Employment on upward trend amongst BBS postgraduate students

We’re pleased to report the latest findings of the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey, carried out annually for the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). The an annual national survey, conducted on UK and EU graduates at this point only, is carried out by every higher education institution in the UK, asks leavers from higher education what they are doing six months after graduation.

The most recent survey undertaken by the Brunel Placement and Career Centre on 2013 graduates from Brunel University shows positive trends in employment outcomes for postgraduate student in Brunel Business School.

• The number of postgraduate leavers from Brunel Business School in employment has risen by 7.4%.
• The number of leavers in further study has increased 2% and the number combining work and study has decreased by 2.3%.
• The number of unemployment has decreased by 6.8%.

Outcomes overall have continued their upward trend with 88% of 2013 postgraduate leavers experiencing a positive outcome – that’s 12.9% more than in 2012.

Employability initiatives from Brunel Business School such as Brunel Business Life or Postgraduate Work Placements may be a contributing factor, as more and more postgraduate students take advantage of the professional training and networking opportunities provided by the School alongside their degree.

BBS alumnus amongst winners of best British Start-ups 100

A Brunel Business School graduate who completed his BSc Business and Management (Marketing) in 2010 has recently been recognised for his business start-up LatestFreeStuff.co.uk amongst the winners of the 100 best British business start-ups.

Deepak Tailor founded one of the UK’s leading sites offering in 2012 called LatestFreeStuff.co.uk and has not looked back since. As a Founder and Managing Director, Deepak saw his business praised in the Startups100 list published in May 2014, which reviewed UK-based, privately owned businesses started on or after 1 January 2011 that are set for big things in the future with innovative and impressive founders with global ambition. The business has also been featured in many newspapers and magazines including The Mirror, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Which.co.uk, Woman’s Own magazine and more.

LatestFreeStuff.co.uk, launched also in the USA days ago, is a website offering its 400,000+ visitors freebies, deals, and bargains– all genuine offers without trapping the consumers into spam offers designed to sell their contact details to third parties. The business grew organically with no advertising budget, drawing on Deepak’s excellent marketing skills, honed during his studies with Brunel Business School. The business growing client list included big brand names such as LOVEFiLM, Fitness First, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Nivea, Dove, Boots, Gillette, Pantene and more.

Deepak commented about the latest developments in his business:

“We recently launched our app and it’s completely unique and there’s nothing like it on the App Market. It took us over 9 months of hard work to plan, develop and launch the app using an app development team from Romania. This app is completely different to the competition who have no presence in the mobile market. I noticed the gap in the market and saw an opportunity to try something different. Hopefully my decision will pay off in the long-run.​ Plus, I think students will love the app, it should save them lots of money!”

 

Check out the LatestFreeStuff.co.uk facebook page or view Deepak’s profile on LinkedIn. You can download the app here:

• – iPhone: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/latest-free-stuff/id695115002?mt=8
• – Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.uk.latestfreestuff

Find out more about Business and Management (Marketing) BSc in Brunel Business School.

 

“I will take what I’ve learnt wherever I go” says MBA alumnus

Brunel MBA Alumnus Anoo Mehmi has recently visited Brunel Business School to tell the tale of her experience on the Brunel MBA programme and her achievements since graduating from Brunel. In this filmed interview Anoo reminisces on her fond memories from Brunel, tells of the great support she received as a mother and a professional undertaking the MBA at the same time, the activities she took part in and people she met along the way in Brunel that left a lasting impression on her.

Since completing her MBA in December 2013 Anoo secured a high profile position with Nestle UK as the Head of Digital and Brand Governance where she will be leading the digital strategy for consumer and HCP engagement for Nestle Nutrition, and she shared with us how she got headhunted for the role following the completion of her MBA via LinkedIn, a professional online platform, strongly endorsed for the use of Brunel students in their career development programme, and recommended by Anoo to students seeking to advance their careers.

Anoo said of the help she received from Brunel in helping her move up the career ladder:

“Upon updating my LinkedIn profile with my MBA qualification, I was approached by several companies and recruiters. I truly believe the MBA combined with my experience in marketing helped me to secure my new role”

Anoo is excited about her new role in Nestle and we look forward to seeing even more success in her future endeavours. You can follow Anoo on twitter and view her LinkedIn profile for details of her professional experience and education.

To find out more about Brunel MBA please visit our website.

Postgraduate placements becoming a must for Masters students

Brunel Business School is amongst the first few Business Schools in the UK to introduce postgraduate placements for students completing their Masters programmes as far back as 2011. This feature, pioneered in the UK for undergraduate students by Brunel University, is becoming more popular amongst more mature students, for whom such a placement can often serve as a springboard to often extremely competitive labour market. Postgraduate work placement employers cover all related expenses with many also providing a salary.

