Top Tips for Any Placement Student

If you get paid on placement - yes, it's amazing to have all of that extra moolah coming in every month and it's a lot different to your average 'student wage', but remember to SAVE! Just put a bit aside after every payday, so that you have some spending pennies for the summer when you're finished and - ugh - for bills and rent for when you return to uni for your final year)!

Hemlines do matter - when you're working in a corporate environment, you'll need to watch what you wear. If you're fashion-conscious, get style inspiration and tips on 'What is Acceptable' from your fellow colleagues and remember, you're not there to look pretty or slick - you're there to do your job. A placement student from a previous year has gone down in Panasonic history as 'Hotpants Girl'... Trust me, that's not a good thing!

You were hired for a reason! If you're ever feeling overwhelmed, remember that it's totally fine to be feeling that way - you're new and a 9 to 5 job may well be a shock to the system! At Panasonic, my team really were there to help me out if I was ever stuck with something or if my workload was getting a bit much. So it's okay to ask for help and to ask as many questions as you need to, because you're there to get as much out of the year as possible. Having said that, don't forget to push yourself - you'll get so much more out of it if you do. Challenge is a good thing!

Think about your future career - when on placement, you will of course be getting first-hand experience of what it's like to work in a certain role. You will (hopefully) be working for a company in the are of industry you would like to work in in the future. If not - fear not! The skills you work on throughout the year and the experiences you will have will be excellent for building your employability and your personal development! It's important to take up as many opportunities as possible (another way of saying don't just sit back and wait for the good stuff to roll your way) and make as many connections as you can - you never know when they may come in useful!

On top of everything else...

Enjoy yourself!

Things I've Learnt...

I always find the retrospective, 'what have you learnt about yourself' thing a bit cringey, but here goes...
I really have learnt a lot about myself this year and I think if you get the chance to do an industrial placement whilst at uni, wherever in the world you choose to take it, you'll learn a lot about yourself too. I know everyone expects a placement to be a massive learning curve, and it really is, but I think it's hard to fully appreciate how beneficial it is until you've experienced it. There's a lot to be said for those 'life skills' your tutors keep harping on about and a work placement is a great, hands-on way to develop them.
So here are the things I've learnt about myself during this year on placement:

• Meeting new people is scary, but what's the worst that can happen? Get yourself out there - the connections you'll make will be worth it!



• Working under pressure can be tough and there have been times when I've struggled - but I've pulled through!

And I can now do a lot more than I used to!

• I can confidently speak to people I don't know


• I can just pick up the phone and speak to random strangers (a.k.a. the Lovely Journalists)



• I can organise myself well and I know how to prioritise


• I work really well in a team and know how to cooperate and help others


• I can touch-type


• I am innovative and can come up with solutions to benefit the team I am working with


• I have become a lot more confident and make a great Panasonic UK representative at events :)

Plus many more! Very odd to write down my strengths, though - cringe!

Looking back at this year, I've been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to do so many amazing things. The award ceremonies, networking with journalists, Panasonic's annual Convention, product launches, landing great coverage for our products and being part of the fantastic KWN programme - I have had an absolute blast. My team have been beyond lovely as well and I honestly don't believe my experience of working for Panasonic would have been so much fun without them.

A massive THANK YOU to the PR Team for everything! x

Being on placement with the other students as well has been brilliant - it's been like being part of a funny little family! Everyone's a bit bonkers, but we've got on like a house on fire. There's certainly never been a dull moment!

If you're thinking of doing a placement and want a completely unforgettable year (for all the right reasons), I'd certainly recommend Panasonic as a company to work for!

Handover - Last Two Weeks of Placement!

The Handover period came faster than I could have imagined! Before Jennifer, my replacement, started at Panasonic, I had to create a Handover Book for her, which came to be known as 'The PR Bible'! It was very odd to write down all of my day-to-day tasks, as everything had become second nature to me! I did stress to Jennifer that the book was only there for reference and that she didn't have to go home and learn everything by heart, as it was an extremely chunky bit of reading!

Jennifer started working at Panasonic on the 27th June and the handover was to last two weeks. In the first week, I showed Jen the ropes and went through a lot of the daily tasks with her and in the second week, it was all over to her! Everything happened so quickly, I'm sure it was a surreal experience for the both of us. As I had been extremely busy, in a way I hadn't yet had the time to process that in a short while, it would be my last day at Panasonic and I would be leaving the company! It didn't really hit me that I'd be going until my last day, when I was out with the PR Team for lunch - it was really sad!

