Tell us a bit about your career story and how you gained your first graduate role.

After completing my degree at Warwick, I went on to undertake a Masters degree in Economics at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. I wanted greatly to stay in Spain, and especially Barcelona but I also wanted to work as a macroeconomist, and there aren’t many of those opportunities here! I’d known about FocusEconomics for a long time. I had three interviews and all went well, and I was offered the position shortly after!

What did you do to enhance your CV and gain experience during your studies?

I did an internship at the Institute for Economic Affairs, a London-based think tank, in the summer after my first year. Then, after my Erasmus year (my third year), I worked as a research assistant at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany.

I also spent two summers in Spain, improving my language skills – 4 weeks in Salamanca (I only had an A1 level back then) in 2017, then 2 weeks in Santiago de Compostela and 2 months in Seville in 2018. I then did an Erasmus year in Barcelona.

How did you find your first graduate level role and how many jobs did you apply for before you received your first offer?

A friend of mine who was also a Warwick graduate already worked at FocusEconomics and mentioned there was a research assistant role that had become available. I was told I was overqualified after an interview with the organisation, but was offered an interview for the economist position, which had just come up.

I had applied for a number of roles before I received my first offer. As well as applying for my role at FocusEconomics, I also applied for positions in Banc Sabadell and CaixaBank (both in Barcelona), working as a research assistant. I had interviews for all of them.

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

Do some work experience in the summer — it helps a LOT to have had some experience to talk about in interviews for graduate roles. Moreover, the experiences themselves, if you choose well, are fun and fulfilling. I loved going into Westminster to work and get an insight into the UK policy scene when I did an internship at the Institute for Economic Affairs, and also loved living in Germany for 3 months when I worked as a research assistant at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany.

Be proactive, start thinking early about what kinds of things you want to do with your career, and start searching early. Look for jobs and internships using lots of different resources — I got my internship at Kiel by applying directly on the website. I knew I wanted to do some research experience abroad and I came across Kiel whilst searching for think tanks in Germany.