Two programmes are currently offering work placement for students on the postgraduate level:

• MSc in Management with Work Placement (since 2013)
• MSc in Applied Corporate Brand Management with Work Placement (since 2011)

Placements are an integral part of the courses and students receive support from the academic staff and the Placement & Careers Centre while on placement.

MSc in Applied Corporate Brand Management Work Placements

Students’ placement take place from September to January the following year and previous placements involved roles such as project manager, marketing executive, brand researcher, internal communication officer and marketing officer amongst others.

Work placements are offered to suitable candidates with companies represented in the Applied Corporate Brand Management Advisory Board amongst others:

• Heathrow Airport
• BrandPie
• Telefónica Europe
• Radley Yeldar
• Mars
• Jim Northover Limited
• Network Rail
• leapSTONE
• Right Management
• Tata Beverages
• Tetley Tea

MSc in Management Work Placements

Students will be beginning their placement starting in June 2014 through to September, with some starting their placements on a part time basis in January 2014 already.

Work placements where students will be taking up roles in e-marketing, HR, finance and client services have already been secured in the following companies:

• Grant Thornton
• Orange
• Coats plc
• MadBid
• Better Lettings

Work Placement Testimonials

“During the summer of 2012, I had the opportunity to start my work placement at the successful brand agency BrandPie. I supported one of their top account managers in his day-to-day work and took on some of my own projects and research for the agency. I’ve work on an important project to rebrand an international technology company named ARM. The process included an audit of the market, interviews, re-defining their vision and purpose along with supporting the design team in designing the company’s new visual identity. I have also been involved in creating a new brand for a charity programme inspired by a pilot project the prince of Wales started in 2011. The programme was built for young kids to interest them in STEM. Finally, my work involved research and supporting the BrandPie to prepare for pitches. Working along creative strategist like Dave Allen, Roger Partington, Terry Moore, Sally Bye, Creative director Pete Widdup and Engagement consultant Kevin Keohane was a privileged.” Mai An Tran

 

“My work placement was done with the corporate marketing team of Network Rail, the company that is in charge of the British Rail infrastructure. My role was to blend business, consultancy and academic insights, in order to create scenarios and tools for corporate brand management in a context of ongoing devolution and strategic partnerships. The placement provided me with the opportunity to apply the newly acquired knowledge in a blue chip corporate environment and to develop valuable insight about the art of engaging a business audience with the science of branding.” Manuela Irimescu

 

“I had the unique opportunity to work as an inter n for Tata Global Beverages (TGB), one of the leading companies in hot beverages. At TGB, I got to work on a part of the course, the placement at TGB has made my portfolio stronger on the basis of being a foreign work experience. This placement gave me the opportunity to work on the client’s side and get a different kind of perspective of working in the Marketing department of a global conglomerate. This has lead me to come in close contact with a lot of new areas like working with Kantar and Nielsen research data where I got to work with consumer trends and sales figures. Tetley being a heritage brand has always been at the forefront of innovation and new product development and I have learnt the importance of innovation even though tea as an everyday product. Another insight that I gained during my internship was the understanding of television as a media vehicle in the UK. This was a very crucial lesson for me since TV remains one of the most used advertising mediums. Finally, I am very proud to mention that I was given the task to organise a small tea party celebrating Tetley’s 175th anniversary in the London office. Managing and coordinating with different people has definitely taught me how to deal with people and manage their expectations. All in all, I must say that the ACBM course gave me a specialised understanding of corporate brands and the placement at TGB complimented the course very well. “ Mushfique Mannan

SAS training continues to boost career prospects of BBS students

Brunel Business School students have been undergoing rigorous training today as part of Business Life employability programme to master key SAS skills in data, business and statistical analytics in a full day SAS Enterprise workshop led by Dr Maged Ali.

Using the SAS software package students learned about using and manipulating the SAS Enterprise Guide Software, gaining an overview of Business Analytics, data manipulation, predictive modelling using decision trees and regression, clustering and segmentation, design of experiments, time series analysis and forecasting plus statistical and graphical reporting, featuring corporate case studies and hands on exercises.

Dr Ali commented:

“I have confidence that this workshop and others in the SAS training series that we plan to carry out will give them a head-start in one of the most in-demand employability skills in the market”

The workshop follows a very successful SAS Career Fair, which took place late last year in Brunel Business School, attracting over 250 students, 15 universities, and 100 jobs on offer from 10 SAS customers and partners. View the footage from the event and listen to speakers from SAS and the industry in the video below.

