Matej Sokol
Matej Sokol
Graduated in 2017
MSc Medical Biotechnology & Business Management
First Degree: MA (hons) Business and Management
First job after graduating: Rotational programme, PAREXEL International
After I finished undergrad, I wanted to specialise in a particular industry within business and management and I looked for a course that would offer a fusion of drug development and business management. There are only few universities that offered such course and Warwick was the most rational choice considering lectures from WBS, costs and overall prestige.
The best thing was the people. Professors and lecturers were approachable whenever we needed any help. Classmates were from all around the globe. The interesting thing was that usually the whole class breaks down into groups of people from alike geographical locations. This did not happen and majority of us were actually hanging out together as a group.
I really appreciated frequent presentations of seminars, since the improved confidence in my speech and presentation skills were really useful during final stages of job interviews and assessment centres. Experiences from it group work are very useful for answering teamwork-aimed competency questions during job interviews. Aside from soft skills, I gained just a right amount of the industry knowledge to understand the actual scientists in the research and therefore add more value to what I do.
All year I was looking for a graduate scheme in a Contract Research Organisations and eventually I got the job that I wanted. I am on a rotational program at PAREXEL International in Nottingham. Right now I am on a business analyst rotation with responsibilities revolving around a software that the company develops for clinical trial management. After 1 year, I will be able to easily move across the company all around the world.
My advice to future students would be to start applying for jobs, graduate schemes and traineeships early. I began at the very beginning of my course.