The biggest change when starting university: Darsha's Story

Darsha, a third year BSc Accounting & Finance student, shares her experience of starting university and the importance of making the most of opportunities.

Before joining WBS, I studied for my International Baccalaureate (IB) in India. Coming from an IB background, I found the transition from high school to university to be quite smooth as I was equipped with the key skills of research and analysis. Additionally, I always kept myself engaged in extracurricular activities at high school where I held several managerial executive positions for various projects like film festivals and inter-school cultural events, as well as being the president and founder of a youth rotary club. This innate drive of mine to go beyond academics helped me enhance my university experience, whereby I am currently the Vice President of Warwick Women’s Careers Society and have previously been the Deputy Head of Marketing at Warwick Risk Management Society, Head of Creative Design at Warwick India Forum, and Head of Events at Warwick Women’s Careers Society.

However, the biggest change I found when coming to university was my knowledge gap in regard to understanding how to land an internship in the UK. When I joined WBS I had little commercial awareness, no clear idea about my future career, and I didn’t understand the importance of networking, nor how beneficial an internship could be in regard to my future career aspirations. I found that many students were already quite far ahead in their career planning and that they were attending networking events as soon as they joined WBS. They were also applying for spring weeks, and making LinkedIn accounts to expand their networking reach. Having little to no knowledge of the UK job market, I must admit I found this all quite overwhelming, and even though I had several portals to seek support, I didn’t know where to start. I soon learned to be more agile and independent in terms of exploring new opportunities.

I, therefore, started working on filling my information gap. I started exploring different opportunities by participating in careers specific events and competitions organised by certain societies and employers on campus and online. These included a case study and skill-based workshops, employer presentations, entrepreneurial competitions, and networking events. Through these, I gained a deeper understanding of several industries, developed essential skills such as analytical, communication, and problem-solving, and also met key personnel from industry-leading organisations, who to-date are my mentors. The CareersPlus team at WBS have also been of great help to me by guiding me throughout the application process, which included reviewing my resume and helping me prepare for video interviews.

With all this help and hard work, from being someone with no clue about the UK job market, I successfully managed to secure two summer internships (at HSBC and Citibank) in my second year, and now have a full-time graduate job offer from Citibank! To help students who are currently in the position that I was in when I started university, I am also a mentor at Leap Beyond Academy and the Warwick Indian Society.

Throughout this journey, I developed several new skills and discovered my strengths and areas for improvement, which I continue to work on. However, most importantly, I realised the variety and diversity of opportunities that the University of Warwick and WBS have to offer. I now feel that the sky's the limit; to leverage these opportunities, all one has to do is grab them and make the most of them.

Are you ready to embrace independence and start your undergraduate journey? If you would like to discover more about Warwick Business School, you can download our Undergraduate brochure.