Tell us about your career story since graduating from Warwick

I began working as a Software Developer in an insurance software agency named Acturis immediately after graduation. I was lucky enough to have the Graduate Route Visa available for me and it was what I used to work for a few months.

When I was looking for graduate jobs, I also emailed a recruiter I kept in contact with from a failed internship application. She mentioned that graduate roles for the company had opened up and I was encouraged to apply. This led me to move to my current company, Bloomberg.

I joined Bloomberg L.P. in February 2022 and was able to switch to a skilled worker visa. I worked within the news automation team for a few months before switching to the Developer Repository Collaboration team a few weeks ago.

How has your time at Warwick helped you during your career?

Firstly, my degree was massively helpful. The things I learned and projects I did have helped a lot in preparing me for working out in the real world.

I also was able to get a lot of support from my personal tutor and the careers team at Warwick. They were very helpful in helping me with my CV as well as preparing for interviews.

Finally, my time and experience as an exec at the Warwick Esports Society were also very helpful when interviewing. I was super fortunate to be working with a society that was growing very quickly and was very successful. My role was technical secretary, which was very relevant to the jobs I applied for.

What ambitions do you have for the future?

Currently, I am eager to become much more competent as a Software Engineer. From my position as a junior, you can see that there is so much to learn and do. Getting my PR in the UK and becoming more financially stable are also personal goals of mine. In the very long term, I would love to build software that will be used by everyone around the world. Making a worldwide impact would be an absolute dream.

What advice do you have for Warwick graduates who would like to work in your sector?

Reach out to Alumni within companies you’d like to work with, LinkedIn is a great resource for that. When I was first interviewing with companies I would always try to connect with Alumni and speak to them about the company they are working with. It helped me a lot to decide if it was the sort of company I wanted to work in.

Another very important tip is to not be afraid to be yourself and to show your personality when interviewing. A lot of engineers tend to shoot themselves in the foot by not connecting with the interviewer socially. They are looking for people that they are going to be spending around 8 hours a day with so try to be energetic and nice to the interviewer.

Try to get involved with societies or do individual projects over the summer if you have time. I would highly encourage societies because it helps you learn to work in a group setting, but especially when applying for jobs having experience outside of university looks very good on your cv.

What 3 top tips would you give to students looking to find a graduate role in the UK or elsewhere in the world?

Applying for jobs is a long process. You need to make a CV, refine it, get good at interviews and most of all have a little luck. You can get lucky and instantly get a job, but give yourself some time and start looking early. This also means to keep working at it. As long as you are learning something from failed job applications, it is still a success. Be sure to always ask for feedback!

Secondly try to keep contacts in a company you like, even if you don’t get the job. You never know when that might help you in the future. I landed my current role by interviewing my recruiter from a failed internship application.

Finally, avoid mass applying with the same CV/cover letter. You will find that you won't have many responses because you are being so general. Especially when you are applying abroad, the same cv you use in the UK might not work abroad as they are expecting a different format. A good exercise would be to structure your cv based on the job description, where you go line by line making sure that your cv is structured to show you have what they are looking for. I would also recommend having someone else look at your cv. This could even be the careers team/personal tutor.