All you need to do to be in with the chance of winning is follow these 3 easy steps:

1. Create a team of 4 friends to represent your university

2. Your team have from 9am on the 22nd March 2010 till 5pm on the 26th March 2010 to get as many sign ups as possible to your Facebook group. Invite ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE you all know!

3. The group and team with the most sign ups after this time will win the 4 tickets… Easy as that!

So, if you want to do a festival this year, are a bit skint, have a lot of friends and can use Facebook …this competition is just for you!

How to enter:

Simply email cara@ratemyplacement.co.uk with your team name and email addresses & we will set up your Facebook group! Good luck!

Click here to for full details and to find out more...

And just incase you need a little more persuasion check out the line up for this years festival, makes us wish we were students again!

For most of our students and graduates this is the most daunting part of the application process for their internship. But the response I always get after our students have finished their phone interview is “that wasn’t too bad, it was more of a chat on the phone rather than a scary interview”

So some tips already I hear you saying:

1) Remember to smile while you’re speaking so the interviewer will receive a positive impression.

This one is so simple but works so well, body language is over 80% of the way we communicate in a normal face to face interview, so not being able to see the person you are talking to, means you need to rely on voice tone and what you say. Smiling is a simple way of not slipping into a monotone voice while trying to think of what to say.

Also as it’s a telephone interview, again the interviewer will not be able to see if you are nodding your head in approval, so ensure that you are vocal and that you are responsive to everything that the interviewer is asking.

2) Act confident, friendly and well-prepared

Couple of ways you can do this, firstly stand up when you are talking on the phone, don’t sit down (or slouch!).

This is actually something I learnt when I was on my internship, and it works surprisingly well. Next time you need to make an important phone call try doing it standing up, you’ll feel a lot better than sitting down (bit of psychology in there which I won’t go into).

Secondly have your CV printed off and in front of you while you are doing your interview. Most employers will refer to your CV/ resume during the interview and if you’re like me you wrote this a loooong time ago and don’t even know what references you put in there.

3) Show that you have a knowledge of their company (RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET)

Sorry didn’t mean to shout there but this is an area where you can really impress the person interviewing you. Today most information you can find on the internet. So use it to the full potential. Look at their website, see what projects they have on, how many staff, look at their press releases if they have them, Google the company to see if anything extra comes up in the news or on Australian websites, Google the person interviewing you, although don’t take this one too far and freak them out! It is good to know what the person interviewing you is responsible for, if it is an events internship and the person interviewing you is in charge of event set up then you can customise your responses to this.

4) Think about your skills and attributes

For many of our students this is their first bit of quality work experience in their career area so trying to think of your skills and attributes for PR or Advertising internships will be pretty hard. Think outside the square a bit her as the person interviewing you knows you will not necessarily have experience but you have the theory behind you to jump into your internship.

Couple of things here:

• Think about your strengths, could be you are a people person, good social skills, think of examples where you have used your strengths in a part time job you have had or at university
• Employers like to hear that you have weaknesses, try to make the weakness actually come across as a strength, for example my weakness is that I am a perfectionist. Yes this can be a weakness in that you never get that article written, but follow this up with the steps you have taken to make yourself more effective like giving yourself a deadline.

That’s about all, if you think about how you would be an asset to the internship company you will be working for and come across as keen to learn then you will fly through the interview.

To visit the original blog follow this link — Summer 2010 Internships – Internship Phone Interview Tips

So this is part two of my piece on stakeholders that you’ll interact with if you do a placement in R&R. This time I’ll write about debtors and the government.

In order to ensure the maximum return to your client’s creditors, you will need to recover as much of the outstanding money that they’re due as possible. Debtors are usually customers of the business, but they can be trading partners or companies to which your client has issued loans, depending on the nature of their business.

Recovering your client’s debts is often more complex than you might think. In a lot of cases, debtors will withhold payment, for a variety of reasons. It is then up to you to prove that they have a legal responsibility to pay. This can be done by looking at contracts and your client’s ledger. Once you have established that your client is due the money, you may become involved in instructing debt collection agents or lawyers to help recover the funds. Once the funds come in, you will have to account for them using IPS, the accounting package that is designed for insolvency practitioners.

The government plays a large role in insolvency proceedings. On your placement, you will be responsible for filing documents with companies house on behalf of your client and submitting tax returns. You may need to liaise with HMRC regarding your client’s tax liability too.

The Insolvency Service is the government’s main vehicle for liaising with insolvency practitioners. When you’re six months into a case, they require a report on the conduct of the directors prior to insolvency and their subsequent cooperation. You will also need to work closely with The Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Office as they step in to tide employees over while you recover your client’s assets.

An insolvent business has broadly similar stakeholders to a trading one, but the relationships are different. It is managing these relationships that is key to making insolvency proceedings run smoothly. In most other areas of accountancy, your client is your work provider, ie. the main party that you need to satisfy. In R&R insolvency work, your clients are insolvent businesses, the work providers can be directors, lenders and their legal advisors, and you have a range of statutory responsibilities to perform. This makes it a more attractive line of work for a lot of people. If you think you might be one of these people, then apply now!

