Today, I am going to discuss the services offered by Imperial College Business School Careers and my experience using these services.
Before joining the MSc Management at Imperial, I was not aware of the amount of support I could get from Careers; I was also not aware of the number of different events that Careers organises every year so I am going to discuss the services offered by Imperial College Business School Careers and my experience using them so far.
My introduction to Careers
The first event I ever attended was the Careers Kick Off presentation that the team hosted during the summer to welcome incoming students and to introduce them to the various services offered by the Business School.
The presentation summarised the activities that would take place during the year — including industry panels, alumni panels, webinars, competitions/hackathons and more — and I was pretty excited to delve into them!
Prerequisites for success
Ahead of the beginning of the programme, there were several primers offered by the Business School for new students. These primers were prerequisites for the upcoming programmes. One of these primers was the Careers primer. It was composed of two sessions: Foundations for Careers Success and Writing your CV and Cover Letter.
The first session helped me to reflect on myself, encouraging me to contemplate my values and motivations as I move forward in my professional career. The goal was to take the time to think about what matters to each future student, and to formulate a mission statement that was unique to them. I learned that the first step to a successful career is to figure out what interests you, and to think about what you can do to achieve your goals.
As for the second session, it described the fundamentals of writing a good CV and cover letter. The session offered a step-by-step, detailed tutorial on how to make your CV reflect you in the best way possible.
Precise and personal feedback from Careers
After completing the primer, I was offered personalised feedback from a careers consultant. Moreover, I got the chance to schedule a one-to-one appointment with a careers consultant to discuss my goals and future game plans. It is important to note that Careers is comprised of several experienced consultants, each specialising in a field they have a lot of knowledge in. They keep up to date with changing requirements in various industries. This was particularly helpful as the recruitment process changed due to the pandemic and students needed to adapt their preparation methods to meet employers’ expectations.
I believe that it was crucial for me to complete these two sessions before the beginning of the programme in September, as several companies started their recruitment process early on (depending on the industry!). Reflecting on one’s goals and interests requires a lot of time and meditation and thus, it was important for me to complete these sessions, as they helped me put into perspective some of the goals I would like to accomplish.
Preparing for job interviews
Moreover, Careers offers a variety of different workshops throughout the semester that helped me to prepare for the job applications and interviews. There were two workshops that were of particular interest to me: ‘Applied consulting frameworks’, and ‘Getting to grips with case interviews’. I am interested in pursuing a career in consulting, and these workshops organised by Careers hosted experts in the consulting industry who gave us tips on how to tackle case interviews and how to practice to be able to solve any case.
It is important to note that Careers holds two to three workshops per day, so planning and managing your time is extremely crucial. In addition, several workshops are recorded and uploaded on Imperial’s online learning platform, the Hub, where students who weren’t able to attend can access them and benefit from them.
Finally, one of the services that was most beneficial for me was getting the chance to book a mock interview with one of the careers consultants, after being invited for an interview by one of the companies I was applying for. The mock interview lasted for an hour and the Careers Consultant focused on preparing me to answer similar questions to the ones I was expecting to receive in a clear and concise manner. It is important to note that preparing to undertake online interviews may be trickier than traditional face-to-face interviews. Luckily, Careers provided us with the right tools to impress and to succeed.
I cannot stress enough the value of the help I received from Careers. My advice for all prospective students, would be to get informed about the variety of services offered by the Business School and their ability to push your professional career forward, and, most importantly, make use of them!
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