Laurence Devane
As I near the end of my 15-week college placement here at Eirkoo, this is a great time to look back and reflect on a few of the many benefits I have gained from deciding to take part in the Cork Institute of Technology Placement Programme.
This is an obvious one! Employers are now expecting graduates to finish their education with some sort of work experience as well as academic achievements. Work placement offers the perfect opportunity to leave the classroom and get a hands-on experience in the workplace. An employer seeing work placement on your CV will be more likely to consider you for the position.
I got the chance to work in a close knit office, where I worked alongside my colleagues every day which made good communication in the workplace vital. Working in this environment really improved my communication skills and my ability to work in a team. These are essential life skills that are needed in every type of job.
These skills were aided by the many group projects completed in college, but work placement has allowed me to gain experience of this first hand and to develop my teamwork and interpersonal skills further, which will make me a more rounded and attractive candidate for any employer.
After being given the opportunity to try my hand at many various tasks in the marketing field, it has given me a taste of which roles I feel would be more suited to me and ones which I would enjoy carrying out on a continuous basis.
This has allowed me to make a more informed decision on what I want to do with my career in the future, enabling me to pick my elective modules in 4th year and my Final Year Project subject with more clarity.
I was extremely lucky to have done my placement with Eirkoo, they granted me free reign for the marketing side of the job. I was encouraged to put what I learned in college into practice. This was a great experience as what you do in college can only get you so far, you have to trust in what you do after that and learn from your mistakes.
Overall, I truly enjoyed the fantastic experience I had during my work placement and the many social aspects that came with it, I had the privilege of meeting some great people and learned a lot from them. I also got a taste of what it’s like to live in Dublin City, which was new to me.
