Working as an International Engineering Ambassador - By Haseeb Iqbal

With the year coming to an end, I felt like it was only fair to let the world know about one of the best experiences I’ve had as a student in Sheffield, which was working as an International Engineering Ambassador. Being a person who is always on the lookout for opportunities to get involved, I was quite excited when I applied for the role and then got short-listed for an interview which finally ended up with me successfully landing the role. Ever since then, I’ve had amazing opportunities to develop a wide range of skills, meet amazing people and most importantly, get loads of free food!

Our team of International Engineering Ambassadors is a large group of current engineering students. Our aim is to work together to use various means to reach out to prospective students, and giving them a taste of Sheffield’s life as an international engineering student. As an IEA, I got involved with the film team who are responsible for making short films which are then used for marketing and promotional purposes. I got to be in charge of the video editing, and even though I was a newbie, I was offered lots and lots of support from my team, which motivated me to work harder and also gave me an opportunity to polish my teamwork skills. The IEAs are in charge of the blogs you are reading right now, we also get to help out and organize University Open Days and course presentations for prospective students. Events like these enable you to engage in conversation with new people which is an excellent way of increasing your communication skills. Apart from that, I got to experience the sense of satisfaction with every prospective student I was able to help out while working at these events. To me, it feels like I’m giving back to the University for the support I received as a prospective and a current student.

Before you get bored of all the work I’ve had to do, let me tell you the fun bits. We do quite a few socials over the year where our awesome supervisor makes sure we are treated to delicious desserts and fun games! We get the chance to meet all the ambassadors from various departments of Engineering, talk about our personal experiences and also share insights about our courses and departments. Working as an IEA has been a wonderful and gifting experience for me. It is something I proudly highlight on my CV and continue to look forward to more opportunities as I go forward in my journey as an IEA at Sheffield University.

Employer Fest: Engineering

By Muhammad Shuja

This blog is to let you know about Employer Fest, one of the many career-based events the University hosts every year for its students.

Struggling to find placements or have too many options to decide a graduate career? The answer to every question you might have regarding careers, Employer Fest – your chance to get hands on information about placements or graduate roles through a series of events from February till March. Though the University hosts an Employer Fest for each Faculty, I’ll be talking specifically about Engineering.

Regardless of whether you’ve secured a placement or have no idea what the word means (I’m pretty sure it’s something you take when you’ve got the flu), Employer Fest will help you through each stage of the process. There’s loads of workshops from the Careers Service, regarding all the options you can consider, a year-long placement if you want to get hands-on experience of the industry, a summer-placement if you don’t want a gap from studies, or perhaps a placement in a country abroad which is quite an experience in itself. Furthermore, there’s lecturers from staff working at various firms who give you an idea about the application process, to give you extremely vivid information narrowed down to specific firms. The firms are multinational firms who are leaders of their specific fields. I’m talking about Google, Apple, Accenture, PWC etc. You can have the event tailored to your requirements. For instance, international students might want to know more about immigration policies before they get searching for placements. The JobShop runs regular workshops for exactly that. For finalists, you might be more interested in graduate positions than placements. For postgraduate students, you might want to look for postgraduate placements and you can find specific event to suit your needs. For those of you who are nervous of performance issues during interviews and assessments, there’s a great load of events from both employers and from the Careers Service who will be more than happy to give you one on one advice about interviews, assessments, CVs and absolutely any worries you might have. Last but not the least, the main highlight of Employer Fest: Engineering is the Engineering Placements Networking Event. Employers from world-class firms all gathered around to ask any questions you might have – applications, interviews, the work environment, further opportunities or even how much you can earn (*ahm ahm* I sense a twinkling of the eye)! To conclude, with a whole month jam-packed with career-based events, you’ll definitely maximize your chances to get an awesome placement to earn some dolla while you do what you love!

World Week in Sheffield?!

Written by: Saylee Jangam

Last Week at the University of Sheffield there was World Week, a week organized by the International Students’ Committee to celebrate the international diversity in Sheffield. The following is my experience of the World Parade that took place to mark the beginning of World Week on 15^th November, 2014.

World Week began ceremoniously with the ever popular World Parade that happens every year starting at the Students Union. Over 150 students participated this year and gathered outside the Students Union on the chilly morning of Saturday, 15^th November. As a fresher, the World Parade, I had heard, was something not to be missed so although it was drizzling and far too foggy for my liking, I headed outside to join this celebration and I am so glad I did because I had such a great time!

Once at the SU, I picked up the Hong Kong flag as it was the first thing I spotted amongst the other flags laid onto the welcome desk of the International Languages Festival that was happening the same day (for which I volunteered to face paint – more on that later haha). And once my friends had picked out their flags, we walked outside to join the others in order to start our parade to the Winter Gardens in the city centre.

After a brief photo session, we started our walk and to my surprise, a fellow IEA was playing the ‘Dhol’ – an Indian drum-like instrument. And what does one do when the Dhol is played, you ask? Bhangra*, of course!  

Walking through the city centre as part of such a big group was definitely interesting. We had a lot of people looking our way and some even taking pictures. Once at the winter gardens, we had another photo session (there can never be too many of these!) and soon after, I came back to the SU for the Languages festival after a quick lunch in the city centre.

The International Languages festival was a two-day event over the weekend where students volunteered to teach a language as part of World Week, and other students came to learn. They had a total of about 30 different languages being taught that weekend which I found very impressive. I was volunteering to face paint in the Activities Zone of the SU so this is what I did when students came out of classes for a break or if committee members of the ISC (International Students’ Committee) wanted to get their faces painted as well. I mostly painted flags to go with the theme but at one point, was asked to paint an elephant too. 

I met so many new people during the World Parade as well as the Languages festival and honestly had a brilliant time. To make things even better, they had Masala Chai at Coffee Revolution for the entire week! Now I can proudly say that I have checked off ‘World Parade’ from my to-do list at Uni.

Have a look at the few highlights! :)

*Bhangra – an energetic form of Indian dance.