How to get a placement year

Participants

• Emily Slade - podcast producer and host, Prospects
• Kaiyan Malvankar - campus brand manager, Enterprise Mobility

Transcript

Kaiyan Malvankar: They did let me make mistakes and I did, to be fair, I did make quite a few. But I think that's a good thing because I've learned from them. So in the same environment or in similar environments in the future, I'm going to be in a place where I've been there and I've done that, right?

Emily Slade: Hello and welcome back to Future You, the early careers and student advice podcast brought to you by Prospects.

Kaiyan Malvankar: So I'm Kaiyan. I studied psychology at University of East Anglia.  This is my 4th year now, in my third, it's a four-year course, so this is my final year. In my third year, I did a placement at Enterprise Mobility.

Emily Slade: So how did you find that placement?

Kaiyan Malvankar: Yeah, so I stumbled across it, so every, I think it was month, or week, one of the two, we'd have a bulletin that our careers team called Career Central would kind of publish or e-mail out to all the placement students essentially. And every week I'd go through them. A lot of the time, it was, as I say, a lot of them were finance related, one necessarily related to my degree or my interests. But on one occasion, The Enterprise Mobility advertisement came up. I ticked all the boxes. You know, it was based in London. I'm from London. And so that was obviously a big thing. I didn't want to move out and that's a lot of money and a lot of connectment. So that was a big box. And I kind of applied. It was a little bit out of my comfort zone. It wasn't psychology related. But I tried to kind of link my skills to the role and thankfully I got the job.

Emily Slade: And what was the application process like? Was it just a simple fill in a form or was there a long process?

Kaiyan Malvankar: Yeah, so I found that when I was applying for like the huge corporate kind of giants, I guess you could say, there was that kind of eight, seven, 8 stage application process, you know, assessment centres and et cetera. Whereas enterprise was a lot more kind of streamlined in the sense that I had obviously the initial application, which was, background, CV. Can't actually remember if there was a cover letter, but I think there was a lot of applications I would do cover letters for, so most likely. And then once you, obviously they've looked through that, they get back to you, and then the next stage is a phone interview. So you'll get a call from one of the talent acquisition teams, team members. They have a quick discussion review, kind of gauge, you know, why you're looking for that particular role, why do you think you'd suit that role. Somewhat of an informal interview, I'd say. It was a very like casual conversation. I didn't feel too pressured. And then once obviously they've looked into that and they feel that you're suitable for the role, you then get asked to do a branch visit. So that is quite a unique, quite a unique approach from the enterprise mobility perspective, because what it is you obviously have your standard in-face interview, which you have at the branch, but before that interview, you have, well, it depends on the day on the business, the employees or the managers busyness. But for example, in my case, I had to think, I think even close to two hours of time to just speak with the team, get to know what they kind of shadow them, I guess you could say. get familiar with what kind of things I'd be involved in and exposed to. And then obviously after the two hours, I had an interview and there was a yes and no from there.

Emily Slade: Wow, okay. And you mentioned you're studying at UEA in Norwich, so you're based in Norwich, but the internship placement is in London. And that was okay for you, because did you intend to just sort of like move back to London, stay with family, friends, that sort of thing?

Kaiyan Malvankar: Yes, yeah. So I'm from London and I grew up in London and I've obviously my family. houses in London. And whilst I would have been open to a placement in Norwich, I think I probably would have been open to that. The actual advertisement was for a particular branch in London. So obviously living at home is a bit more, was a little less financially straining than having to pay for another year of and accommodation in Norwich.

Emily Slade: Absolutely. And generally, do you think when you're looking for an internship, So Enterprise Mobility luckily had one in London and they have quite a few across the country, don't they? So depending on where you're studying or where you're from, you're probably going to find one nearby. Do you know of people that really push themselves out of their, not even comfort zone, but like literal zone in order to pursue a placement?

Kaiyan Malvankar: Yeah, I know friends from my year group who did a placement year as well in different degrees, also my own. And they did move out. They moved out to places that weren't even particularly big area, like big cities as well. So I have a friend that moved somewhere in Gloucestershire, which is quite a quaint town. Yeah, exactly. And purely for the purpose of the role. And I don't think he has any regrets.

Emily Slade: Right, so he just sort of moved out, rented somewhere for the year, and then came back to finish the degree?

