Transcript

Hi my name is Day, I’m from Hong Kong. I graduated from Warwick in 2011, studying politics and international studies. I’m currently the managing director of my own company, Cafuné.

After graduation my first job is actually in a marketing and communications bespoke agency, specializes in architecture and real estate. It's a UK-based company actually with a branch in Hong Kong, and we work with architects and property developers around the world, helping them with branding, communications, marketing and PR.

During my time at university every summer I had an internship in different roles that I was interested in, for example journalism or politics. I think that really helped enhance my CV a lot because it shows that you're open to working in different environments, and also it helps narrowing down your career a bit because it gives you a perspective of what you actually like to do and what you may not prefer to be as a career choice. Other than that during university I also joined a few societies and also I was an active member of one of the big society called Warwick Hong Kong Society. It's basically a culture club for Hong Kong students in University of Warwick at the time. During my time as an active member of the society we had to organize a lot of events - sports events, drama events, musicals, variety shows - a lot of small exchanges with other universities as well, and those have really helped me to gain quite a lot of organizational skills, communication skills, time working with other people - people that you may not be familiar with - those are all very important I think in helping you shape yourself, and to build you into a better candidate for a graduate job.

After my Master's degree I have my eyes set on a career in marketing. So after I came back to Hong Kong I started immediately applying for, I guess, 30 or 40 jobs in marketing at the time. But little did I know that marketing was actually a very broad spectrum. There's a lot of different specific sections of marketing that you can apply for, and during that search I actually learned a lot about it, and in the end I landed on a role that it's more communications based rather than marketing as people might actually know. The role was definitely not what I thought I would be doing, but during the time searching for that job I learned a lot about myself also what I like to do and what I may not prefer doing - for example data analytics of marketing, more specific social media marketing - so I ended up with something that is more interesting to myself and that is communication space marketing.

My top tips for anyone trying to find a job in this environment is to be open-minded. Do more internships so that you would know what you want to do in the future. Internships really help you to learn an industry and to find out what you like doing yourself. You might think you like doing something but if you haven't done it you may not like it actually. Also make good use of Warwick’s careers resources. I know there are a few careers fairs every year and it helps connect students with big companies looking for graduates. Also I know that there are quite a few advisors or mentors that can give you advice on if you're unsure what you want to do, or if you just have any questions about career choices. Those resources are very valuable because they are just there to help you and to look out for the best for you.