Four years at university felt like a long time when I first moved to Birmingham in September 2011. A long four years living in the student bubble of an endless ‘eat, pub, sleep repeat’ cycle. At least that’s what I thought. Yet I could not have been more wrong and, like many of my other fellow students, final year crept up on me all too soon.
Having spent my third year abroad living in Germany, I spent my time soaking up the culture of another country, enjoying the freedom to travel around Europe and forgetting the daily stroll to and from lectures. Moreover, I was enjoying the distraction from the inevitability of the dreaded words of ‘dissertation’ and ‘final exams’. Unsurprisingly, those nine months flew by. Suddenly, I found myself back in Birmingham last summer with the knowledge that my final year as an undergraduate was less than a month away and the reality that – in the not too distant future – I too was going to be joining the big wide world.
All too soon the terms ‘graduate schemes’ and ‘interviews’ began repeatedly springing up in conversation. Having always known I would stay in Birmingham after graduation, I decided to use my initiative. Having had other friends who undertaken internships to gain corporate experience, and hearing only positive feedback, I began to look for a placement here in Birmingham City Centre: and as luck would have it I found SimkissGuy Recruitment and have never looked back since.
Having always had an interest in recruitment as a possible career path after graduation, it seemed like a logical step to take. And I can truly say that since undertaking my internship with them in September, I have had no regrets. As an intern, I come in one or two days a week which also conveniently means I still have more than enough time to fit all my university work in (and of course still occasionally pop down the pub like the true student I am).
Working with SimkissGuy has been invaluable. My first ever real experience in the corporate world, it has taught me things that university never could, and for the first time in a long time I have actually had the responsibility for something other than handing essays in on time.
I help with business development by regularly keeping in contact with candidates and clients, as well as managing the social media for the firm. I also help in orchestrating their various networking events.
Networking is another aspect of the working life that undertaking an internship has offered me. It is clearly an integral part of the working life yet so many graduates have never had any experience in these sorts of events.
Life after university is daunting for anyone. I thought that too of course, until I began my internship. In seven months I feel I have learnt a huge amount about myself, my future career and the corporate world within Birmingham. Not to say that university isn’t important. It is. They have been the best for years of my life, but having seen a taster of what to come in the years after university, I am far more excited about that chapter of my life than I ever thought I would be.
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