Listen to our podcast series to hear current undergraduate and postgraduate students share their experiences of studying at Bath.

Episode 3: Employability at Bath

Martin: Welcome to this episode of the Place for Possible podcast. Today, our undergraduate and postgraduate students will be talking about their personal experiences of Bath with you. I'm Martin Gore, Head of Employability for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and today's episode is all about employability. At Bath, we believe it's not just our job to educate students. We aim to ensure our graduates are well prepared for today's competitive global workplace.

We offer a number of initiatives to help our students develop the prior knowledge and skills that employers are seeking, including placements, internships, study exchanges, consultancy projects and career support from day one and beyond graduation.

Today's guests, Aline, Toey, and Steven, are going to talk about their undergraduate placement, postgraduate internship, and the career support here at Bath. So, would you like to introduce yourselves, starting with Aline.

Aline: Of course. I'm Aline. I'm an undergraduate student studying International Development with Economics. I'm originally from the UK, being born and raised here in the South East. At the age of 15, I moved to Portugal and then moved back to the UK in 2021 to start at Bath.

Martin: Thank you. Toey, how about you?

Toey: Hi, I'm Toey. I'm from Bangkok, Thailand. I studied a master's degree in Finance with Banking at the University of Bath, and now I'm in the internship scheme with Altus Consulting, part of Accenture.

Martin: And Steven.

Steven: Hello, everyone. My name is Steven, and I've recently graduated from the University of Bath, studying my master's in Automotive Technology.

Martin: Thank you. Can you each tell me about whether the University of Bath's reputation for employability and graduate outcomes was a reason for you choosing it? Aline, do you want to take the lead?

Aline: It was definitely something I looked at when deciding which university I wanted to attend in the UK. Bath's reputation for employability, once you graduated, was particularly impressive, and definitely something that drove me to come to this university.

Martin: How about you, Toey?

Toey: For me, it's the same as Aline. I was more focused on the careers support for postgrad students. I found out that the University of Bath has a great careers support team for postgrad students, so that's why I chose to study here.

Martin: And you, Steven?

Steven: Yeah, same as you two. I chose Bath for its reputation, for my chosen course in engineering, and also for its links with industry, so it would prepare me for once I did graduate.

Martin: Thank you.

Martin: Toey, please, can you tell me a bit more about how you came to secure your internship with Altus Consulting, part of Accenture, and what support you had from the School of Management team?

Toey: My internship opportunity came about through an exclusive list from the School of Management, and the company came up to campus to give us a talk including an overview of the business, and also shared the job description for this internship role as well.

Martin: Great. And, I believe you also did a consultancy project as part of your year, and completed a Hackathon challenge, as well as working as a consultant for 180 Degree Consulting - the student-led consultancy firm. How valuable were those experiences?

Toey: Those experiences gave me a really great opportunity to get more hands-on in business and use the knowledge I learnt from my studies at the University of Bath.

Martin: Great. Aline, tell me about your placement at L'Oreal and the process for securing it. How much support did you get from your placements team with things like applications?

Aline: For me, I think all throughout second year, I felt really, really supported by the placements team. We had almost weekly lectures that were helping us with CV writing and cover letter writing. I also made the most of the support from the one-to-one sessions for particular cover letter help, and I found it really helpful to kickstart my career. Also, the online platform where they listed everything that we were eligible to apply for, I found really helpful, and I ended up securing a place at L'Oreal for their commercial internship, for which I completed the whole application process online.

Martin: Thank you. And Steven, I believe you graduated last year. Congratulations.

Steven: Thank you.

Martin: Can you tell us a bit more about the careers support you've received post graduation?

Steven: Absolutely. I do want to say that during my studies, I was fully supported, for what I wanted to do after I graduated and that support has continued through post graduating, especially when I'm applying for positions, and for any support or guidance towards any roles that I want to look into. We have a dedicated employability team for my master's course, and they helped me with my CV, cover letters, interviewing, and also any tests as part of the application process that I could face and that did carry on for a good amount of time after I finished my studies. They have really supported me during my applications, even after I graduated, so I am very happy with all the support I've received.

Martin: Also, as a postgraduate, how has the University and your faculty helped you develop your experience in the workplace via things like the curriculum?

Steven: Yes, again this is one of the reasons why I chose Bath. The course that I studied, while it didn't have a placement, it's very geared towards industry. We had modules dedicated for once we graduate. We can take what we've learned from the course and apply it to our roles. For example, we had people from industry coming in giving us talks, so in my case, it would be engineering. They gave us talks about how they worked in the automotive industry, and we had specific careers fairs for our course and our departments. On top of which, our final dissertation, while not a placement, it was sponsored by an industrial partner whom we were able to visit and also work closely with during our dissertation. I believe all of those things really helped me prepare myself once I graduated.

