Special Post #29: Crossroads?

This is the second post specifically about my placement year. You can read the first post here

So since the last post some cool things have been happening on the placement front. To start with I’m going to get back that list of 5 placements (or “eggs” as I called them”) and we’ll see how they’re going:

1. Siemens -- Undergraduate Broadcast Trainee. As expected they contacted me to say that they weren’t accepting placement students this year. I’m glad they did this before they started interviewing and offering places unlike last year when they cancelled contracts at the last minute. It would have been an interesting placement, but still quite a lot of office work was involved. Maybe this result is for the better.
2. Sony -- Testing of Outside Broadcast Vehicles. “I think this is my dream: I love media and technology and this is such a great combination of both!” And I stick by that even more now! Getting an interview and a chance to look around was exciting enough, and then getting to go for a whole day was just too good for words. I can’t begin to say how much… I won’t say it. I’ll have to see what happens on Monday…
3. Sky -- Outside Broadcasting. I can’t see this happening, it was a long shot to start with, but now Sky don’t seem to have made any progress with processing Josh or my requests.
4. Sony -- R&D. I haven’t heard anything back. Might be one to chase up if I need to.
5. BBC -- Future Media & Technology. Still nothing, and it’s been over a month. Another one to add to the chase up list.

   So essentially we’re down to 3. But wait, there’s more:

6. Mitsubishi Electric -- IT Systems Provision. Based just down the road in Surrey Research Park, this placement looks at the IT system and network used on-site. On the basic level it’s an IT engineer, building workstations and IT support to staff. But on the other hand it has some very cool work with Web Design and internal marketing. I’d be really interested to work here for a year and I’d learn a lot about business approaches to IT systems which is something I’m interested in. So I see this as another on the back-burner.

All in all, my current situation is a crossroads:

• I either get the place at SONY and therefore have the time of my life, learn so much about so many things I’m passionate about and get to work in a fantastic environment with a world renowned company who are the market leader in the OB field. I’ll need to start thinking about accommodation, travel, money and holidays, which is a whole minefield in itself…
• Or I don’t get the SONY place and need to start chasing up a few other placements, such as BBC. This is by no means a bad situation, it would just require what would feel like starting again.

I’ll most likely find out on Monday or Tuesday next week what’s happening, and then I put one plan into action. Until then, I have the weekend to look forward to!