This month we have a series of blogs from young people who are weeks away from graduating and are about to enter the world of work. In these blogs, the graduates will be discussing how university prepared them for their future careers. Our second blog in the series is from Alex Bergström, who will graduate from the University of Stirling with a degree in Marketing. Alex is about to start working for e-commerce business, Labels4Kids
Graduation is coming up and with that I can look back at four incredible years at the University of Stirling. Back in 2013, I decided to take a leap of faith by moving to Scotland from Stockholm, Sweden. In hindsight, I am so glad I took that chance as I’ve had a great experience studying in Scotland. I now have a good sense of what it is that I want to do in the future and I am about to start working full time as Marketing Manager at the e-commerce business Labels4Kids.
It all started in first year when I just like many other students was looking for a part time job. Luckily, Stirling regularly has career fairs on with lots of different companies attending. It was a great chance to find out about vacancies and career opportunities in the area. I went to one of these fairs during first year and it was there I found out about the possibility of getting a summer internship. Thanks to the Santander Internship Scheme which Stirling participates in, I was able to secure a three month paid internship with Labels4Kids in 2014.
Apart from meeting my current employer Labels4Kids at this fair, I also met marketers from Equator, the largest digital agency in Scotland. This meeting eventually turned into an internship with them, an experience which has provided me with a good understanding of how the marketing industry (and in particular, a marketing agency) works.
Needless to say, I am glad I went along to a career fair in my first year. Whenever I speak to first and second years, I am always trying to encourage them to come along to the fairs as it is such a great way of meeting potential employers.
Another aspect of my studies that I really liked was the range of guest speakers brought into the University of Stirling. Recently, high profile speakers such as John Goodwin, CFO of the Lego Group, have visited the university and delivered inspiring and thought provoking lectures. These talks are absolutely brilliant as they encourage students to develop commercial awareness and they also provided another forum for networking with large-scale companies.
As I now move into working life, I feel more than prepared to take on whatever opportunity may come up. May that be an in-house role or working in a marketing agency.
Thanks Stirling!
To read other blogs in the series: