of data using technologies such as NoSQL, C# etc...
Now its only a month away and it's all starting to come home. I am now having second thoughts e.g. leaving my fiance for a year, loosing my study group, being held back another year etc. All these didn't really cross my mind too much when I was applying for these jobs.

If I was to turn around and say no thank you to the job and carried on straight into year 3 do people feel I would be throwing away a brilliant opportunity.
I am trying to weigh up the pros and cons in a logical way:

If I did a year in industry would I be seen as someone who has worked for a year and could I apply for say a software engineer job instead of a junior software engineer so theoretically I haven't actually lost a year. Basically would I by pass the initial internship/junior rolls a lot of graduates have to go through with their first job.

As it would be too late to apply for any summer internships I would leave university without any software specific experience. I have worked 2 years before as a Manager in the service industry. I have also received 80% for my first years mark and have targeted my self 85% this year (I am aware marks don't mean too much in the industry now a days). Would this look horrendous on my CV? I am aware it would damage it but as there are quite a few software jobs due to the industries growth would it really affect it that much? Could I supplement my lack of experience with open source work and possibly a summer project with imbedded systems programming?

Has anyone here done an industrial placement in their second year and feel that they are a lot stronger in their field after it going into their 3rd year? It may seem like a silly and obvious question but as I am loosing my study group I would have to revise and bounce ideas off my self for the final year.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm very confused at the moment and really do not want to put mine and my fiances future at any risk.:confused:

(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 1
I would strongly recommend that you go for it! :smile: It sounds like you maybe are getting cold feet just before you start - and that's normal - but don't let the nerves get the better of you. You will be in such a stronger position coming back to class next year if you do this now. You'll make new friends in classes next year and form another study group, I wouldn't think that should be a concern for you right now. If the placement turns out to be ****e, you can always quit, but I bet once you get used to what you're doing you'll love it and you won't look back!

I'm doing a placement in financial services at the moment, as part of a Maths degree (I want to work in technology though once I graduate, but this was the most relevant placement I could get through my degree course). Even though it's not necessarily the sector I want to work in (that's data analysis, funnily enough!), I think having any kind of professional work experience is something you should totally get whilst you're at university. This is my second undergraduate degree, and I know from bitter experience that your degree has a shelf-life, and that the best-before date is your graduation ceremony. It's so much easier to get the work experience now, than once you've graduated. Without it, employers will assume that a) you were too dumb to realise you needed to get work experience, or b) you were not employable enough to succeed at getting work experience. It's not fair maybe, but I think it's like that in every work sector these days. There's too many graduates out there, and employers can pick and choose. I know you already have service sector managerial experience, but you will still benefit from this no end.

I think the only valid reason to question doing it, would be if you thought it would seriously be detrimental to your relationship, but I don't know enough about your circumstances to comment on that. My first career, before the Maths took over my life, involved working away from home all week long though, and I have to say that long-distance-relationships can have their upsides! The Friday night reunions were some of the happiest days of my life so far :smile: So if you're gonna be living away from home it doesn't have to kill your relationship, you can make it work!
Reply 2
Original post by Tilikum
I would strongly recommend that you go for it! :smile: It sounds like you maybe are getting cold feet just before you start - and that's normal - but don't let the nerves get the better of you. You will be in such a stronger position coming back to class next year if you do this now. You'll make new friends in classes next year and form another study group, I wouldn't think that should be a concern for you right now. If the placement turns out to be ****e, you can always quit, but I bet once you get used to what you're doing you'll love it and you won't look back!

I'm doing a placement in financial services at the moment, as part of a Maths degree (I want to work in technology though once I graduate, but this was the most relevant placement I could get through my degree course). Even though it's not necessarily the sector I want to work in (that's data analysis, funnily enough!), I think having any kind of professional work experience is something you should totally get whilst you're at university. This is my second undergraduate degree, and I know from bitter experience that your degree has a shelf-life, and that the best-before date is your graduation ceremony. It's so much easier to get the work experience now, than once you've graduated. Without it, employers will assume that a) you were too dumb to realise you needed to get work experience, or b) you were not employable enough to succeed at getting work experience. It's not fair maybe, but I think it's like that in every work sector these days. There's too many graduates out there, and employers can pick and choose. I know you already have service sector managerial experience, but you will still benefit from this no end.

I think the only valid reason to question doing it, would be if you thought it would seriously be detrimental to your relationship, but I don't know enough about your circumstances to comment on that. My first career, before the Maths took over my life, involved working away from home all week long though, and I have to say that long-distance-relationships can have their upsides! The Friday night reunions were some of the happiest days of my life so far :smile: So if you're gonna be living away from home it doesn't have to kill your relationship, you can make it work!


Thank you so much for your sound advice. It's so true my head is pushing towards and it my heart otherwise. My fiance is very supportive and will support me no matter what decision I make. It's very hard as everyone close to me wants to stay but I need to think of the future and not the present. I just need some non biased advice to make sure my head is in the right. Thanks
Reply 3
You're welcome, I hope you enjoy your placement! :smile:

One thing I forgot to say, my boss told me a few months back that he would offer me a job after graduation if he could (although the corporate paymasters look to be cutting back on our office, so looks like that won't happen anytime soon), and he said I'd be considered as an 'experienced hire', rather than just a graduate, because I now have this year of financial experience. He said other financial companies would look at me in this light too (and it would count for the financial certificates and exam schemes too if I wanted to go for those). So this should definitely apply in your case after the placement as well- the year (plus your other work experience) would definitely be something that could bump your starting salary up, or let you start on a higher grade once you get that job.

Best of luck!!
There are no cons to a year in industry. With regard to your fiancée. If she truly loves you she will wait. This is the formative year of the next 40 years of your working life. If you stuff it up, the next 40 years may well be a bit harder. As for your study group - are you really saying they are more important than your career - i.e. the reason you came to uni in the first place!?

A year in industry will give you the much needed experience that makes you stand out in the crowd. Your year out will also give you some much needed perspective on what the future holds and give you that all important work ethic that you can use to nail your final year. It will also give you some much needed funds to help through the final year.

Seriously - it is a no brainer - do the year in industry and just suck up the "hardship" of being away from your friends.
Reply 5
Original post by ByEeek
There are no cons to a year in industry. With regard to your fiancée. If she truly loves you she will wait. This is the formative year of the next 40 years of your working life. If you stuff it up, the next 40 years may well be a bit harder. As for your study group - are you really saying they are more important than your career - i.e. the reason you came to uni in the first place!?

A year in industry will give you the much needed experience that makes you stand out in the crowd. Your year out will also give you some much needed perspective on what the future holds and give you that all important work ethic that you can use to nail your final year. It will also give you some much needed funds to help through the final year.

Seriously - it is a no brainer - do the year in industry and just suck up the "hardship" of being away from your friends.



Thank you for the blunt reply. I do need to just man up and get on with it. My mind like many others always seems to play back the thing you want to hear but not what you should hear.
Original post by apd123
Thank you for the blunt reply. I do need to just man up and get on with it. My mind like many others always seems to play back the thing you want to hear but not what you should hear.


Yeah - sorry if it was a bit harsh. You have the rest of your life to play happy families and live happily ever after. These next couple of years could make or break that. In a world where the competition is all around, you need to take every opportunity you can get.

The best of luck!
Reply 7
People in this day and age usually need to be told how it is, instead of pussy footing around. I appreciate that greatly and the replies have defiantly pushed me to just get on and do it.

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