Can't seem to get a placement

Hi,

I study chemical engineering and achieved a first class mark in my 1st and 2nd year. I applied to insight and taster placements in my 1st year, many placements year and summer in my 2nd year and now in my 3rd year I made 37 tailored applications and got 37 rejects. Only one interview stage, 2 online test stages and 2 video interviews.

Averaging 72%
I am president of a society
Treasurer of a sports team
Faculty representative for my 2nd year who sits on board meetings, Senate and several committees.

In the past I was a student council member twice, student ambassador, Treasurer of a society, course rep, campaigner, peer assisted learning leader and received 6 student leadership awards.

Work wise I've worked on the retail floor, work experience in chemical company, NCS for 5 years progressing throughout, Nuffield Research Placement and youth board, attended meetings at HM Treasury, came in video adverts, radio shows and appear on billboards videos.

Other things are I am first aid trained, I can use the relevant software, I am very good at debating and public speaking, excellent presenter, high energy personality, friendly, assertive, alert, aware and well humoured. I follow the icheme and do the relevant reading to keep up to date with my field. I am good at art, crafts and model kits.


I thought I saying yes to every opportunity would give me an advantage in life. I am extremely upset over my lack of progress and feel what chance do i have when applying to graduate schemes next year. I am really feeling unemployable in my field or any decent career. Not one of these placements gave me feedback on why they rejected me. These placements were relevant to my field and wanted a 2.1 and I am on a 1st. I refuse to believe its because I am brown, pakistani British, musli and poor background.

If you're getting flat out rejected at the stage where you either have done a questionnaire type form or done cover letter + CV then it may that you're not saying what needs to be said in the cover letter in the right way + CV weak or for the questionnaire type ones drawing on your experiences well enough. It doesnt matter what you have done and what you have on your CV (at this stage) its about what you gained from those experiences and how you developed skills during those activities. Just saying you've done them or drawing on them poorly is pretty much the same as not having done them at all

Try going to your careers centre to see if they can look over you CV and cover letters and see if they can help you strength them. Also does your department have a specific careers person? it would be good to see them too

Also not having any work experience from a summer internship will count against you as (at least at my uni) lots of people have relevant work experience (the ones that I know that do chem eng anyway)

STOP APPLYING FOR OPPORTUNITIES!

If the majority of your applications are getting rejected at the first stage then there is clearly an issue with your application. You sound like you should be a strong applicant so before you waste any more opportunities, get people who know what they're doing to look at your CV/cover letter/motivation answers etc.

What placements are you applying to? You appear to be quite a proactive person with a range of extra curricular activities, so you'd likely have a good profile for a lot of organisations' graduate schemes in various other sectors, but what do you have that is more engineering specific, and how are you tailoring your existing applications to demonstrate this?

I have been seeking professional help throughout the process.

What did they say?

They assure me that it's good enough and tell me to practice on the aptitude tests and come to them to practice for interviews when I get invited.

I have been applying for experience relevant to my course to get this technical experience. The best I have that is relevant is learning to use a new software for programming a device to acquire signals by a deadline and then presenting my findings to academic staff. I also have experience supporting maintenance engineers on a polymer plant working to critical schedules in dismantling equipment, ordering parts, troubleshooting and repairing parts.

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You need to be more specific. What kind of opportunities are you applying for and at what stage are you getting rejected?

I’m on my placement year at the moment. I applied for 13 placements and was offered two of them.