… by Katrina / from Northumberland / BSc Mathematics and Statistics / 3rd Year (UG)
After starting university, the once scary question of “what are you going to study at university and where are you going to study?” quickly becomes the even scarier question “so what are your plans after university?”. For many, including myself, starting university I didn’t exactly know what I wanted to do but what I did know was that studying maths gave so many opportunities upon graduating, which in fact can sometimes make it harder to choose! This is why I started to look for opportunities to explore and try different fields so I could start to rule things out!
I am going to go through a few of the different ways the University of Edinburgh helped me go from a confused 1st year, to a 2nd year with a spring week at JP Morgan, to a 3rd year with a place as a technology summer analyst at Morgan Stanley.
Employability Tuesdays
This is really where it all started for me. The university (and maths department in particular) send out frequent emails for an event called ‘Employability Tuesdays’, this is where there is a talk each week on something to do with future employment. This can be about PhDs, CV skills, or talks from companies such as Lloyds Banking Group, Deloitte, and Public Health Scotland, just to name a few. I found these so helpful as I began to really understand the vast array of opportunities out there and was in fact where I first heard about jobs in technology as a maths student.
Careers Service
For me, I mainly used the careers service when it came to interview and assessment centre preparation. They gave me lots of useful tips and tricks as well as signposting me to online resources to help further. They also offered mock interviews which was especially good as this was the first time I had done a professional interview!
However, if you still have no idea what you want to do, or just want some guidance the careers service also offers this. You can book appointments to speak to someone, and there is even a Maths specific careers advisor who is super knowledgeable!
Four-Year Degrees
Finally, one of the most useful things I have found is the four-year degree that Edinburgh offers. Although it is an indirect consequence, a four-year degree gives you longer to decide your options as well as gives you a wider range of course choices in your first two years. I chose two different data science courses in my first two years, something I wouldn’t have previously considered, and this lead to me learning wider skills which have been so beneficial when applying to technology positions in particular. Alongside this I took a financial economics module which has also proved of great importance in interviews as I had more knowledge in the area than others only studying maths courses!
As well as the wide array of course choices, the four-year degree has allowed me more time to decide what I want to do and subsequently meant I could apply for more opportunities. At the beginning of my 2nd year, I decided technology was something I was really keen on and applied to spring weeks for Easter of my 2nd year. This is something I would’ve had to apply to at the beginning of my 1st year if I was just studying on a three-year course. This led me to securing a spring week in technology at JP Morgan giving me an insight into this field and ultimately the reason I have chosen to pursue this career path.
Summary
In conclusion, I really wanted to highlight the vast opportunities The University of Edinburgh gives which are so useful in securing experience. I have only touched upon the things the University offers, they also offer careers fairs, employability skills within modules, as well as a careers website with so many opportunities listed, and so much more!