Martin: Thank you, Steven. One thing that's interesting about a lot of the postgraduate programmes here at the University of Bath is the different options that are available - some will have a dissertation, some will have the option of a consultancy project or Practice Track, some will have the option of an internship.

Which leads me to my next question, which is for you, Toey. I believe that the internship at the end of your master's programme is something that's quite unique. Can you tell me about your internship experience and the journey you've been on since you started?

Toey: Yes, of course. My internship at Altus Consulting, part of Accenture, has been incredible for me. It gave me a really great exposure to consulting and the financial services industry. It is a stepping stone for me into the whole world of business. I'm working on client assignments and projects, and that gives me a lot of opportunities to develop my skills, and also my communication skills and relationships with clients.

Martin: Thank you. Aline, how would you describe the impact that your placement at L'Oreal had on you?

Aline: It's definitely impacted me. I can safely say coming back to uni, I feel like I've gained a much wider skill set, and also developed a lot of the skills I previously had. Similar to Toey, my internship was very much client facing and a lot of client exposure, so I got to work with a lot of different stakeholders, and that's definitely hugely developed my teamwork which is something that my course focuses a lot on during final year. Also, a lot of group projects which have been really important. Definitely a lot of soft skills that I can bring into my future career.

Martin: Yeah, it's great to hear about all the skills that you've developed because of your experience in the workplace. I remember with your placement that it was very client facing, as well as doing a number of process improvement projects. Those are all things that appeal to employers, aren't they?

Aline: Definitely. I felt very comfortable at L'Oreal, and I was given a lot of responsibility, and I was able to identify gaps in my team where processes maybe weren't so efficient, or we were missing sales in certain aspects of the company, or at certain times of the year. I felt comfortable to take those decisions to develop new tools, or propose new processes to my team.

Martin: That's great. How about you, Toey? What skills do you feel you've developed because of your internship?

Toey: Yes. For me, I have developed hard skills, especially data analytics skills through my clients' assignments and gained confidence and communication skills, which are soft skills as well. Those skills have helped me understand how the consulting industry is reliant on networking and client relationship building skills.

Martin: Excellent. Aline, how did your attitude and views on the workplace change as a result of your experiences with your placements or internship?

Aline: I think what's really special about the placement year at Bath is for a lot of people, I can speak for my peers and my colleagues especially, while I was at L'Oreal, it was our first proper corporate experience so I think it was an opportunity where our views on the workplace were initially formed, and maybe, for some of us changed. I think for myself, it was my first proper corporate experience. Honestly, it was just such a great environment to network day-to-day, even though it was a hybrid role, I really made the most of coming into the office to meet as many people as I could. It's a really open environment where ideas and different perspectives are constantly being thrown around and where really interesting ways of working come together.

Martin: Toey, do you feel the same as Aline? Do you feel that your attitudes in the workplace have changed as a result of your internship?

Toey: Actually similar to Aline. I think for me, it would be more about stepping out of my comfort zone, taking initiative, trying to get as much exposure as possible, and finding every opportunity that you have in the workplace.

Martin: Great. Steven, has your master's course and its focus on employability helped you decide what you want to do next?

Steven: Definitely. Even though going into the course, I knew what my passions and interests were and for me, it's in automotive design. My time with my lecturers and also the employability team, have reinforced those interests, so I now know what I want to do and I really want to get into research. I've secured a place to do an engineering doctorate, which I'm very, very happy about. My Director of Studies and also the employability team here at Bath have supported me to achieve that goal.

Martin: Toey, Aline, what are your plans for the future?

Toey: For me, I think it's still going to be the consulting industry because of this internship. I love learning about things in a different industry and getting to learn about new things and new information through the client projects.

Aline: For me, for now, I'm just really focused and excited about finishing my degree and focusing on my dissertation. Then hopefully once I finish, because of the great experience I had at L'Oreal in the FMCG industry, I'd really like to return to that sort of industry. It's a really dynamic place. Every day is different and it's a very fast-paced environment, which I really enjoyed.

Martin: Well, thank you all for sharing your experiences with me. We hope you enjoyed hearing about how Bath prepares its students so they're work ready essentially through a combination of the curriculum, workplace opportunities, skills development, and ongoing career support.

If you'd like to find out more about the support available for developing your employability, we recommend you search for placements or careers on the University website, or look at the course pages for your chosen subject.

We look forward to welcoming you to the next episode. In the meantime, good luck with your studies.