Kaiyan Malvankar: Exactly, yeah. I think he was with, he lived with his team or people relevant to the role, I believe, which I think often, especially the bigger employers, will have something like that set up. And even if they don't have, kind of a house sharing structure, they will have, people you can contact, websites you can reach out to and such.

Emily Slade: Yeah, absolutely.

Kaiyan Malvankar: I would definitely, if you're looking for a placement or an internship, I wouldn't say no straight away just because of the location. Obviously, in Enterprise Mobility, from their perspective, it's a national, it's a national operation. So whilst my advertisement was for London, if they deemed that I was suitable for the role after, you know, that whole process, and I'm sure if I had a conversation with them, they'd actively find another branch that is ready to take me on in in a more suitable area.

Emily Slade: Yeah, absolutely. And were you paid for your placement?

Kaiyan Malvankar: Yeah, so my paid placement was paid. Thankfully, I'm very grateful for the opportunity for it to have been paid, especially from a psychology background. It's not as very rare actually. And I think if I was to do an NHS or a non-paid placement or internship, I think I'd be a lot more hesitant to move out, 100%. There's obviously You'd have to do a part-time job because a lot of the non, a lot of the unpaid placements are three days a week. They're not actually full-time, understandably, because they can't expect you to stay afloat if it's full-time and it's unpaid. It just doesn't go hand in hand. So what they expect is you to take on a part-time role, hospitality, retail or something like that. And that would normally pay for your kind of food and bills and stuff. But taking on that along with having to pay for accommodation, I don't have any personal experience in it, but I can see how it can be quite difficult to manage.

Emily Slade: Yeah, absolutely. So you were in your internship, in your placement for a year. What does the day-to-day look like? Were you just making the coffees or were you doing well?

Kaiyan Malvankar: There's obviously a lot of great, great things to take out from my placement at Enterprise Mobility, but one of the things that I really do like to tell my colleagues or anyone that asks really is Enterprise really do throw you in the deep end. And I think, in my opinion, that was the best thing possible because you have one year, right, where you're, as I said at the beginning, the main focus of that of me taken out that year in the 1st place. Forget about enterprise, but just solely taken out that year was so that I can gain experience. Now, if I was to be making coffees, there wouldn't be any experience to be gained. You know, I can make a coffee anywhere. So yeah, to answer your question, I was thrown into the deep end. Obviously, when I say thrown into the deep end, they were appreciative of the fact that I didn't have any experience in their systems, in their software, and in certain things, but they kind of guided me through that. But they didn't hold my hand. They didn't spoon feed me kind of thing. They did let me make mistakes. And I did, to be fair, I did make quite a few. But I think that's a good thing because I've learned from them. So in the same environment or in similar environments in the future, I'm going to be in a place where I've been there and I've done that, right? So Yeah, I did do a lot of stuff. For example, I was trusted with speaking to clients head face on. I had direct contact with them. I would manage accounts and reservations independently. there was no kind of assistance for managers. They had other things to do, a lot of other things to do really, and stuff like that.

Emily Slade: Nice. And what skills would you say that you picked up during your time?

Kaiyan Malvankar: Time management, definitely, being friend in the deep end when you're, let's say, competency or skill is definitely not at the deep end level, shall we say, means that in order to reach that level, you do have to, you know, be better at time management to kind of compensate and to build your competency up. So time management is really important for me because obviously there's only so many hours in a day, you know, And some days got really busy. So that was one thing. Communication was really, really important. My particular branch or department that I worked in was a national operation. Normally branches at Enterprise Mobility are more local. So, you know, in the London area or even smaller than that, maybe a few mile radius, I guess you could say. Whereas we were a national operation working in a team of maybe six or seven people. So with that came very important communication keys to avoid big mishaps. And there were times where the communication level did lack and we obviously had to pay the price. which taught me that lesson.

Emily Slade: Did you feel integrated into the team as just another member? You feel ostracised as like the baby.

Kaiyan Malvankar: No, not at all. So each member of the team had their designated tasks. They were aware from the very early on what I had to do. And that kind of, my responsibilities were very important to the overall operation, to the overall kind of stability of the operation. And if I made a mistake, it would have consequential impacts, right? So obviously what I was doing was very important because of that fact. So.

Emily Slade: And once you got to the end of the year, and you're obviously now back completing your degree, did you, have you been offered work at that?

