Kate Nelson

Country of origin: United Kingdom

Placement: Renault

I chose to complete a placement year after undertaking a short internship at the end of my first year at Lancaster because whilst there the owner of the business highlighted the fact that she always looked for graduates that had taken a placement year as part of their degree. Hearing directly from a potential employer how much they valued a placement year, made me realise how important the year would be when looking for a graduate position.

I worked within the HR department at Renault UK. Supporting a small but busy team, I worked across a number of different projects and completed essential analysis/reporting. I was exposed to all HR functions and also got to work with different departments from across the business.

The best thing at Renault was that placement students are not treated any differently to permanent employees. After a comprehensive and thorough handover from the previous placement student, I was quickly expected to take responsibility for my new role. I soon realised that the work I was doing was relied upon and valued which I feel was imperative to the success of my placement year.  Working in HR, I was a point of contact and from day one I was expected to form essential working relationships with employees across the business. Joining the ‘Women at Renault’ programme, definitely opened my eyes to issues that women working in male dominated industries face and this is a subject that I am now passionate about.

After deciding to take a placement year at the end of my first year, I realised that I had missed a number of preparation sessions and workshops that had been on offer. After getting in touch with the LUMS Careers Team, they quickly helped me get up to speed; offering me feedback on my CV and help with the application process. I also attended the Placement & Work Experience Careers Fair and look advantage of workshops/talks from large, multinational organisations.

My placement experience was fantastic, of course it had its challenges but I believe I have learnt many new skills to accelerate my career. One of my favourite experiences was working with another placement student to organise a new event to raise money for charity. Supported by the HR Director, we were given free rein to plan and implement an event which lead us to raise over £2000 through organising a week of fundraising activities at Head Office.