Listen to this and all the previous episodes.

Pretty much any student at York can do a placement year or year in industry! And right now second/middle year students can register for the programme. With that in mind, we thought it would make sense to speak to a York student just back from a year out in the world of work.

Toby studies History and spent his placement year working in recruitment for Reed. It sounded like a lot of fun. In this episode, he tells Kate what recruitment is like and why everyone, especially History students, should go for the placement year. Enjoy!

There is a full transcript and useful links on our blog.

Toby’s bio:

Originally from Nottingham, I came to York to study History. I found myself unsure of what to do with my future, and figured why not apply for a placement. So I’ve spent the last 12 months in London, working in Recruitment, and I’m now excited to come back to university to complete my final year. While I’ve loved London, I’ve missed the greenery of the north and I’m excited to be able to go on long walks in the countryside again! London’s too much of a concrete jungle for my liking!

Useful links

• Placements and graduate jobs at Reed
• Placement Year at York
• Working in recruitment and HR: job profiles and sector overview
• Careers with social impact: corporate social responsibility

Transcript

Kate 

Hello and welcome to this episode of what do you actually do? My name is Kate Morris, and I’ll be your host today. In today’s episode, we’ll be talking about doing a placement year in the recruitment sector. Today, we’re joined by Toby Gill, who’s doing a placement as a resource for Reed specialist recruitment. Well, has just finished that. So, Toby, what do you actually do or what did you actually do? 

Toby 

Yeah. So my job was based down in London doing recruitment resourcing, which I had no idea of what that was before starting. But it’s essentially it’s helping the it’s working with recruitment consultants in the company and  everyday I get a lot of jobs and it’s about finding candidates for the jobs researching their backgrounds, researching that, the jobs the company is with and making sure that all the jobs in the office get filled really. So it’s quite a quite a full on quite intense role, but it’s it’s a really interesting role for I guess anyone who is interested in recruitment, it’s a really good entry entry role for recruitment. 

Kate 

So what was the process of getting the placement then? Cause if you sort of felt like , I didn’t know anything about this before I started it. How did you kind of come across it and what made you think? Ohh yeah, I’ll, I’ll go for this. 

Toby 

I think it was a lot of it was luck. I think one thing which is common with people in recruitment that I’ve learned last year anyway is that a lot of people fall into it, so I was I was doing I I do history at university so I was just sat there one day thinking I kind of wanna do something else next year rather than going to my third year, so I started looking for placements. I applied for quite a few then I found Reed the recruitment agency and I was like this actually looks really good. I have a cousin who does recruitment as well, so it’s something I had a tiny bit of information about. But yeah, I just thought, you know, I don’t really know much about the role, but I’m gonna do some research. I’m gonna take a shot really and that’s that. That’s the nice thing about doing a placement. From what I found, you don’t need all that knowledge, experience. You can just go and, you know, apply and and show show your personality because that’s what they’re looking for. So yeah, I that’s how I found it. It was kind of potluck, I guess. And I have no regret about doing it was really good. 

Kate 

And did you, was it sort of a lengthy process? Did you have to do an assessment centre and do an application form and interviews and stuff for how did that side of it? 

Toby 

Yeah. So I think for Reed it, it wasn’t too long. I think it had about two interviews I had to do a telephone role play where I’d phone their recruiter and I’d basically try and sell them a job that I’d been given a bit of detail about which is quite daunting. But yeah, I had two interviews, had a role play and then I had some written assessments, but it wasn’t too long, but there are some places and assessments that I did which I didn’t get where it was like a 7 hour assessment centre so I was quite grateful it was a a bit more, a bit shorter. 

Kate 

7 hours? That sounds intense. Yeah, but I guess that’s quite useful for when it comes to the graduate job hunting to know that you’ve had some experience of doing those kind of things now, so you know what to expect? 

Toby 

100%. 

Kate 

So when you were on placement, I was your supervisor, obviously, and I was interested to hear that Reed do a lot of charity work and philanthropy because often people think of the private sector as a sell out, and I know you were personally interested in the public sector originally. So was it a surprise to you to find that the private sector kind of also does things that make a positive difference to society? 