Kaiyan Malvankar: Yeah, so it's not, I say it's not common for the placement student to be offered the role back. I know I have a friend up at Uni that also did my, did the Enterprise Mobility placement and unfortunately he didn't, he wasn't offered that role, but yeah. Thankfully, I was. I had a meeting with my area manager. He sat me down. He kind of, we went over my performance of throughout the year. And another thing as well, Enterprise Ability is very numbers driven. So it's a numbers driven business, you know, KPIs and there's a lot of kind of dashboards that we look at on a monthly basis. So viewing and analysing growth and overall performance is very, it's quite linear really, it's quite simple to do. So we just kind of sat down and said, look at the beginning of the year we were here, but now we're here. And obviously there was a, we grew quite a lot in that year. So yeah, I did, I did receive an offer. I did stay an extra, I think it was 3, maybe 3 1/2 months. So obviously it was a 12 month placement which took me from June to June. And I had that summer ahead of me. And if I hadn't stayed there, I would have got a hospitality or part-time job anyway. So I did ask the question, I said, look, would you be open to keeping me on? Obviously, they did pay me during that time, so they could have said no. But I was very grateful that they didn't. And I'm carrying on that kind of trajectory as a campus band manager as well. So I still liaise with, you know, Monica and everyone else at Enterprise. I attend career fairs and I kind of try to kind of try to advertise the management training programme from a from a placement from a student perspective as opposed to from a manager perspective if you see that.

Emily Slade: Yeah, of course. So you've got the job waiting for you once you graduate. Do you obviously like that's amazing. Do you feel a disconnect between your degree and what you've gone into? Do you see yourself at Enterprise Mobility forever or you just like, this is a great stepping stone, I'm really happy here and it's sort of a really lucky thing that you've landed in this job that even though it's quite different from your degree, it's worked out really well for you.

Kaiyan Malvankar: Yeah, I mean, I've got a very, I've got a passion for occupational and organisational psychology. which is kind of, psychology in the workplace, business psychology, kind of people management and such. And a lot of those things were involved in the business, the management training programme. So it does cover a lot of the bases that I am interested in. It doesn't cover all, absolutely. And I don't think many placements could cover all. So I would say I'd be very keen on staying because I think the kind of structure is very appealing to a young individual in the sense that there's a lot of room for promotion, there's a lot of room for, obviously with the promotions, salary increases, you do get paid, I'd say, quite healthily and quite proportionately to what you put into the business. And it is sales driven in the majority of branches. So if you can put that work in. And as I said, the dashboards can verify that, then it's a very great, great place to be.

Emily Slade: So tell me a bit more about the management scheme. Is that something that's only offered as a placement to students?

Kaiyan Malvankar: Yeah, so the title that I had was Enterprise Mobility Management Trainee. So that was the internship title. So When you, if I was to stay on after uni, I'd go in as a management trainee and then you have to complete like a, I guess the best way to summarise is a competency test. So there's like 5 key almost modules that kind of cover all the different areas of the business, risk, cost reduction, cost control and a few other pieces. As long as in that interview you can show the manager that you've, gained valuable experience, that you can transfer to the official role, and then you become a management trainee or an assistant management one of the two. I actually can't remember now. And then it kind of just goes up from there, really.

Emily Slade: What did you find the most challenging aspect?

Kaiyan Malvankar: It's interesting because I'd say the best aspect is that your friend of the deep end, but the most challenging aspect is also your friend of the deep end, if that makes sense. It's a bit of a double-edged sword. You know, now in hindsight, I'm talking about it in a very kind of glorious manner, but in the heat of it, is very, it can be quite intense because, you know, you're just constantly learning. You know, it's like learning a new language, everything is so unfamiliar with yourself. You know, you never feel like you can fully comprehend, comprehend it, but that was probably the most difficult thing. And with that came a lot of other things like communication. And there were times where my judgment wasn't, didn't align with the manager's judgment. And because they gave me so much independency, I obviously made decisions, important decisions, without the, you know, the requirements of the manager's input. And obviously, in the best interests to the business, sometimes I did backfire. And then when we kind of went over, the, right, obviously I had a conversation with our manager and we spoke about it and I kind of gave him my perspective. He said, look, next time I appreciate your perspective, but next time be this. Those are difficult conversations to have because no one likes messing up, right? It was difficult, especially on a, on a scale of, what I was working with as well. And that was difficult to kind of have those conversations.

Emily Slade: But worth it.

