Gokce Ersoy, 2nd Year International Management BSc student, is due to start her placement in Consulting at Deloitte, UK this year. Gokce tells us about her experience searching and applying for placements.
Hi everyone, I am a second-year International Management student at King’s College London. As a part of my degree, in my third year, I am given the opportunity to either study abroad as an exchange student or pursue a year-long work placement. Wanting to apply my knowledge in the real world, I decided to undertake a year-long work placement in the UK.
Starting university, I was unsure of which area I wanted to pursue a career in. During my first year, I attended a wide range of events King’s organised for students -ranging from panel events with big firms to workshops to enhance my skills. All of these helped me explore my interests, and decide where I wanted to start my career. I came to realise that I am interested in finance and consulting because I derive the satisfaction of helping companies operate more efficiently. I am also intrigued by how technology has begun shaping our world.
At the start of October 2019, I had a few main companies in mind that I wanted to apply to before I started. As mentioned previously, I was focusing on researching the roles they offered especially in the financial or consulting sector. With these companies in mind, I booked an appointment with a careers consultant at King’s, and a few days later was able to have a one-on-one meeting with them. During the meeting, I explained what my goals were, and they gave me a lot of feedback on how to improve my CV, as well as some pointers on how to write successful cover letters.
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During the year, King’s would also organise different networking events. Some events being student-based, bringing fourth-year IM students (that had already pursued their work placement) together with us, second-years. This was great because the fourth-year students were more than happy to talk about their experiences and share some tips with us. Other networking events consisted of corporate firms visiting our university and giving us advice on our applications.
I came to find applying for jobs in the UK to be very intense, as in general most firms require you to go through the process of taking online tests, video interviews, and assessment centres. Since I was applying to firms mostly based in London, I knew that the process would be very competitive, therefore, I had to make sure I was performing to the best of my abilities. With the advice and feedback, I had received from my meetings with the careers consultants, as well as attending networking evenings with students and firms, I was well equipped when going through these application processes.
By the end of December, I had received 4 offers from top firms in the UK to pursue my placement year at, which was very exciting. And finally accepted an offer from Deloitte to start this year.
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