Until next time
Harry

Here at PwC we’re in the middle of ‘busy season’, so everything’s been a bit hectic so far this quarter. I’m writing this from Milton Keynes where I’m staying for two weeks on an audit with another office. Away jobs can be hard because they’re so far away from home, but they can also be a good opportunity to work with different teams, not to mention being a chance to chill out without worrying about cooking and cleaning. After this job I have two weeks in London, which I’m really looking forward to. It’s a new kind of client for me, which will be interesting, plus I’ll get to do some shopping and see a show – we work hard, but need to unwind in the evenings.

We had the Young Accountants Dinner a couple of weeks ago, which was loads of fun. It was a black-tie event held by the ICAEW, which was a great opportunity for everyone to let their hair down in the middle of such a busy period. Everyone looked amazing in their tuxes and gowns. The food was extremely posh, and we all had a laugh at some of the weird courses on offer. Chicken liver anyone? There were also some clients there, as we obviously work closely with the finance departments of local companies, so we got the chance to chat to some of them in a more social environment and they could see that auditors are normal people too!

In the next few weeks I’ll have an appraisal with my manager, and will potentially receive my graduate job offer. If I’ve met the standards required of me, and have had good feedback from my colleagues, I’ll get an offer in March. If I decide that I want to do the next set of exams, I’ll accept the offer straight away, and will proceed with the graduates, then come back as a second year after I graduate. If I decide not to do the exams and to get more work experience, I’ll have another appraisal in August and hopefully then receive an offer before I leave. It’s quite a difficult decision to make because there are advantages to both options, but ultimately the firm are supportive whichever route you decide to take, so there’s no pressure.

Last time I gave you an overview of the type of work you will be doing in R&R. This blog is part one of a two-part piece onsome of the different stakeholders you’re going encounter in R&R. Part one is on creditors and part two will be on debtors and the government.
Most companies are financed at least partially by debt. This can be anything from bank loans to which their assets are collateral to employee expense claims. When a business becomes the subject of insolvency proceedings, this debt gets ranked in accordance with government legislation.

At the top of the pile you will find secured lenders. These are usually banks or syndicates of banks that have made asset backed loans to your client. In November 2009, I met executive directors of three leading banks to discuss a company that they had lent money to. Needless to say, I didn’t lead the discussions, but I challenge you to find another placement scheme that will enable you become involved with a similar crowd.

Next down we have preferential debt. This refers specifically to the claims of employees for elements of unpaid wages and untaken holiday. Employees can be the trickiest to deal with. Calculating and explaining their claims can take some practise, and they are often struggling to meet payments of their own. Preferential debt is unsecured, however ‘unsecured debt’ is often used to refer to all debt that is neither preferential or secured. Unsecured debt, therefore, is everything else. By that I mean supplier payments, shareholder loans, other employee expenses… the list goes on. On a mid-corporate case, there might be thousands of unsecured creditors. You will definitely be involved in dealing with these claims.

If you can talk about this sort of thing in your manager or partner interview then you will be in with a very good chance!

Until next time
Harry

Key Questions are answered Including:

• Placements & internships– what’s the difference?
• Why should employers have internship schemes?
• Downsides of internship schemes for employers
• Internship schemes — vital for employers

Interested in Career Management and Work Experience? Then this piece may well be worth a read. Check it out here

Everybody has gone to college. Well, not everybody but quite a number of the trainees are out at the moment studying for their ACA. After the first couple of months finding my way around the department, I have taken on a similar level of responsibility to the graduate trainees. This means that when they go to college, I often become responsible for their cases. This is quite good because it means I get a couple of weeks working on companies that I wouldn’t have come in to contact with otherwise.

I thought I should tell you a little about what you’re likely to get up to on a placement in R&R. You will almost certainly be working in corporate insolvency. This comes in a variety of flavours, all of which are available for you to experience. Most of my work has been in mid-corporate insolvency. This means working on a liquidation or administration of a ‘medium’ size company. For example, one of the cases that I’m working on is the administration of an AIM listed telecoms company that went under in August 2009.

You will be asked to perform a very wide variety of tasks. On the date that we are appointed (the partners are all insolvency practitioners) over a company, you might have the task of addressing the company’s workforce, or taking control of the company’s vehicles. Months later, you might find yourself reporting on the directors’ conduct or accounting for the sale of assets.

Some of the work I have been doing would be better described as large-complex insolvency. These are huge, sprawling cases that have a lot of people working on them! I have been working on the liquidation of an investment company based in Saudi Arabia, managed in Switzerland, registered in Virgin Islands, trading in London, with assets all over the world.

Harry

Excel Training

In both of our day to day roles we use excel all the time. Tom, our placement manager, thought it would be helpful if we all had a bit of excel training to help us be more efficient and use some of the shortcuts in excel to make tasks quicker. All the placements went on the training and we all found it really useful. All the skills we learnt from this we feel will help us now in our day to day roles and in the future at other jobs and when we go back to Uni.

