This is a presentation I did for a conference yesterday about a research project myself and colleagues at Salford did earlier this year investigating what some of our international graduates were doing. Interestingly, we got a good response rate from postgraduate alumni. In the presentation I outline the key messages for current international students planning their future career that were gleaned from the case studies we collected. The full career stories are available below and you can also download brief details of the career destinations of over 100 of our international graduates.
There were no surprises in what our research participants had learned from their experiences in developing their career.
- Capitalise on what being an international graduate represents – your language skills, cross-cultural awareness…
- Get experience – qualifications are not enough
- Engage with life in UK – volunteering, student societies …
- Develop soft skills
- Understand the job market
- Network – understand the significance of contacts at all stages of a career
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Fiona,
This makes really interesting reading. You’ve obviously worked very hard on putting this together. How wonderful to have case studies from Salford Alumni including pre-1990.
The careers advice gleaned from the case studies reinforces what we say as careers advisers. International students have language skills, independence and adaptability to new environs and cross cultural awareness in abundance.
As an international student making the most of your time at university is key. Away from your studies get involved in voluntary or paid work or other extra curricular activities such as societies or club. Keep informed by visiting your careers service.
It might be pertinent to mention at this point our careers focused workshops for international students http://www.careers.salford.ac.uk/page/internationalevents
We didn’t actually use the pre-1990 case studies for this project but it does mean we have some interesting data for other purposes. The people who graduated a long time ago had interesting points to make as many were in senior roles now.
Sorry Fiona I meant it was lovely to have responses from pre-1990 Alumni as a point of interest. Its great that people have been keen to respond to the research and gives us a great timeline in terms of career progression and the senior levels of responsibility our Alumni have achieved across the globe.