Dave - sorry to hear the news - hope something turns up PDQ

That's a bugger, I don't recall reading that either! Hope something presents itself soon for you.

I'm still searching for Industrial Year placements. By searching, I mean sending out applications to bloody anywhere, this late in the day, and praying for anything back other than another automated "Thank you for your application". The only job I didn't apply for, I could have waltzed over the other applicants, which included my partner. Job preference has been thrown out of the window for some time, although there's still a few appealing ones coming up. I just wish companies would have the decent damn courtesy to at least send out a mass "Sorry, your application has not been successful" email or some such so I'm not checking my email every damn day trying to find out where the hell I stand! </rant>

What sort of placement are you looking for?

And where ( roughly )

Anything in a computing discipline (avoiding heavy programming, so networking, sysadmin type stuff), preferably within 30-40 miles of Leicester or Coventry (I live smack bang between the two on the M69) or at a push within similar distance of Aberystwyth. But if all else fails, anywhere that doesn't involve living in a city.

When did you start looking? I started applying to stuff in October and got my first offer around March. It takes a lot of time and effort so try not to get on too much of a downer when companies don't respond.

Have you looked at doing anything over the summer whilst you are applying? If you sign up with an agency you might get some temporary stuff come through which would all be good experience, or maybe you could even volunteer if you know a firm who are doing some work. Last summer I worked a month unpaid helping a local school upgrade their systems. They did the whole lot - servers, PCs, infrastructure stuff and even cabling so that turned out to be a great learning experience - better than a whole year at uni I would say.

Good luck with it though and keep trying - companies are still taking students on. I know someone who accepted their placement offer in September last year!!!

Started looking quite some time ago, I can't quite remember when. I might go round the local schools and see if they want any work going - paid or otherwise - just to get the experience in. Tbh, I've a strong suspicion most of it is due to application forms and the like, where I'm required to write good things about myself, which I really can't do very well. Getting better at it, but hey.

I've done quite a lot of freelance stuff with servers, networks and the like. The only issue is that a lot of it hasn't been in full-scale industrial situations, which might count against me. That and most of the places I've done work for have either had a complete change of staff, been sold on or whatever. So references are a little hard to come by.

Still applying for pretty much anything that doesn't involve a hefty amount of programming.