What a busy autumn term it has been for Careers at Imperial College Business School! I’m Bosede Ogunleye, Employer Relations Manager at Careers. I have compiled a quick tour of some of the highlights from our MSc Careers events this term.

Career Fairs

We kicked off the year by hosting two Career Fairs; one focused on Finance & Consulting and the other Corporate & Technology firms. With over 1400 of our MSc students in attendance, the fairs provided a unique, early opportunity for students to connect with aspirational employers such as Dyson, Google, Unilever, McKinsey & Co, Accenture, Bloomberg, EY, and Kraft Heinz to name but a few.

One MSc student commented on how useful the fairs were:

I had the opportunity to network and meet alumni who are already working with companies I am interested in. I also could ask questions about the workplace, the culture and skills required to fulfil positions. In the end, I left more motivated with my job applications and encouraged to pursue a career in consulting.

Company visits and recruitment presentations

In addition, this term Careers had the pleasure of hosting some exciting company visits, giving students a real insight into the culture and environment of global organisations.

Back in October, students were invited to the Vodafone HQ in Paddington, to learn about Vodafone Enterprise and their Discover Graduate Programme. This visit gave students the opportunity to build their networks with industry experts and recent graduates.

The term also featured special recruitment presentations from top finance firms such as HSBC Asia, Bloomberg and Morgan Stanley, with over 150 students in attendance!

MSc Careers Week

In October we launched MSc Careers Week, an opportunity dedicated for students to focus on employer visits and presentations without the competing pressure of lectures and seminars!

A visit to the stunning A.T. Kearney offices was a highlight. 25 specially selected students from the Business School enjoyed a day of networking, case study practice and presentations with a range of A.T. Kearney representatives.  

Anastasia Kouvela, UK Director of Analytics at A.T Kearney said, “The Analytics in Strategy Consulting event was a unique opportunity for Imperial students to visit our London office and take a close look into the life of a consultant. It was a vibrant and highly interactive day that included a networking breakfast, a Q&A session with the UK managing partner, solving analytics cases, presenting results and receiving feedback.”

The Careers Week also featured a visit to the spectacular Kraft Heinz offices at the iconic Shard.  Around 40 students were given a real insight into the operation of this global FMCG company. For Kraft Heinz, working with our well prepared and insightful students is always enjoyable.

All this is not even mentioning our panel sessions, ‘Super Saturday’ sector events, workshops, webinars, etc!

This is just a flavour of some of the events delivered by Careers this term. If you are an employer who would like to connect with some of our students, please email ibcareers@imperial.ac.uk to find out more.

As anyone who’s moved to London will no doubt tell you, the search for a place to live in this thriving capital is often a daunting task – with so many locations and options to choose from, especially for applicants joining the Business School from outside the UK, or even outside of London – where do you start?

To help with the search for accommodation, we’ve reached out to some current Imperial College Business School student ambassadors to give some tips and advice on how they found their accommodation and what you can do to find the perfect place that meets your needs.

What else?

These three are just a small handful of the ways Business School students have found their accommodation. Alongside this, Giovanni, one of our MSc Finance students, used a real estate agency to find their flat, based at Earl’s Court. In contrast, Linfeng on our MSc Finance & Accounting programme, found their roommates through WeChat on Social Media.

Other students have also used websites such as Spare Room – a popular website for Londoners and students alike to find flat shares all over London or Open Rent – another great website to find rent properties, with the benefit of 0 Agency fees!

Top Tips:

As our students have pointed out, there are lots of different factors. To make sure you find a good balance between what is important for you when deciding where to live make sure you consider:

• Your budget – living closer often means paying more, can you afford this?
• Distance – the opposite of the above, do you like to walk or are you happy taking public transport – using the Transport for London (TfL) Journey Planner might help this!
• Amenities – is it close to the shops, a gym? Are these important for you?

Happy house hunting!

Disclaimer: Imperial College London does not endorse or support any of the accommodation portals linked to in this blog and they are completely independent of Imperial College London.

You may be wondering how you will acclimatise to the academic standards of an Imperial College Business School programme. Before the programme begins, you must complete a series of online pre-study modules. This will help to ease your transition.

The Hub

You will find all pre-study modules as well as information and documents relating to your programme, (such as timetables, programme materials and past exam papers) on The Hub: the Business School’s virtual learning environment. 

The Hub has been purpose-built to give you access to the information you need and keep you connected. You will receive regular communication about important careers events, social events and volunteering opportunities. It’s a great way to stay in the loop with all that’s going on at the Business School! 

When you log into The Hub, you’ll see an instructional video, guiding you through the areas of The Hub.  

Before you can access the Hub, you will need to activate your ICT account. Instructions of how to do this will be emailed to you very shortly, if they have not been sent already. We will contact admitted students via email when they are able to access modules on the Hub. 

If you have been contacted about Hub access but experience problems with your Hub account, please contact thehub@imperial.ac.uk.