Toby 

Yeah, 100%. I think there’s a, there’s a general stereotype about, I guess, in university, about the corporate world and the world of work in general where you know, if you go whatever big company, then you are a corporate sellout and it’s not really true. I volunteer a lot at university and that wasn’t really what I was looking for with my placement. As you mentioned when I joined Reed and in their induction weeks I found out that Reed gives I think 20% of the profits to charity, which is insane for a billion dollar company. But yeah, it was quite nice because it does show that there are a lot of companies out there which do, despite making you know eyewatering profits they do give a lot to charity. With Reed on that topic of their social footprint, I guess they’re also just a really good company to work for. I was so lucky being there cause it was just a very, very family feel company and I think that is reflected you know through their charitable endeavours as well it’s very much trying to get people involved with charities. There were days where we do you know come in dressed up in certain like you know pride pride colours or other colours I can’t remember now. There were charity days like that as well, which was really nice. It was a. It’s. Yeah, it’s a very I guess socially positive company, which is really nice and as you mentioned, yeah, it was really good for me because I really enjoy, you know, volunteering and doing charity work at university. So it was quite a nice transition in that sense. 

Kate 

I think it’s cool to discover that cause I think it can often feel like a moral compromise, and often when I see students in appointments, they almost feel they’ve got to apologise for wanting to think about what salary they might earn in the future and that they’re doing a bad thing if that’s important to them. But it it’s nice to feel like it doesn’t have to be a choice between doing something that has a positive impact and doing something where you are able to earn a decent salary as well and ironically, having worked with many people over the years, it, it does seem like in some ways in the private sector you are given a lot of good support and training opportunities and there is just more resource which makes sense when you think about it compared to sometimes it can be more stretch in the charity sector or in the public sector, so in terms of that working environment and how you feel as an individual as well that can be a bit of a difference. 

Toby 

Yeah. And I do think on that as well. I think companies just not now is probably the best time in my opinion, best time for people like myself, graduates to go into the world of work because companies are getting a lot more offering hybrid work and offering better work benefits. They’re getting more charitable, more focused on, you know, the environment companies are getting a lot more and I guess again, socially positive I can’t think of the word I’m thinking of 

Kate 

Well, there’s corporate social responsibility is one, sort of yeah, more sustainability, but I guess that flexibility and for want of a better word like caring. We have we have to take it like a little bits cynically, but caring about the individual employees, but it makes sense, doesn’t it? If someone’s well-being is alright, they’re gonna perform better, which is gonna be better profits and a better kind of working environment for the company, so from a cynical perspective, it makes sense, but actually I agree with you from an employee perspective it’s nicer to have that flexibility and to not have to make that choice between earning money and doing something that’s positive. 

Toby 

100% 

Kate 

So you’re studying history, as you mentioned. Are you using it or did you use any particular skills or subject knowledge from your degree in your placement? I know you sort of pitched it originally as it’s something that’s unrelated, but did you find that any of your history skills or knowledge came in handy? 

Toby 

A little bit. Yeah, I think with history, obviously a lot of the curriculum of course is independent research, independent studying. And that itself entails a lot of, you know, independent time management. So I think both those aspects of the research skills that was needed in my role as a resourcer and you know, research companies researching people’s backgrounds, researching what the what the job entails, but also that time management aspect, it was I think that was an absolutely huge benefit for me going into  the office just because in the office environment you want to you know, prepared for how how many tasks are there anyway, especially as an intern you are really prepared for how much stuff you have to do. So having that time management experience, I guess from my course which is very independently you know independently led that was a huge benefit. But I think as well also there’s a lot of writing and one thing I found which was I got quite fed up with this after a few months. I and people always ask me to proofread their emails or their job adverts or write job adverts for or write mail as their clients. So in a way that was my history writing skills being utilised there, but it got annoying. 

Kate 

You were too good at it. So what new strengths or skills do you think you discovered or developed while you were doing the placement then? 

Toby 

I think the the obvious one and this is a huge one for me, it’s just the confidence in in terms of, you know, being confident in a business professional setting because I was quite confident socially before going to work. But when I got in to Reed, like the first two weeks, I was absolutely terrified to pick up the phone and you know maybe even answer a call coming to the office and especially you know making calls, but in recruitment for people who don’t know it’s a job that entails you being on the phone all day, every day, every day of the week. So it’s something that I was forced to overcome and now I have absolutely no pains, you know making a phone call to clients cold calling people speaking to big corporate figures as well, and some of our clients are multi billion pound companies. So speaking to the  their head of HR was quite daunting but you know it’s something I’ve had experience doing now. So that’s the main one. It’s the confidence keeping communication but also as well building on that time management I think. I think that organisational skills have been really enhanced by the year. I’ve I’ve learned methods, yeah, manage my own workload. I’ve learned what works for me. So I’m very much an Excel spreadsheet sort of guy to organise my day-to-day tasks which a lot of people hate. But I’ve been able to figure out how I best, you know, manage my task and prioritise what needs doing each day and each morning. And I think that’s gonna be huge going forwards after uni into future companies. 

