{"id":1140,"date":"2023-12-06T09:54:29","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T09:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/?p=1140"},"modified":"2023-12-18T10:17:31","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T10:17:31","slug":"skills-journal-what-i-learned-from-placement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2023\/12\/06\/skills-journal-what-i-learned-from-placement\/","title":{"rendered":"Skills journal: what I learned from placement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like many, I recently completed an industrial placement as part of my degree. It was a great learning experience, and I\u2019m super grateful for the opportunities I had. At the same time, adjusting to being back at university and applying for graduate roles can be daunting.<\/p>\n<p>In this blog, I\u2019ll be covering my top tips for reflecting on your placement and how to articulate this in future applications. So, whether you\u2019re about to start your placement, or have recently returned, I hope there\u2019s something useful here for you!<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>My placement<\/h2>\n<p>First a bit about me. My name is Asha, and I\u2019m now a final year Psychology student. I completed my industrial placement year at the GSK headquarters in Brentford and was part of the HR Early Talent Team.<\/p>\n<p>My key responsibilities were to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>support and run the annual recruitment process<\/li>\n<li>design and deliver development materials and<\/li>\n<li>review graduate metrics to improve the programme<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Key skills I developed<\/h2>\n<p>I personally gained so much from placement, but two skills stand out to me:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Time management:<\/strong> Working in a full-time 9-5 style placement was very different to my university schedule and lifestyle! It definitely took time for me to adjust and adapt to attending meetings, networking and staying on top of tasks. I kept a task tracker on excel to manage my daily, weekly and monthly goals. This helped me move things around and prioritise appropriately when deadlines changed. Consistently updating my Outlook calendar and setting aside dedicated blocks of time for tasks became a game-changer. This proactive approach ensured that I could stay focused without unexpected meetings or appointments.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Communication skills:<\/strong> It can be very easy to fall into a pattern of not contributing to team meetings because you feel like the most junior person in the team! I can assure you that more likely than not, your team want to hear from you! Learning how to speak up and get my points across during meetings was a key learning for me. I did this by making sure I was prepared for the meeting by reviewing the agenda and clarifying anything I was unsure of with my manager. I would also prepare a few questions in advance where possible to make sure I was heard and engaged in the conversation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Skills logbook<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2023\/12\/Asha-GSK.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1143 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2023\/12\/Asha-GSK.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"287\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2023\/12\/Asha-GSK.png 400w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2023\/12\/Asha-GSK-185x300.png 185w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2023\/12\/Asha-GSK-132x215.png 132w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of course, there were many more skills like networking, organisation, teamwork, and leadership that I developed throughout the many different experiences on placement.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why my one top tip for placement is to keep track of your achievements and what you\u2019ve learned!<\/p>\n<p>It can be so easy to forget the number of milestones and accomplishments throughout your year and what you gained from them.<\/p>\n<p>Each month, I took some time to reflect on the key projects I had completed, and the most important skills I gained from them \u2013 a skills logbook.<\/p>\n<p>It might be worth having a live excel\/word document (I used an excel table!) that you continually add to. This can also help you see where you might have a skills gap and help you talk to your manager about what you want to develop and how this can be achieved.<\/p>\n<p>Recording your achievements using <a href=\"https:\/\/unihub.bath.ac.uk\/students\/infopages\/detail\/36\">active language<\/a> gets you into a good habit of writing up your experiences in an effective way for future applications.<\/p>\n<h2>Articulating your learning for future roles<\/h2>\n<p>Once I\u2019d figured out what the key skills were that I\u2019d gained, and examples of how I\u2019d developed them, I started aligning these with my CV, job applications, and sample competency-based interview questions online.<\/p>\n<p>Common questions include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>tell me about a time when you showed teamwork?<\/li>\n<li>tell me about a time you have overcome a challenge?<\/li>\n<li>tell me about a time when you have taken a new approach?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I took a word document and used the <a href=\"https:\/\/unihub.bath.ac.uk\/students\/infopages\/detail\/303\">STAR (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) technique<\/a> to go through each of my experiences and how it applies.<\/p>\n<p>For example, I used my \u2018supporting the recruitment process\u2019 work as a key example of my organisation and time management skills and structured this into a \u2018STAR\u2019 style answer. (You can get more <a href=\"https:\/\/unihub.bath.ac.uk\/s\/myfuture\/videos\/detail\/70\/how-to-answer-common-job-inter\">guidance on using the STAR model from Careers<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I was able to secure an internship at a UK law firm following my industrial placement; I definitely think my reflections on skills helped me achieve this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Don\u2019t underestimate the impact and learning from tasks that you might view as unimportant! Being able to lead a team meeting might seem like a small achievement, but it might be key for your new role.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, my main message is to reflect regularly and consider how your skills might be transferable in the future! Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like many, I recently completed an industrial placement as part of my degree. It was a great learning experience, and I\u2019m super grateful for the opportunities I had. At the same time, adjusting to being back at university and applying...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1586,"featured_media":1142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[74,63,103,95],"tags":[311,314,309,310,312,313],"class_list":["post-1140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-employability","category-student-skills-ambassador","category-time-management","tag-competency-based-questions","tag-industrial-placement","tag-placement","tag-skills-log","tag-star-model","tag-transferable-skills"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2023\/12\/Asha-Dey.png","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":622,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2021\/06\/16\/how-to-get-started-on-linkedin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1140,"position":0},"title":"How to get started on LinkedIn","author":"Ciara Sherlock","date":"June 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Skills Co-Creator Ciara explains how she has used LinkedIn to build her digital identity, network with others and search for a placement. https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@uniofbath\/video\/6979989960418086149?lang=en&is_copy_url=0&is_from_webapp=v1&sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6979609393483548165 Although it's hard to test, I believe my LinkedIn profile played a role in my placement search. There are a few tips I'd give you to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Digital &amp; GenAI literacy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Digital &amp; GenAI literacy","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/category\/capabilities-framework\/digital-skills\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Screenshot of my LinkedIn banner image showing my profile picture and headline.