Pre-Study programme modules

We release programme specific modules throughout the summer. You will receive detailed information regarding the module requirements from your relevant Admissions team. Assessment methods vary between programmes and can be a combination of online quizzes, tests and evidence of the completion of modules. We design these modules to give you a basic knowledge of areas which will be covered in the programme. 

Top tip: please give yourself plenty of time to complete the modules!  

Your first month at the Business School will be extremely busy, so it is advisable to complete these modules before you commence the programme. Some of the programme modules can take longer than others to study depending on your familiarity with the topics and previous experiences, such as the Accounting Primer, which can take between approximately 15-20 hours to complete. You will find that you benefit more from the experience if you are able to work through the material at a steady pace and give yourself time to become comfortable with the content. 

Pre-Study Careers modules

Lisa Umenyiora, Executive Director of Careers & Student Life at the Business School: 

Get career ready! Did you know most of your target employers typically open for applications in August? Get a head start on your career today with our Careers Primer on The Hub. The Careers team have designed a Careers Primer that will help you to be prepared for the Careers opportunities available to you throughout your time at Imperial – over five thousand students have completed the Careers Primer over the last six years and now it’s your chance to join them. 

The Careers Primer has been designed for Imperial College Business School’s students to fulfil career ambitions, produce a class leading CV, Cover Letter and to give you an edge in Interviews and Assessment Centres. 

Updated for the 2021-22 cohort, this key resource is available to Admitted Students four months before you start on your programme in September. Admitted Students can take advantage of priority access to this significant resource, giving you a crucial head start in the early applications round that occurs before the September start. It is strongly recommended that you complete this before you arrive to ensure you are ready for early employer engagement. 

The Careers pre-study modules include Foundations for Careers Success, which will help you develop your sector knowledge, career strategy, understand how to effectively market yourself and ultimately find a career that is right for you. 

You’ll also have the opportunity to undertake a Writing Your CV & Cover Letter module. Once completed, you will gain access to VMock, our CV Enhancement Platform. VMock uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to assess your CV and make suggestions for how it could be improved. 

Symplicity 

Once you have worked through the Careers Modules, you’ll be able to access Symplicity, our Careers Management System. Symplicity can be used to book one-to-one career appointments, employer events and workshops. You will be able to log in to Symplicity using the same log in credentials you use for the Hub. All the main employers will visit Symplicity to post job advertisements. The Careers team will approve all the jobs posted on Symplicity, so you can trust the opportunities that you see advertised. There’s no limit to when you use Symplicity – you will be able to access information about graduate jobs after your course has finished and beyond! 

Top tip: Make sure you fill in your personal profile on Symplicity, as this is key to ensuring your profile appears in searches! 

We hope you enjoy this first stage of your study with the Business School. We look forward to welcoming you on onto the programme soon! 

With the start of term rapidly approaching you will now be looking to meet all your conditions, including any English language requirements to make sure you are ready for the start of term. As there is often high demand for places on tests such as IELTS over the summer months, it is important that you start preparing as early as possible! If you are not sure what test to take, please make sure you have had a look at the English language requirements page as this provides detailed information about the tests that we accept and the level that we require.

Test scores are valid for 2 years and MUST be valid on the start date of your programme, so if you have previously taken a test, please do check the date before relying on it to meet conditions.

Preparing for your English Language Test

Many of the English language test providers offer free online resources such as practice tests, test tutorials and short courses to help you with your test preparation. Depending on what test you are planning on taking, you should find the following sites useful:

• IELTS: Prepare for IELTS
• TOEFL iBT: Prepare for the Test
• Pearson Test of Academic English (PTE): PTE Academic Preparation
• Duolingo: Prepare to do your best

British Council IELTS and Future Learn open up a *free, 6 week online course Understanding IELTS: Techniques for English Language Tests which offers test preparation guidance from ‘a video tutor and a team of experienced IELTS educators’ as stated on the FutureLearn website. Whilst completion of the course can’t be used to satisfy the Business School’s English language requirement, it should prove useful whilst you prepare to take the test. 

(*using the free trial option!)

Satisfying your offer condition

Admitted students should aim to meet the conditions of their offer by 7 August 2023. If you require a visa, it is advisable to aim to meet your conditions as early as possible to ensure that there is enough time to prepare for a visa application once CASs begin to be issued. As such, when booking your test, please keep in mind that the processing times for results vary between test providers. On their website, IELTS list a 13 day processing time (3-6 days for some online tests), TOEFL iBT lists a processing time of approximately 4-8 days, PTE advise you to contact them if you have not received a result within 5 days and Duolingo results can be available 48 hours after completing the test.

If you have booked a test, good luck! If you have not yet booked a test, please try and do this as soon as possible. Finally, if you have completed a test that satisfies our English language requirement, please have a look at the Next Steps page to see how and where to submit your results. If you think getting a test in on time is going to be a problem, please do let us know as soon as possible as we may be able to recommend an alternative!

We hope to see you on one of our programmes!