Kate 

Definitely. And I think so many people be able to relate to that idea of being terrified in kind of that office environment and especially the phone when we often don’t need to use the phone anymore. Like to actually talk to people, do we? So yeah, I think that a baptism of fire sounds like it actually paid off. What was the biggest challenge you encountered in the place and then? Because it sounds like that was that was really tricky at first. Was there anything else that was sort of, ohh, that was really hard but I’ve I’ve got through it? 

Toby 

Yeah. So this is something that I’ve probably, you know, complained to you about before. But I think the biggest challenge was my, my role was supposed to be very much only dealing with the candidates. So the people who are looking for work. But one of my colleagues who covers our temporary work desk, she went on maternity leave for three or four months. So for those four months, I was handling her entire desk. That basically entails, you know, dealing with all of her clients, which I wasn’t really supposed to be doing it. It meant handling all of her candidates, of which she had hundreds hundreds and temporary work you know, it’s it’s all these short term contracts where it’s a couple of weeks or a couple months so there’s a lot of jobs which come in which are temporary and I had to you know manage practically all of them by myself for four months. So I mean they were very stressful you know 3-4 months well I was you know just some days I was like I can’t can’t be bothered to be here, but it was really, you know, looking back, it was it was really good experience and I think you know in terms of again future work in terms of interviews, that’s gonna be so helpful for me to talk about. But also just in terms of my own confidence, I guess my own like you know, I’ve shown what I’m what I’m able to do. I’m now aware of what I’m able to do as well and I just feel a lot more comfort with myself and my abilities in a professional setting moving forward. So I think, yeah, I think it’s there’s been a lot of challenges but covering that desk for three months was probably the hardest, the hardest thing I’ve done. 

Kate 

Yeah, I Remember, from as you described at the time, it did sound really intense and kind of a massive step up and require a lot of flexibility, but I do remember one of the things that stood out was you had the a really positive attitude, so you were just yeah, I’m gonna get on with this. I’m gonna take a positive from it and use this as a learning opportunity. So I think that’s something that a lot of graduate employers when we as careers consultants see all these reports and lists and stuff like, What are the future? Skills employers are looking for and something that is just becoming increasingly important is this idea of flexibility and adaptability because the world is changing so fast all the time. So we this idea of like our fixed job description where ohh this is your thing and that you stay in your lane and that’s what you do. It’s kind of changing because new stuff is happening and we have to kind of move with it and adapt and evolve and kind of respond to the different, it’s called challenges, not problems, but these different challenges as they come up. So I think yeah to have that experience of seeing how that feels, knowing it, it’s tough, but also finding a way through. That is something that will probably stand you in good stead. 

Toby 

I think well, what you said about the positivity that is that that’s been my saving grace. I’ve, I’ve become a lot more positive just in general in last year. But just having that can do attitude, which sounds so, so cliche having that can do attitude and that really just helped me because if I was, I mean, obviously I I’d always ask for help when I needed it, but also I was just very optimistic about, you know, if I was given a lot of work in the morning, I was like, well, I just get through what I have to do and it’s the end of the day if I don’t get it done, I’m I’m on a placement and I can I I can always delegate if need be. So it’s just about, yeah, being flexible and just being positive and the most important thing as well, I guess, but any anyone who does a placement is listen as well and just ask questions as well to your manager that that’s my main that that’s probably a key piece of advice I’d give. 

Kate 

No, I think that’s that’s really good advice. And I think it is getting that balance isn’t it between using your initiative and it it’s great to feel that you can have some autonomy in your work and problem solve and you know, work through something yourself. But equally you know that what’s nice about a work environment where it is a team and you can learn from other people and kind of use different people’s expertise. It doesn’t have to be just all on one person’s shoulders. What are you most proud of from the experience then? 