Kaiyan Malvankar: Yeah, worth it for sure. No, for sure.

Emily Slade: And if you hadn't been offered a place at Enterprise Mobility, would you feel confident going into the workplace and into the job seeking market with everything that you took from your placement?

Kaiyan Malvankar: 100%. I think I've grown like tenfold, really. They're kind of training the kind of employee development training modules. I don't really know what the technical term is, but their kind of structure in that sense is very, very strong. You know, you have, I think, four kind of days within that one year that I was there where you go to the head office and they kind of, they sit with interns together from all around the country. So, you know, it was based in Heathrow, but you had people coming from Scotland and everywhere. And for that four times in that year, we were taught in thorough detail the five or the four or five key modules I mentioned that were in that interview that you then need to do at the end of the year. So it kind of meant that even if your branches didn't teach you sufficiently, everyone is on the same level. They should be at least because you've had that, you know, there's four days where you've been kind of taught it. outside the business, if that makes sense. So I do think I'm a bad person because it covers a wide variety of business and it's not just one thing and I've become really good at it, but I'm really becoming really good at all the elements of managing business.

Emily Slade: Yeah. What advice would you give to people that are considering doing an internship? Let's say as well that their degree doesn't offer a place in industry. Sort of at what point would you suggest they start looking into applying for internships and should they do it?

Kaiyan Malvankar: So in the case of a placement, so I did a placement year, so second year, by the end of second year, I needed to know that I had secured a placement. So I'd say start looking early as possible, and especially in this unemployment crisis that we're going through, it's more important than ever really to start looking as soon as possible. And that can start from October, November, and I definitely would say by December for sure. because it gives you a bit of time and a bit of a cushion to kind of familiarise yourself with your strengths and to cater your CV towards that, to cater your applications towards those strengths. And it's also a numbers game as well. You know, I'd say I'm quite a competent person, but even I had a number of rejections. You know, there's people that are even more competent than me and they probably have the same, if not more, rejections than me. So it is a numbers game. And to kind of try to tackle that, time is against you really. So the earlier you start, the more applications you can get through.

Emily Slade: And what advice would you give to stand out in your application? Like what do you think you did to get yours?

Kaiyan Malvankar: I think I sit out most in my in-person interview. It's really difficult to stand out from a CV perspective. Unless you're an exceptional student, you've done, you know, four or five extra curricular stuff. which I'd say most people have only done maybe two or three. I think from the interview standpoint, I was really, let's say, obviously dressed for the occasion, and I kind of went over the top. I came in a whole suit, and some people would say that's doing too much, but even if it is doing too much, They're going to remember that, right? Whether it's for the best or for the worst, when they're thinking about, who to say on there, but oh, the guy who's in the suit, right? So I dressed up in a suit, which made me stand out. I'm not saying everyone should dress up in a suit, but you know, you get where I'm coming from. They obviously don't dress up in casual like joggers, for example, but other than that, I showed an exceptional level of confidence as well. And that was just confidence in myself. It wasn't necessarily confidence relating to the role. It was just that when they asked me questions, I had that genuine belief that even if I didn't have a direct answer, I had experience to kind of... weave my way around into the answer, if that makes sense. And I think that confidence kind of, they definitely saw that.

Emily Slade: And has that come with time? Have you applied to a lot of things and sat in a lot of interviews and learned that, or was it just something that you went in with and you were like, right, well, I've got to appear confident even if I'm not?

Kaiyan Malvankar: Yeah, no, of course. I mean, I think a lot of it was under preparation. So of all the interviews I've got to, I would always perform, obviously a couple of days leading up to it, I'd have a look back at the kind of the job description and the skills that they require from yourself and you kind of associate past experience relating it to the skills. For example, hospitality, customer facing, time management as well, all sorts of skills that you can relate to. That weren't directly business management related. Again, I had no experience in business management, so I knew whatever questions that they would ask in terms of experience or describe a time when this happened, describe a time when that happened. I'd have to go back to my roots, really.

Emily Slade: Yeah.

Kaiyan Malvankar: So that kind of... helps me feel a bit more confident when I was asked those questions because I didn't panic. I kind of just kind of took a step back and I was able to tell them a story of what happened and stuff.

Emily Slade: Yeah, definitely. Amazing. Thank you so much for your time today.

Kaiyan Malvankar: No problem.

Notes on transcript

This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.

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