 

Etihad Airways invites BBS on-board for discussions on the future of aviation management

Etihad Airways is taking its growth plans to the next level with the launch of an innovative MBA graduate programme to develop home-grown leaders for the future and they recently paid us a visit to discuss a possible collaboration with Brunel Business School and Brunel MBA alumni and students.

Professor Ashley Braganza welcomed the airline’s Vice President of Talent Acquisition, Mona Walid, and Lily Pashova, Recruitment Officer, to find ways with which Brunel Business School could support Etihad’s ambitious graduate programme.

The discussions lead to preliminary interviews for over twenty alumni and current students.  Ms Walid and Ms Pashova spent the entire day at the Business School interviewing Brunel MBAs, some of them having completed the Aviation Management specialisation as part of their programme, with a view to short-listing those that met the airline’s exacting standards.  They were truly impressed by the quality and talent of Brunel MBAs.

Professor Ashley Braganza said:

“Etihad is truly an impressive organisation. Given the size and scope of its operations it behaves like a nimble start-up being able to achieve some of the highest quality service levels at an incredibly fast-paced rate.  The School is proud to work with Etihad Airways and to support in every way their new MBA graduate programme.”

 

 

PMI-accredited Project Management course is a plan for success

Over the last week, Brunel Business School successfully introduced and ran an accredited Project Management course for a range of undergraduate (level 3) and postgraduate students, as part of its on-going employability initative, Business Life.

Following a rigorous selection procedure, selected students joined the five day course which was facilitated by Dr George Diakonikolaou (Head of Core Technologies, OTE Greece). The course was highly interactive and involved students working in teams as well as individually to explore core project management principles including industry standard methodologies, tools and techniques as well as learning about and applying best practices to challenging project management scenarios.

The programme culminated in students being taken through a series of mock exam questions and model answers in preparation for taking the official Project Management Institute (PMI), “Certified Associate in Project Management” qualification. In addition to this recognised professional qualification, students will also be awarded a certificate for attending 35 hours of Advanced Project Management training. Prof. Vishanth Weerakkody, Director of the Business Life Programme in BBS notes:

“Companies and firms are always looking for business skills and talent. Being able to plan, manage and lead projects is one such vital skill that many organisations now seek ‘out-of-the-box’. Students need project management skills not only for the workplace, but also in support of their studies. I have been impressed by our students dedication, commitment, discipline and enthusiasm to gain project management skills on this course – especially more so because they attended these sessions during their vacation period. I am proud of their efforts these last few days!”

BBS PhD Student Wins Accolade in Student Employee of the Year Awards

Final year PhD student Sankar Sivarajah from Brunel Business School, supervised by Prof Zahir Irani, was recently awarded Runner Up in the “Brunel International Student Employee of the Year” category at the Brunel University “Student Employee of the Year” Awards.  He was also recognised for his contribution as part of the “Student Team of the Year” at Brunel. Congratulations!

The awards are part of the 2013 National Student Employee of the Year competition. Brunel University submitted a total of 32 nominations to the 2013 National Student Employee of the Year awards; the 5^th highest number of submissions amongst all UK Universities.

Sankar as a Senior Student Mentor for Brunel Residences was recognised for his contribution in providing excellent support service to the 4,500 or more students adjusting to university life. His responsibilities included conflict management, support and advice to new students in Brunel residences, co-ordination of welfare events as well as promoting and encouraging a sense of community amongst the students. Sankar spent two years in this role from 2011 to 2013.

Sankar works part-time as a Research Associate at Brunel Business School on a European Union funded project and is no stranger to hard work, having also been awarded the Best Overall Paper Award at the BBS Doctoral Symposium in March 2013.

Brunel MBA Career Consultant says: learn to create your own luck

Helen Slingsby, Brunel MBA Career Consultant

Helen Slingsby, the Brunel MBA Career Consultant in Brunel Business School gave us a flavour of her projects ahead for the Brunel MBA class commencing their studies in September 2013 and January 2014.

Why do we need a dedicated MBA Career Consultant?

It’s important to manage students’ career expectations and help them by providing the tools needed to sell themselves in the current job market.

What is your role as a Career Consultant?

My role is to help students understand how to tell their own story to employers and potential business partners. If they don’t know who they are, what makes them thrive, where do they want to be, then how can they convince others at, let’s say, a networking event or at an interview for that all important job. I want to help students discover what the MBA can do for them in the UK but also in more buoyant job markets abroad.  They need to learn how to create their own luck from the word go.

How will you approach this task in practical terms?

It’s important for me to be very proactive and engaged with students from the very beginning – the first 6 weeks will be very busy! I am not a one to take the soft approach. And I have high expectations of the students too! I want them to engage, the more they put into it, the harder they work on this with me the better their return will be. In practical terms this translates into intensive 1-2-1 sessions with the students, where we can really get to the bottom of their individual situations and aspirations. I will also challenge them through group work in our workshops and provide a very convenient career coaching through a series of regular webinars.