More on the lovely PR Team a bit later, but for now - the rest of the handover! It was really weird showing someone else how to do the job and, at the beginning of the first week, I could see Jen becoming a little overwhelmed with all of the new information she had to process - I was exactly the same though, when I started! I reassured her that it was absolutely fine to feel that way, the team would be there to support her once I'd gone and that everything would eventually click into place. She asked me how long I thought it might be before everything started to calm down and feel 'normal' to her and I told her that I'd asked the PR student before me (Dawn) the very same question. Dawn said it would be exactly three months - and it was! So who knows, perhaps it will be the same for Jen, too!

Though it was bizarre to be handing over all of my responsibilities to somebody else, I know we've hired a corker for the PR role - Jen will have an amazing year!

KWN Mini Awards at The Hollies School in Cardiff - 17th June

The Hollies is a fantastic school for children based in Cardiff for children with special needs and learning difficulties. They have taken part in the KWN programme for a good few years now and this has helped to cement the strong relationship the school has with Panasonic.

Every year, the KWN team from the school submit a great film entry and, this year, they entered a film entitled 'Road Safety', which documented the ways in which the children had learnt to keep safe when crossing the busy roads around their school.

Due to their learning difficulties, the school does not get entered into the main competition, but Panasonic always congratulates their hard efforts every year, as the standard of their film submission is still incredibly high and they are always so enthusiastic to take part!

On Friday 17th June, I travelled with Gill Brigg (the KWN UK education coordinator) to the school for the awards ceremony, where we were to present the school with the Good Neighbour Award certificate and some gifts. That day also marked the end of 'Japan Week' for the school, so Panasonic coming over to present them with an award fitted in very well!

When we arrived, we met with the Head Teacher and a few of the other teachers from the school, who were absolutely lovely and passionate about creating the best learning environment for the children. One teacher told us that, to make things easier for the children, when they learn about different cultures, they often spend an entire week doing activities relating to one particular country - hence Japan Week. For this week, the children had been taking part in a couple of Japanese-themed activities each day, such as origami, Japanese calligraphy and martial arts.

The first session we were lucky enough to take part in was the 'Eco School' class, which consisted of around 10 children representing their different classes in a team of Eco Entrepreneurs. They went through with us all of things they had been learning about, such as how to raise money for clean water in Africa, how to recycle waste properly and how important healthy eating and exercising is, which was great to see! Pelham from Panasonic Wales was also in attendance and he donated to the school some Eco booklets with tonnes of exciting activities for the children to do. This was a really lovely gesture and the teachers and children were chuffed!

After the session, the children went back to their classes and we were given a tour of the school - what we saw was absolutely incredible. The teachers showed us around the Learning Garden, which was filled with lots of colourful activities, as well as an abundance of trees the children had planted themselves. We were then shown the Japanese garden, which had been funded by Panasonic Wales and created by generous people local to the school. It looked amazing! It was a really peaceful, tranquil area and, yet again, a lovely gesture from Panasonic.

After lunch, the teachers very kindly showed me the Sensory Room - this was such a great space for the children to learn through light and sound and touch, it was incredible! This room had also been funded by Panasonic Wales and the teachers were so grateful, as the room had given so much joy and happiness to the children. With the technology on hand, the teachers are able to change the light and sound themes to match each other - for example, beach sounds can be playing whilst shells, sea horses and starfish lights are projected onto the floor!

The main event came in the afternoon assembly - our awards ceremony was only a brief part of this - and the entire school celebrated Japan Week! Some of the children performed a martial arts display and a story-teller told the wonderful, traditional Japanese tale of 'Momotamo - the Peach Boy', with the help of a Japanese lady, who played an incredible harp-like instrument to complement the adventure!

We kept the awards ceremony brief, but we were very pleased to present the school with the Good Neighbour Award to congratulate the young film-makers for their excellent film entry - they were very happy about this, too!

The children went home and then it was sushi all round for the adults, which was really delicious and a lovely end to an amazing day. I must admit, that I perhaps enjoyed this day even more than going to Hamburg for the KWN European Awards - it was just so rewarding and great to see the fun the children have at The Hollies School. Long live the relationship between the school and Panasonic!

Fast-forward to Student Orientation - 6th June

Orientation Day for the new placement students is their first, full-on introduction to the company and a crucial part of the experience. All students come into the company and are given the full low-down on the principles of the business, how it was started and how it continues to be run and then what will be expected of them as placement students in the coming year.

