As part of my university degree, I have the option to do a ‘placement year’. Normally, a BEng course like mine would be three years long, but doing a placement year makes it four. The placement year takes place between the second and third years of university.

Placement years are quite competitive. I assume that as placement years are much longer than traditional internships, the risk to the company of taking on a bad intern is much higher. Hence, fewer companies are willing to take on placement year students, and hence there are fewer spots available. On the other hand, placement roles only allow placement students, meaning that you aren’t competing with everyone, only placement students. This is more impactful than it first seems, as elite universities like Oxbridge do not offer placement years as far as I am aware.

In my case, I had to find my own placement. Your university may offer to find a placement for you, but as I understand they are usually treated like a last resort, and that it’s much better to find a good placement on your own.

In this article, I’m going to share some top tips and my experiences searching for a placement year.

Quick Facts

• I made fifty-three applications.
• I received four offers, from CERN, Citibank, Lloyds Banking Group, and Renesas. (7.5% success rate)
• I received an in-person interview at Qube Research & Technologies’ London office, which was my first insight into Quant/High Frequency Trading (HFT).

Tips

Get your CV Checked

My university offered a service where they would check my CV for me and suggest edits. I was lucky to find out about this service early on in my application process, as my initial CV was quite bad, and getting it fixed got me many more interviews and offers. You should check if your university offers this service, and use it if it does.

Start Early

There isn’t really a pattern to when companies will open and close their applications. If you start applying late, you could miss out on a company that you would really like to work at. Start checking sites like Gradcracker early.

Volume is Important

It’s true that you should make your applications as high-quality as possible, but the harsh reality is that the chance of getting accepted into a position is low. You will want to make sure that you apply to as many companies as you can to ensure that you get a placement.

Don’t Under-estimate or Over-estimate Yourself

Make sure to be realistic. You should apply to a wide range of companies, in case you don’t get the placement that you would really like. But equally, don’t skip out on applying to companies that you think that you aren’t good enough for. I never though I would get an offer from CERN, but miracles can happen.

Offers Take Time, Don’t Panic

My friend got his first offer just before Christmas, and this made me really anxious, as I felt that I was falling behind. But my university released some statistics showing that most people only get their offers in March or even later. Personally, my first offer was in February, but they can come even later. My offer from CERN didn’t arrive until the 15th of May, 2025.

Be Consistent

It’s important to slowly and steadily apply to placements. Don’t apply to too many at once and get burnt out, make sure to make a consistent effort.

Track your Placements

This is quite important. Open up a Google Sheets or something similar. Every time you make an application, write down the company name, the role, the link to the application, and the status of that application. This takes a huge load off of your mind as you don’t have to remember who you’re waiting for offers from.

Take Every Opportunity

My offer from Renesas happened because I received an E-Mail from the UKESF foundation stating that Renesas had not found a suitable candidate for their Linux team, and I decided to apply for fun. Make sure to read your emails, there could be opportunities there.