Toby 

Hmm, I guess I’m proud of you know how much. I’ve again shown myself what I can do as a more broad one. First I you know I’ve overcome my fear of picking up the phone and talking to random strangers that I’ve never met before and doing that multiple times a day but, and I’ve also shown that now I’ve finished the place and I’ve I’ve been looking back right just back to the last few days and I’ve taken a moment just to say, you know, wow, you’ve just spent a full year in work doing a full time job for not great pay if I;m honest and you know, there was no hiccups. There was no real, you know, no real negative side to it so I don’t have any key you know things I’m proud of. I think I’m just in a more broader sense, I’m quite just proud of the whole the whole year cause I think one benefit of the placement year has been it just it shows you where your skills are. I think that’s the key thing with uni students, especially me anyway. I had no idea what I was good at before going on to the placement I obviously had no idea. And then I think when you’re working in really dynamic office because recruitment is very dynamic, you’re dealing with so many different jobs and people as well. Yeah, I think it just allows you to understand what you are good at, where your strengths lie. And I think in terms of what I’m proud of, I think again it’s just the just, I’m proud of myself for the whole year, which is really cringey, but it’s been a really it’s been a really good year just for understanding who I am both you know professionally and individually as well and just you know finding out how I work and what I’m good at again and yeah the whole year has been, I’m not sure that’s the answer you’re looking for. 

Kate 

But that’s that’s really interesting and I think that point around actually taking yourself out of your comfort zone. And I think particularly at university, obviously everyone at uni is academic. That’s why you’re at uni. So you’re used to kind of, you know, being able to hopefully do your assignments or your work, whatever it is and getting you know good grades if you put the work in kind of thing, but to put yourself in a situation where you’re not sure what’s expected of you, you haven’t got that proven experience of like, yes, I know how to do this and that that fear of having to start from scratch at something and learn something new that’s really daunting, but I think it’s brilliant to test that out and do that because that is gonna really help you when it comes to thinking about graduate jobs because you know you can do it. You know you can cope, you can survive. You can try things out. And that’s something that I see with quite a lot of final year students or recent grads who are not too sure what they want to do there is that fear factor. If you haven’t had a lot of experiences, I don’t know what I’m good at. I don’t know if I would enjoy this. I don’t wanna commit myself to this career, because then I’m on that solid path and it might be difficult to change and it’s kind of by having these kind of different work related experiences. It does just show you like a yeah, you can do it. If something goes wrong, it’s not the end of the world. There’s always through it and see actually things are flexible. You know, you were able to take on that maternity cover role, which wasn’t part of your normal job. And so that shows, OK, you could put these skills that you gained from recruitment and put them in a different situation as well. On that then how do you think the experience impacted on your career plans or general employability cause it sounds like you’ve you’ve got a sort of a newfound confidence, which is brilliant. How else do you think its impact? Has it changed your mind about what you might want to do in the future is it giving you new ideas. 

Toby 

Yeah. Yeah. I think it has back in the second year of university before even finding the place. I I you know what? What I wanted to do. And once I got the placement and I was considering recruitment for a career just because it’s really good money but one thing I found is it just was really a job that’s purely money wasn’t really for me. And and I think you know, finding the skills that I’m good at. I I’m very good with my communication skills. I’m very good at, you know, at writing. I’m very good at other skills and this has led me to I’m very set now on a career in communications and public relations which, I’m interested in politics and stuff, So that’s why all all into ties. But the skills I learned at Reed and again those communication skills and a big part of communication is making those phone calls to to media outlooks, whatever to, you know, talk about stories and those phone skills are very transferable from Reed. But just in general I I think, yeah, I think how doing a placement is the best thing you can do because a lot of my friends have graduated or who are graduating, Sorry soon, they have absolutely no idea what what they want to do and which is apparently quite common, and I’m in a very, very fortunate position where I know what I wanna do and I’ve got, you know, companies lined up that I wanna go and apply for and I thinkI I know the only reason I have that is because I’ve done this placement year. I think it gives you a year where you can work out again what you’re good at and then you can see what sort of companies you know and what sort of job types and are tailored to your skills. So I I think if anyone’s doing a placement, it’s always good to just learn them as much as you can, one benefit of recruitment for me was I learned about so many different industries and sectors and job roles. It gave me a bit of an insight into what I wanted to do from that. So yeah, just learning about myself and learning about the business world has been really helpful and but I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t know what I wanted to do if it weren’t for this. If it weren’t for this place, and just having that extra year to think and to learn on the go is really helpful. 

