Like most other people you come across on engineering courses, I had always enjoyed the more objective subjects of maths and science in school. By the end of sixth form, I was finding topics I could relate to real life applications much easier; this led me to think a more applied course would be a better fit than a mostly theoretical one. On top of this, I always enjoy being hands on and understand things much better this way.
Putting these together you would assume my choice to go with an engineering subject would be straightforward but choosing which discipline to study proved to be rather confusing due to the number of different options. Always one to pick the difficult route, I then decided to complicate things further by looking through the entire A-Z course list on the UCAS website. Fortunately – if somewhat surprisingly – this did actually help under ‘M’, Metallurgy piqued my interest, as I had recently discovered a family member had been a specialist in this area for several decades. Soon after this, I had read into the wider field of materials and then came to an open day at the Department of Materials here at Loughborough. Here, the feel of the campus and discussions with academics made my decision much easier.
From the start of the year, the department placement administrator sends out regular email updates including potential opportunities and information on events going on around campus. Many of these events are run by the university Careers Network, who also send out their own updates. When it comes to the application process, the careers network offers a variety of resources to help with looking for roles, putting together a CV, constructing application forms and anything else you may be able to think of. Something I found particularly useful were the bookable 1:1 meeting slots which I mostly used to refine my cover letters.
Further down the line, the Careers Network can also help with practicing online tests, assessment centres and interviews. External companies are brought in to help run some of these practice assessment centres, and the university’s advisors will also provide practice interviews for a specific company if provided the appropriate information (one of my course mates had an interview which was conducted as if for a specific role at JCB).
Ultimately it is each student’s responsibility to find and apply for their placements, however, as can hopefully be gleaned from the above, an abundance of help and advice is given for every stage of the process.