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/06\/Picture3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/06\/Picture3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/06\/Picture3.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/06\/Picture3.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/06\/Picture3.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1524,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2025\/04\/08\/accelerate-your-language-skills-this-summer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1140,"position":1},"title":"Accelerate your language skills this summer","author":"Kyra Ings","date":"April 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Open to all students and staff, our new Global Language Summer School is offering short-term intensive courses in Spanish, German, French, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese. Spread over just 2, 5 or 10 days, these courses are a perfect opportunity to unlock a new skillset and broaden your language horizon. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/category\/capabilities-framework\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/03\/Global-Language-Summer-School-image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/03\/Global-Language-Summer-School-image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/03\/Global-Language-Summer-School-image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/03\/Global-Language-Summer-School-image.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/03\/Global-Language-Summer-School-image.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/03\/Global-Language-Summer-School-image.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1201,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2024\/04\/19\/meet-your-skills-co-creators-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":1140,"position":2},"title":"Meet Your Skills Co-Creators Team 2024","author":"Lola Osinoiki","date":"April 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Introducing the vibrant, new team of Skills Co-Creators based in the University of Bath Skills Centre! We're a dynamic group, each with our own unique backgrounds and passions, all dedicated to empowering students like you. Read on to discover more about each of us and our role. \u00a0 Maddie\u00a0 \u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;student experience&quot;","block_context":{"text":"student experience","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/category\/student-skills-ambassador\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2024\/04\/estee-janssens-2enBTsIVhUU-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2024\/04\/estee-janssens-2enBTsIVhUU-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2024\/04\/estee-janssens-2enBTsIVhUU-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2024\/04\/estee-janssens-2enBTsIVhUU-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2024\/04\/estee-janssens-2enBTsIVhUU-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2024\/04\/estee-janssens-2enBTsIVhUU-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":692,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2021\/09\/15\/how-learning-japanese-got-me-jet-set-for-tokyo\/","url_meta":{"origin":1140,"position":3},"title":"How learning Japanese got me JET-set for Tokyo","author":"Kerry Vevers","date":"September 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Guest blogger Hannah Halman, who recently graduated from the University of Bath with a BA in Spanish and Politics, explains how learning Japanese with the Skills Centre helped prepare her for a teaching position in Tokyo through the JET Programme. As a languages student, I greatly enjoy the feeling that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Employability&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Employability","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/category\/employability\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A busy street scene in central Tokyo with lots of people walking across a zebra crossing.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/09\/japan-tokyo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/09\/japan-tokyo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/09\/japan-tokyo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/09\/japan-tokyo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":723,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2021\/12\/06\/meet-the-skills-co-creator-team\/","url_meta":{"origin":1140,"position":4},"title":"Meet the Skills Co-Creator team","author":"Kerry Vevers","date":"December 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Four student ambassadors will be working with the Skills Centre this academic year to help develop our skills resources and communicate our skills opportunities to other students. The Skills Co-Creators introduce themselves here. Asha Dey Hi everyone! My name is Asha, and I am a second year Psychology student here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;student experience&quot;","block_context":{"text":"student experience","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/category\/student-skills-ambassador\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Table ornament spelling out the word 'hello' in cursive font.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/12\/hello.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/12\/hello.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/12\/hello.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/12\/hello.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2021\/12\/hello.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1700,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2025\/10\/22\/heres-my-advice-for-making-the-most-of-skills-for-success\/","url_meta":{"origin":1140,"position":5},"title":"Here's my advice for making the most of Skills for Success","author":"Lily Ward","date":"October 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Every semester I tell myself I\u2019ll be more organised, less stressed, and totally on top of my assignments. And every semester, reality proves otherwise. The thing that\u2019s actually helped me get closer to that goal is the\u202fSkills for Success workshops. They\u2019re short, practical, and genuinely useful.\u00a0 What is Skills for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Academic skills&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Academic skills","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/category\/academic-skills\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/10\/Skills-for-Success-169-Blog-Post-Image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/10\/Skills-for-Success-169-Blog-Post-Image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/10\/Skills-for-Success-169-Blog-Post-Image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/10\/Skills-for-Success-169-Blog-Post-Image.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/10\/Skills-for-Success-169-Blog-Post-Image.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2025\/10\/Skills-for-Success-169-Blog-Post-Image.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1586"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}