Kate 

I think that’s really great to hear that, because that’s kind of the point of doing. Sometimes when it works out but I think it’s so powerful how you can have an idea in your mind about what a job is like or what a sector is like, but it’s only when you actually start to do work you do understand it more, and you know, I really understand what you’re saying about the picking up the phone thing. It’s it goes beyond that, i s about relationship building. And I think that was such a big skill that you had to utilise in that job. Those relationships with those individual members of the public who were clients of Reed the sort of businesses who are using them, the internal relationships to find out, or who do I ask for this? Who do I share this information with? How do I process this? So it’s kind of all of that relationship building? Yeah, that links directly to the the communication sector idea, so that’s fantastic. So as a History student and having done this and recognising a lot of your mates are in the position where they’re not sure what they want to do, and I certainly see a lot of arts and humanities and some social scientists who are not too sure they kind of feel like, yeah, I’d like to get some work experience, but I don’t know what I wanna do in the future. So I don’t know what to get experience of. Do you still have any advice for people in that position who are not too sure what they want to do or what their degree might relate to and how to go about approaching finding something relevant to do work experience wise? 

Toby 

My advice is look for a placement and consider it because it’s not spoken about at all with history. When I got my placement, I spoke to someone in the history department and apparently I was one of the only, if not the only person in this year’s cohort who was doing a placement, which is crazy considering how big the history department is in York, and I think it’s just, It just shows missed opportunities. I mean, I would not be as confident as I am today and where I am today, you know, knowing what, what industry I want to go into quite excited to actually work after, you know, I’m I’m really looking forward to graduating and going into the into the world of work and which I wasn’t before doing this placement. I’ve only got that confidence and excitement because of this placement. So I think with history in particular and you know the stereotypes exist with history, and I think it’s similar with other arts and humanities where it’s like you can, you know, you can only go into being a teacher or working at a museum, which is absolute nonsense, but that that stereotype does exist. And that’s what I that. That’s what I thought as well before doing the placement. If you are a Arts and Humanities student or a history student you know, looking for placement and considering the idea of doing ot, yeah, just apply to everything and anything really. I mean all they look for is personality and working recruitment is showing this as well. These sort of graduate and intern jobs, all they care about is personality. More than your experience. And if you’re willing to, you know, go in and work and just have have that can do attitude it’s gonna be a really good year. So I mean, when I was applying, I I applied for like I don’t know 11 different companies. Some were accounting, some were sales, some and then some were recruitment and I and I think that really helped cause a you get a lot of practise doing interviews and assessment centres and I mean if you get a placement it’s just it it, it’s a really nice break from from uni and I’ve spoken to a couple of people who do history and in a year below me and and about things and such and they’ve said that they’re worried about, for example, not being with their friends and their friends graduating. And that is a factor to factor in. But it’s not too big an issue. I mean, I’ve got about 6 mates who have all also been on years abroad or study abroad or, you know, workplace and so but there’s always gonna be people who are who are who are doing placements, are in your position if you embark on a placement. So you’re not gonna be alone. I think in the long term, it outweighs those short term negatives. I think having the placement that’s been probably the best choice I’ve made in my uni career, so yeah, I think the advice would be long story short, just consider it. I just go and ask, ask the placement team or the History Department or anyone about placements and just yeah, keep it in mind as an option. 

Kate 

It’s that having that be open minded and don’t it doesn’t necessarily have to be an obvious link to the degree it sounds like you’re saying. There’s lots of different options out there. Give it a try. 

Toby 

100% yeah, that was much, much nicely put the mine. 

Kate 

Yours was good. I’m just in summary, I think that’s really helpful and we’ve got lots of resources as well. So we’re building up because we’ve only been doing the placement year as an option for a few years now. So we’re building up more resources of case studies of what students have gone on to do to give people ideas because I think that’s part of it, isn’t it is. Just knowing what the possibilities are. So thank you for taking the time to do this. For more info about recruitment and Reed and the other careers that we’ve mentioned today, I’m gonna add some relevant links to the show notes and a link to the full transcript today show. So Toby, thank you so much for taking time out of your holiday, time to speak to me today. I really, really appreciate it and I’m looking forward to seeing you when you come back in your final year. 

Toby 

Thank you for having me. It’s been really nice and yeah, I will. I will see you back in York when I’m back in September.