It can be a struggle to stay motivated while job hunting as a graduate. Taking part in the Kick Start programme helped to up my game when it came to landing a graduate role.
After university I felt like there were a few different avenues I could go down career wise. I had studied Biomedical Science and was pretty set on going into clinical trials, but I just wasn’t sure how to get there.
My first year after graduation started to drag as I applied for more and more graduate roles and was rejected from all of them. I felt like I was on a constant treadmill of rejections and disappointment. Fortunately, I still had the job I secured while at university but this meant I was working every day and struggling to find the time to job hunt. I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere, losing both hope and motivation.
In the spring of 2019, I was contacted by the PDC and told about the Kick Start programme in which I would be given a careers coach to help me in whatever I wanted to do, whether it was postgraduate study or applying for jobs. I was told that it would run for 3 months, and I jumped at the chance for this opportunity! I really liked the fact that Brunel didn’t abandon you as soon as you graduated and were offering extra support at one of the times I needed it most.
The sessions with my coach over the weeks were very helpful. We worked on whatever I wanted to focus on, whether it be CV writing one week, applying for jobs the next or working on my interview technique. I went through a couple of mock interviews and these were extremely helpful. By this time, I had built up a really good rapport with my coach who gave me constructive criticism so that I could work on my weak points and do it better when it came to the real thing.
The final outcome after all of this was a job! I managed to secure a role working for one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, all with the help of the Kick Start programme. So far, it’s going great. I’ve been doing a month’s worth of training and will soon be working on some clinical trials. I actually work in the same office as the research and development director and the Vice-President!
Current skills I’m developing include organisation (I have to be really good at juggling meetings and conference calls and trial deadlines) as well as networking – sharing an office with such important people means that you get to learn a bit about the industry as a whole and what IS involved in specific roles. I see myself working my way up to Local Trial Manager. Many graduates start in my position as a Clinical Trials Assistant, working up to a Site Manager and then to a Local Trial Manager and even up to Directors and Clinical Research Managers, so hopefully I will end up there with my own office with my name on the wall too!
All our graduates have access to careers support for up to three years after leaving the University. We launched our new Kick Start programme in Spring 2019, especially for recent grads in need of some extra support on their career journey.