Hello, I’m Christy. I am a 3rd year BSc Business and Management student.
My course is quite similar to Accounting, Business Finance and Management, and there are a lot of places where the courses overlap. This is good for me, as personally I prefer more maths-based subjects but I don’t want to study accounting. It has given me a good insight and basics for financial roles.
Finding a placement
I am currently on my placement year, working as a Market Analyst at Sony Europe. I tried numerous platforms and found this placement through LinkedIn.
The careers team gave me lots of support, from tailoring my CV to practice interviews. Through this I had a lot more insight as to what employers were looking for and how I should present myself. I was rejected a number of times despite me making the final stage on numerous occasions. The support helped me carry on persevering to find my placement.
Working at Sony
I have daily tasks to do which involve generating reports for around 200 recipients. It is a lot of responsibility, as I need to make sure that these reports are accurate and well-presented. I have monthly tasks as well, which includes creating scorecards for forecasting, by downloading and manipulating data to analyse the market. I also communicate with different people in different countries. For instance, I speak to a colleague in Budapest from our reporting office over there on a daily basis. We discuss how to tackle projects and I let him know how my team need the reports.
I enjoy working with my team – they give me lots of responsibility rather than treating me like an intern. I really appreciate the skills that I’m learning through this experience. For example, I have learnt a lot more about Excel. Sony have given me a training course so I have a much better understanding of how to use the tools. Using them on a daily basis has made me a lot more confident.
Challenges and achievements
The best thing I’ve done so far is being involved in the budget. At Sony we have a budget period which lasts for around 4 months where we have to budget all our products. Within my role I have to support the rest of the Video and Sound department with their market size and budget files. I have been heavily involved with this process which is really satisfying. Some of the work that I’ve done is going to be used for the whole fiscal year next year.
Being able to assist with the budget of the new/current products is really interesting. Finding out about the confidential new releases and how much market share we expect is a really good insight into the business.
I have learnt a lot about businesses in general – how important planning and forecasting is. For instance, Sony had a period of not being able to adapt to the changing environment. It was basically opposing some trends in the market. Due to this the company suffered a lot for a long time. Now my department (Video and Sound) has moved out of the ‘slump’, we are one of the main departments which are driving the profits for the company.
Choosing York
I chose York, as it provided a course which offered a placement. It had a good position in the university rankings and gave me independence as it was fairly far from home. I admit it’s not the biggest city, but since it is a campus university it’s similar to any other campus university in a bigger city. And it’s a beautiful historic city with lots to explore, ranging from independent cafes to a large outlet shopping centre.
My favourite thing about York would be the York Minster. It holds a lot of history and you can access it for free with your student ID. Also, you can go there for Christmas carols!
