Preparation and opportunities for my career

Greta has found many opportunities to develop and enhance her employability. Experience gained through her course, from extra-curricular activities and through work experience has supported her career planning.

Written by Ka Ying (Greta) Ng

Lancaster careers service

I think the career services at Lancaster is really helpful and nice. The Careers team supported me with CV and cover letter checking, assessment centre practise, and offered mock interviews with real-life employers. They helped me to get familiar with different application stages and become less nervous while I am applying for a part-time or graduate job.

I have also attended Lancaster career fairs before and I found them to be quite impressive. They were a great opportunity for me to meet different employers.

Work experience and industry connections

Lancaster provides a diverse range of part-time job opportunities, which I could apply to according to my interests and career plans.

I have had three part-time work experience opportunities, which include administrative work, academic representation and career ambassador work. Also, there were projects in class that involved interaction with start-ups and local markets. In addition to these, I have recently attended a ‘Meet the Employer’ event.

Employability built into my studies

In my first year, there was a module that introduced me to the consultancy industry. Having deeper insight into this field, I have decided to be a consultant in the future with a focus on project management and problem-solving.

Then in my second year, there was a consulting specific module that involved working on a real-life client project, which taught me the hard and soft skills of being a consultant and understanding situations in a professional manner. As a result, my course provided me with a problem-solving framework and opportunities to explore.

Through working with my department, I have an understanding of working in a professional organisation and am more confident when communicating with people from different backgrounds with a range of perspectives.

Opportunities outside of my course

I have joined several student societies, one being the business negotiation team. It provides a lot of project competitions and I have opportunities to try different positions, such as being a project manager and a shareholder representative. This gave me the chance to analyse a case through different perspectives and learn about the different interests between stakeholders. The experience trained my business sense and I can now think wider when facing a problematic situation.

Another society I’m part of is Edible Campus. I learnt about leadership and the idea of sustainability while being the enterprise manager of the society. I was able to join a project and communicate with different parties such as the Students’ Union, Lancaster University, the local council, and many others and become more active and open to discussion. Moreover, I learned to have a mindset focussed on business and profit, but also one that considered the community and environment before making any business decision.

Plans for the future

I am applying for graduate jobs and internships at the moment. And of course, I will be attending webinars held by my target companies. To raise my employability, I am currently enrolled in a Python module and plan to gain an ACCA certificate in the next two years. Moreover, I want to explore learning new languages such as Korean, Japanese or maybe French based on personal interest or business need.

Visit our Careers pages to find out more about our employability and career preparation support.