Interview with a student who secured a Graduate role

By Muhammad Shuja

This blog is a transcript of an interview I took with a final year Engineering student, who successfully secured a graduate role. This will give you an idea of the firms you can land in if you are a student at Sheffield. This particular student did various placements to gain enough experience for his graduate job. However, not all students prefer going through the same process. Therefore, I’ll post another interview with a student who secured a full-time job but didn’t do any placements to let you explore all the options students have.

Question: Tell me about yourself. (Name, course, where you’re from etc.)Answer: My name is Shoaib Rana, I am a final year Mechanical Engineering student. I am from Oman.

Question: Where have you secured your graduate role?Answer: I have secured my graduate job at Rolls Royce. It was a company I always wanted to work for and by obtaining good grades and gaining industrial experience, I was able to secure it.

Question: Have you completed any placements during your course? If yes, where? If no, how did you compensate with the lack of industrial experience?Answer: Yes, at General Motors UK. I also completed a summer placement at Bahwan Engineering, Oman, in my first year, and another summer placement after my second year in Oman United Engineering Services. So I got a comprehensive work experience during my degree.

Question: How did the entire process of job applications, interviews, assessment centers and finally securing your position go for you?Answer: I sent many applications and had some assessment centers. I accepted the job offer from Rolls Royce as I had aimed for it at the start of the year.

Question: Where did you look for firms offering graduate roles suited to your preference?Answer: Gradcracker, Sheffield University Careers Service. I also attended the university careers fair and a careers day that had been organized by my department.

Question: What advice would you give to prospective students or students who are currently looking for graduate positions?Answer: Try to gain experience through a summer or industrial placement. These are easier to secure as they are less competitive as compared to graduate jobs. This placement experience will give them an edge over the others who apply for graduate jobs.

Question: Do I have your consent of posting a transcript of this conversation online?Answer: Yes

Thanks a lot for your time!


Click here for more information about careers: https://www.shef.ac.uk/careers

Meet our International Engineering Ambassador: Leticia Campello

Name: Leticia Campello

Course: Mechanical Engineering

Nationality: Brazilian

Background

I am Leticia Campello, first year student of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield. I am from Recife, a city in the northeast of Brazil. I have always dreamt about studying overseas and fortunately, I had the opportunity to move to Sheffield. This was the biggest decision in my life so far, as I was already studying mechanical engineering in a university in my city and I decided to “start all over again” coming to University of Sheffield. To be honest, it was scary to leave my city where I had never been more than a couple of months away, to study in a different country on the other side of the ocean. However, I felt like I was at home since the day I arrived here.

Why Engineering?

I did not know I wanted to study engineering until high school.  I do not really know what made me have this change of heart but I still remember how I felt during my maths and physics classes: excited and mind-blown. I did some research about engineering, especially mechanical engineering, and I decided this was what I wanted to do for life.

Why UoS?

I had in mind that I wanted to study in the UK but was not sure which university. I spent a couple of months doing some research about universities’ ranking and I found out that The University of Sheffield was one of the best in mechanical engineering. When I did my further research about UoS, I found out it has everything that I always wanted at a university and, I do not want to be cheesy, but I literally fell in love with the university.

Teaching and study methods at Sheffield

When I first got here, it was a shock - a good one - for me to see how different everything was from my university in Brazil. The thing I like the most at UoS is that you have a lot of support from your tutors and mentors, they are there for you to help you with anything you might need. The other aspect about UoS is how every modules are linked to each other and how important real life problems are to the modules, how the lecturers always bring real life example so that we can understand clearly about what the module is about.  

The University of Sheffield has been ranked #1 in the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey!

Written By: Alireza Parandeh

The University of Sheffield has today been named number one university in the UK for student experience in this year's Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey. What makes this award particularly special is that the vote comes not from a panel of experts from other universities, but those who know us best - University's own students.

The survey compared university against 16 different categories such as academic standards, social life, student accommodation, and many other categories that helps students make decision where to study.

For me personally, Sheffield was the best decision I made in my life as it has one of best Engineering faculties in the UK and its social and student life alongside its students union are the best in the country. After living in the city for the past 3.5 years I can confidently recommend Sheffield to be a great city to live in as a student since it is one of the safest big cities in the UK and also the greenest.
Just like the full package!

According to the Times Higher Education Website:

" Sheffield also secured joint top place out of 111 UK universities ranked in this year’s survey, which polled 14,300 students, when it came to satisfaction with facilities and accommodation."

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/times-higher-education-student-experience-survey-2014/2013333.article