Our experience working as Career Ambassadors

Hear from our Careers Ambassadors, Anya and Vidhi, for 2022-23 on their experience working with the WBS Careers Team.

Working as a Careers Ambassador across the past academic year has been an invaluable experience as it has supported us in developing our skill set and exposed us to a range of experiences that have both academically and professionally, such as setting up career events, working with societies, spread awareness about the careers services and meet graduate employers.

How has this role supported us at university?

As we took a work placement last year, this role has helped us integrate into university life through connections with students and staff members who have supported me throughout the year. We have been able to meet students from a range of academic years through different events and support sessions. This was especially important to us as previous university years had been impacted by covid, so we were very excited to meet people in person.  
  
Interestingly, working with the careers team has also helped modules. For example, we helped host a marketing festival with Warwick Graphic Design and Marketing Society, and we connected our module learning with the speaker's speeches. Also, as Careers Ambassadors, we had to effectively communicate with various people, including students, faculty members, and employers, at events such as Student Engagement Days, Assessment Centre Clinics and Networking events. These experiences aided in developing our communication skills in terms of active listening, articulating thoughts clearly, gaining confidence in speaking to large audiences and adapting our communication style. This proved especially useful in my academic pursuits, allowing us to communicate more effectively with professors and classmates. It also helped in group work assignments when it came to presenting, answering the question-and-answer rounds and conversing with classmates throughout the group project.

How has this role helped with our future career?

This role has helped in several ways for our future careers. We have been able to explore potential areas of interest such as working in recruitment, through working as an assessor for a Mock Assessment centre. As well as this, we explored many different sectors, by helping with 'Sector Festivals' such as the Finance Fest, or even speaking to different employers at events. We even met a range of employers from major corporations to SMEs, through Employer Engagement days, employer sessions, placement year sessions and more. This helped us develop a professional network by networking with employers, alumni, and other professionals in several fields.  This helped us in gaining a better understanding of the job market and various roles, thereby making valuable connections that will aid us in our future careers. 

Another major benefit of the role is the experience you gain throughout the year, from presenting to large audiences in person, presenting on panels, video editing, reviewing engagement analytics and networking with societies and employers to host events. All of these experiences have built our confidence in a working environment and developed our skill set. Particularly, we honed our leadership abilities by taking on various responsibilities such as event planning and organisation, helping us gain confidence and develop our ability to lead others, both of which will be extremely beneficial in our future careers.

“As your WBS student career ambassadors for this academic year, we would like to say a massive thank you to the careers team and all the students we have spoken to throughout the year, as we have had an amazing experience. We have enjoyed working with the careers team on employer events, career support sessions, placement year and sector-specific events. We are very much looking forward to meeting the new careers ambassadors and wishing them all the best for the upcoming year!”

We would highly recommend this role to students returning from their work placement and year abroad, as it has been a valuable and rewarding experience, and we are grateful for the autonomy and learnings from this role.