The most exciting, if a little controversial task, will be to get our MBA students to realise how and why they are different and better than their class mates! Then it’s all about working out the action plan.

What is your advice for MBA applicants?

Be prepared to invest a lot of effort into your professional development. You’ve made the decision to take up an MBA and now make the most of it. Think about your next career step from the day you start your classes; do not leave it to the final term.

To learn more about Brunel MBA programme starting in September and January please visit the Brunel MBA website.

5 job interviews with LinkedIn? Here’s a student story to show you how.

We interviewed Abdul-Basit Mohammed, a Brunel Business School student completing his BSc (Hons) International Business degree on his success on LinkedIn. Abdul is currently employed with British Sky Broadcasting Ltd and shares his experience of using LinkedIn as a student to encourage others to follow suit and reap the rewards.

So get to it, set up your profile and connect with Adbul-Basit today!

Why did you first create a LinkedIn profile?

I have always tried to be up to date with social media platforms and while on placement the social media manager advised me to be active on LinkedIn.

How difficult was it for you to complete the details?

It took time getting used to it because unlike social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, it is more professional but like the other social media platforms once you get the hang of it, you get addicted.

Did you get any guidance or training on using it?

No, I worked things out on my own. I made time for going on LinkedIn, having a look at what others who are similar to me are doing and incorporating different ideas.

How did you go about connecting with people?

I first added my friends and anytime I went to events and spoke at events to someone that I felt will be a good contact, I asked them if I can add them to my network. After a while I started getting request from other people on LinkedIn.

Were you approached with any offers?

Since joining LinkedIn, I have been contacted about job offers and had 5 interviews so far. I got my current part-time job through LinkedIn while at Brunel University.

How did you secure your job opportunities?

I made sure the people and groups I follow are within the industries I am hoping to get employed in. I also follow recruitment agents, agencies and keep in touch with them. The most important thing of all is my profile; with LinkedIn your profile, network of connections, the companies you follow, groups you follow and comments/posts all serves as a CV. You can now apply for jobs on some company websites with your LinkedIn account and it’s even easy to apply for jobs within LinkedIn.

What opportunities did you get from LinkedIn?

I got to meet people I would have never had the opportunity to meet and get invited to events I wouldn’t have had the chance to go to. You get an insight into certain industries too, through the groups you follow. I have a good example. I have always had an interest in CSR, Ethics and Sustainability but it is a very difficult sector to get into. After working at Sky for a while I realised they are involved in this and created a whole department “The Bigger Picture”, so I added a few executives on LinkedIn and sent an email at work and asked them to have lunch with me. As a result I had lunch with the former head of the department who put me in contact with the current head and we will be meeting soon, to see how I can gain a voluntary experience.

What advice would you give to other students who want to set up a profile on LinkedIn?

As students we all know networking is very important for students and graduates, so why not have all your contacts in one platform. I advise students to join LinkedIn and start by adding fellow students and try to be active users. I will sometimes come across certain opportunities not suited for me so I will think of a former classmate or colleague and send it to them.

What advice would you give other students who are currently looking for a job on LinkedIn?

I know a lot of students and graduates say there aren’t any jobs out there but this is not true.  There are jobs out there, but as a student or graduate you might not have the necessary skills and experience for a lot of the roles. LinkedIn is a platform that supports students and graduates because it promotes a lot of Graduate schemes, entry level jobs and placements. There is a whole section dedicated to students. The best thing about LinkedIn is that although paying members have a lot of benefits, you don’t have to pay to reap all the benefits and opportunities.

Have you seen any benefits from joining Groups on LinkedIn?

Yes, joining Groups on LinkedIn has a lot of advantages. Apart from the jobs tab, you have the discussions tab for interacting, members tab to see what professions other members are in and you can add them to your network and the promotion tab to see what opportunities are being promoted and for you to promote yourself. You can ask so many questions within groups and get a lot of help from group members.

Is completing a profile on LinkedIn enough? What other things should students be doing?

Completing a profile is very important because people and employers can overlook an incomplete profile. you see the difference when your profile is complete because employers start contacting you. Having said this, that is not enough. Being successful on LinkedIn involves a multitude of activities. You need to be active, get involved in discussions, post your interests and questions, promote yourself and keep up to date with the articles, journals and posts others put up that might interest you. If your other social media platforms have professional profiles you can connect them to your linked in account to expand your reach to employers.

We wish Abdul all the best in his future endeavours, especially as he becomes a dad soon!

Source: careerenlightenment.com