As an economics student, you will have numerous opportunities to gain experience through internships and work placements, which will enhance your degree and give you an advantage in the graduate job market.
We want to give you the opportunity to make yourself known to recruiters and build a network of contacts. Many of our students take up summer internships at the end of the second year and 'spring weeks' or insight days in their first year. You also may have the opportunity to take an optional placement year.
Insight days and spring weeks are opportunities for first-year students to learn about a specific industry and make connections with potential employers by spending time at a company's offices. These events are often used by companies to identify potential candidates for internships the following year.
Besides participating in insight weeks, a lot of our students take advantage of summer internships during the period between their second and final year. These internships are typically paid and last for 6-12 weeks. They provide students with valuable hands-on experience, and a head start on their career while studying for their degree. Our students have recently finished participating in spring weeks and internships with reputable companies.
I've been with Microsoft for nearly 10 months now. For me the placement year provided invaluable experience. The opportunities I've been exposed to and the skills I've developed from becoming more embedded in the organisation and company culture.
So far, one of my highlights would be my work surrounding sustainability. I'm really proud of organising, hosting and presenting our Azure sustainability offerings event back in February. I spoke about the Microsoft sustainability commitments, the journey and road map and I was also the initiator of our emissions impact dashboard, our sustainable data centre tours and then the sustainability assessment services we run. Correlational data showed that sales attached to our sustainability tags did increase with the organisations who attended the sessions and over $60,000 were added to the sales pipeline in a month, which I think is pretty cool!
Networking is also so important. Historically, I've often been really embarrassed to network and sort of 'inflate' my value to people. However, my experience in such a huge organisation has shown me that, you need to elevate the skills you have and what you have done and tell people about it and let them know the kind of person you are; it's hard to be direct in that way. Lay your foundations by networking with people before you apply or even while you're applying. It's also really important to keep your cool. Focus on the quality of the application and then finally network, network, network!
Overall, the placement has been a positive experience on the whole. I thought when applying I might find something more relevant to my degree than to what I'm studying but that hasn't really been the case. I've had to work hard to bridge the gap between opportunities the placement provides and the application of my studies, but on the other hand, I was plunged into something completely new and different.
- Maliaka, economics student
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I found out about the graduate programme during an internship I had with the Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) two years ago. I was lucky enough to secure this internship through the Careers and Employability Service’s Autumn Placement Programme.
I went into the role without any expectation of working with the NCC beyond the three months I was there. My main goal was to build up my CV through gaining some work experience, something that I was really lacking at the time. Initially, I wasn’t even aware that the council had a graduate programme.
However, during my internship with the NCC, I quickly realised that I wanted a career working with the council. From the positive working culture to being given work that made me feel empowered, I knew I wanted to return to the organisation in a permanent role after my degree.
As a result, I asked my placement supervisor about graduate roles that the NCC offered, and she referred me to one of her colleagues that was involved in the council’s graduate programme. Her colleague explained what the programme entailed, and the recruitment process involved for selecting the graduates. He also mentioned how given my previous experience with the council, I would be a strong candidate for the programme. From that point on, I knew my first job application would be for the NCC’s graduate scheme.
- Karan, economics student
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