Hey everyone, welcome to my blog!
My name’s Grace and I am currently a third year student studying Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Bath. I am a few weeks away from beginning my placement year in Christchurch, New Zealand, where I’ll be joined by three other students from Bath. I’m going to share my whole experience with you and hopefully give a good insight into what a placement year in NZ looks like.
So, follow along for my best placement advice, cool pictures of New Zealand, and some attempt at humour whilst I try to keep these blogs mildly entertaining
Why Am I Doing A Placement Year?
Like many people I know, I’m not too sure what I want to do after I graduate. Therefore, spending a year in a professional workplace within my field of study sounds like a good idea. I could love my placement or I could hate it, either way, it will help me figure out whatever it is I want to do in the future.
It’ll also look great on the LinkedIn...
What Does My Placement Actually Involve?
I’ll be working at the University of Canterbury in the Sport and Exercise Research Lab. I’m supporting current researchers and collaborating with High Performance Sport New Zealand athletes. I am working on projects within areas of female health, mainly the impact of menstrual hormones on performance. This is a new placement opportunity for Uni of Bath students and I can’t wait to learn more about this topic (and give women’s research the attention it deserves).
My Application Experience (or lack of)
As much as it might make for better reading, I can’t offer you a story on resilience when it comes to battling through rejection emails. This placement was in fact, the first and only application I ever made. Not the norm, I’d like to add. However, I can advise you to begin making applications towards the start of second year. I sent in my application at the end of January, and whilst there is still lots more time to secure a placement, it gets much harder to find the time to write up cover letters and manage uni deadlines.
The interview process for New Zealand based placements are slightly less conventional when compared to typical job interviews. I shouldn’t even use the word “interview”, as it’s pretty much an informal conversation (gives an idea about Kiwi lifestyle).
My Teams call took place around 6pm due to the time difference, and we mainly discussed my motivations for moving to NZ. It’s a big decision to move that far away from home, so I would recommend using this time as an opportunity to learn more about your role. Placement advertisements can sometimes be rather brief, so it’s important to know what the position is about and whether it’s the right environment for you.
I was offered the placement at the end of our call and I had a couple of weeks to make my decision.
I should mention that pretty much all placements in NZ are unpaid, with little to no financial help regarding visa, travel or accommodation costs. There is definitely a personal financial investment involved so it’s a decision that needs to be thought through, but one I couldn’t turn down…
Setting Off
I won't start until November, which is quite a bit later than most other placements. In the meantime, I still need to book my flights, sort accommodation and figure out how to pack up all my things into one singular suitcase - other than that I’m absolutely set. (I’ve got a visa I swear.)
That’s everything for now. My next blog will be advice about the pre-departure preparation, the more logistical boring side of things, but no doubt the most important. (This of course can only be written once I have done said pre-departure prep.)
Thank you for reading and you’re welcome to leave any comments!
Grace
Xx
Courtesy to fellow Bath student and friend, Isa, Â for the incredible drawing designs. Love you.
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