Tone of Voice Training

In December we went on a tone of voice training session. It was interesting to learn how a company’s ‘tone of voice’ can be really recognisable and a good tool to differentiate us from competitors. A good example of tone of voice is the instantly recognisable tone of Marks & Spencer’s ‘it’s not any chocolate pudding it’s…’ The session also covered communication skills, such as, e-mails and being on the phone. It was really useful to see how making a few changes to text can really make it stand out. This will be useful in our day to day roles when talking to external customers. It will also help when we go back to Uni when communicating on e-mail with tutors and Marketing projects. As well as knowing how far to go with formality in e-mails.

Commercial Christmas Party

On the afternoon of the Christmas Party all the departments in the Commercial Division went out for a Christmas Lunch. It was really good fun with lots of food and Christmas Carol’s. As well as Secret Santa fancy dress, with a few people getting a bad deal. Luckily me and Faye didn’t, we had angel wings and tiaras. After our late lunch we went out to a bar in Leicester Square where we met up with all the other departments. All the other departments had different fancy dress as well with Late Trading wearing some lovely hats and glasses or swimming caps and goggles in some cases and an Indian Chief Head Dress for another.

As the night went on and the booze was flowing, everybody got up for a boogie! Some people were a little worse for wear and had to leave a bit early, including one of the placements. The next day everyone was feeling a little worse for wear…

TUI Christmas Party

The week after the Commercial party which was held at a marquee in London. We all got our glad rags on in the office toilets (just like the Boots ad – we were all desperate for a bit of mirror space!) and then all got in coaches from Luton down to London.

When we arrived we all made the most of the free champagne and cocktails, and then we went into the main room were we were all seated with our teams. We had a 3 course meal with wine constantly flowing. In between courses the director gave a speech and handed out awards for recognition within the business. After the food and speeches we all went onto the dance floor to the cheesy music and a few of the directors were a bit worse for wear by showing of their dance moves!

At the end of the night we all got back on the coaches to head home, as we were getting closer to Luton rumours were flying about the snowy conditions back at Luton. As we got off the coach there was a thick blanket of snow and no taxis were running so there was no way home other than to walk. When we got into the office at 2am people were everywhere and quite a few had to make the most of the sofas downstairs. Heather and her flatmates ended up walking the hour journey home after borrowing a few warmer clothes for the journey. Faye ended up joining a few others and stayed the night in the office.

The next day barely anyone could make it into work due to the bad conditions, but we did!

Name: Nick Gilbert
Company: PEG S.A.
Placement position: Marketing Intern (later Contracts Consultant)
Age: 22
University: Aston University

1. Treat your placement as the longest job interview of your life!
For me, doing a placement was not just about gaining work experience; it was about really demonstrating to someone over a 12 month period that I was right for their organisation. Because today’s job market is so tough, if you are keen on gaining a graduate position, it is crucial that you seize every opportunity you get to shine in front of potential employers, and what better opportunity than on placement. Whilst you are on placement, although it might not feel like it, everything you do is being analysed. Whether you turn up for work on time, whether your shirt is ironed, how much enthusiasm you have, can you do the job that you are being asked to do and most importantly how well do you fit into the team? On top of this, look for leadership opportunities as these provide an excellent way for you to demonstrate your talent. So, if you are interested in getting ahead, it is really important to throw yourself at everything you are given, and often this will quickly be picked up by your placement organisation and very often your effort will be rewarded.

2. If you are stuck, ask for help well in advance of the deadline.
Sometimes, (and particularly at the beginning of your placement) you may be asked to do a job that you don’t fully understand. If this is the case, don’t just nod and say that you understand and then spend a week not knowing what to do. Make sure that if you don’t understand something, you ask about how you might go about solving it, because the worst situation is to ask for help when it’s too late to do the job properly. Typically, I think it can take between two or three months to learn the organisation fully and how it works, and this may create some problems for you in the beginning.

3. Keep your work and home life relatively separate.
In a small company, this can be quite difficult, especially as the team has to work harder and smarter and as such the social bonds can be greater. However, make sure that you build yourself a good weekend and evening routine which allows you to relax, get some exercise and also do some shopping. It sounds trivial, but being organised at the weekend is essential if you are to get through the next week. Exercise is crucial, it stimulates your mind and lets you forget about whatever happened during the week, good or bad.

4. Document everything, including your successes and failures:
It took me a good few months to realise the value of keeping everything written down. My boss once said to me “It’s not worth the paper that it’s not written on”. Very quickly I began to write everything down, and it becomes useful when something goes wrong or the supplier tries to change the agreement behind your back. Furthermore, because the placement is an environment in which to learn, if you document everything, you can revisit where you went wrong to learn for next time. In addition to this, keep a note of your successes. This allows you to demonstrate areas in which you have made a difference.

5. As my Dad would say, “Just work hard and be the best”.

• Job Title: Digital Executive
• Start Date: ASAP
• Salary: Initially £20,000 + benefits + fun
• Location: Victoria (SW1), London in our brand new office

For full details and instructions on how to apply, please click on the link below:

www.ratemyplacement.co.uk/articles/digital-executive/

Good Luck!