When I had my orientation (all those many months ago!), I remember it was a brilliant way to be introduced to the company, as it showed us just exactly how Panasonic is run. One of the most interesting things for me was how Panasonic strives to incorporate 'Eco Ideas' into its business plans with its two company initiatives:

• "Eco Ideas for Lifestyles - we will promote lifestyles which will virtually reduce CO2 emissions throughout the world


• Eco Ideas for Business Styles - we will create and pursue a business-style which makes the best use of resources and energy"

Panasonic Company Presentation, 2011

The students get given a lot of paperwork to complete and a lot of information to absorb that day, so when Jennie arrived to see us in the PR department, she looked a little overwhelmed and I don't blame her! We gave her a little tour of the Brand Communications Department, but didn't want to give her too much more information to take on board, so we all just had a general natter with her about the year to come!

As per tradition, we later had a trip to the local Hollywood Bowl with all of our teams, so that the old and new students could spend a bit of time with their managers - and take them on in the bowling isles! In PR, we had the idea of a 'Boys v. Girls' game and us girls lost - spectacularly! A great evening though and a nice way for the new students to get to know their teams in a more relaxed environment outside of the workplace.

After the bowling, we had a massive night out with all of the students - old and new - to celebrate the start of year - a bit of a welcome party! I had what turned out to by my first ever migraine that day (not so great!) and it carried on well into the night so I didn't stay long, but what I was there for was amazing! A night out is a great way for the students to all relax after a big day of info overload and to get to know each other!

However.... We did warn them not to hit the bottle too hard, as the next day was very important for them - perhaps even more important than the Orientation! It was... Find Yourselves a House Day. Horrible with a hangover and many of the students unfortunately had to struggle on through the process of deciding who would live with who and then where they would live feeling a little worse for wear! They all got through it though and found two houses on the same street - great, as they'll be living so close to each other! Fingers crossed there are no fall outs...

Assertiveness Training - Aha! Something I did in April (going back here to the 14th)

When I had my probation meeting with my line manager after the first 3 months of my placement, one of the things we both agreed would be beneficial for me would be for me to attend an assertiveness training course. Due to low numbers of people signing up for the course and some last-minute cancellations, it took a good few months for the training to actually take place, but in April, it finally went ahead!

Before I came on placement, I'd always seen myself as quite an extrovert - I'm quite colourful and expressive with what I wear and very creative. Coming into an unfamiliar working environment and a new team dynamic, though, was quite daunting and I soon realised I'm a lot more shy and timid than I thought!

Assertiveness training taught me so much. I would like to think I'm a very good judge of character and always manage to avoid confrontation if I see it on the horizon - I prefer the easy life and hate petty squabbles! This has worked out really well for me in the past - or so I thought. The course leader showed me that actually, the way I behave in some group situations - not rocking the boat and trying to be lovely and pleasing everyone all the time - can give people the impression that I'm naive and a bit of a pushover! She taught me that it's not only okay to have opinions which are different to others'; it's your right to voice them! Respect works both ways, so you need to give others the opportunity and reason to give it to you...

Everyone has rights and, according to the course leader, they are are follows:

"I have the right to:

1. Set my own priorities




2. Be treated with respect




3. Express my own feelings and opinions




4. Be listened to and taken seriously




5. Say no without feeling guilty




6. Get what I pay for




7. Get information from professionals




8. Ask for what I want




9. Make mistakes




10. Choose not to assert myself

And so do others."

I love psychology and finding out about the ways in which people behave in different situations, so I found it really interesting when we looked at how the language you use and the tone, pitch and volume of your voice can alter people's perceptions of you. For example:

• Straightforward assertion: "I need to...", "I feel very...", "The fact is...". Used in everyday situations, ensuring your voice is SLOWER and LOUDER than usual, these are statements whereby you stand up for your rights and clearly express your needs, wants, opinions, beliefs or feelings




• Understanding assertion: "I appreciate that you...however, I need to....". Used when disagreements exists, but you need to let the other person know that you are geniunely considering their position. Spoken slowly, this is straightforward assertion which also includes an element of empathy towards the other person




• Outcome assertion: "If this happens again.... I will have no alternative but to...". A straightforward assertion which makes it clear to the other person what will happen if they do not change their actions or behaviour, spoken at a steady pace and pitch, slowing down on the last sentence

We practised a lot of these scenarios and the group (in the end, there were only two of us taking part in the course, myself included!) felt a lot more confident at the end of the course in dealing with certain situations - and with certain disagreeable people!

May Days!

As you can see, May was an unbelievably busy month - I got to do so many amazing things! You're probably wondering what on earth happened to me in April and if I'm honest, so am I. What a blur! A fantastic, busy-Bee blur.