When I prepared for studying abroad, I could always see one suggestion from the previous students having the same experience – remember to make full use of the career services at your University. But I felt a little confused about such statement until I really got in touch with the staff from the career centre at the University of Birmingham when I tried to find an internship in winter 2018. Apart from career advice, I found that there was also many other types of student support, especially for international students to help them have a better experience here. There are a lot of official advertisements about various forms of help you could get from school, but I am going to share what I have got from my own experience.
The support from Careers Network
You can see the posters from the Careers Network every time you enter the teaching building. Friendly staff also come to introduce what kind of help you could get from them. There is a special webpage for Careers Network you could easily find on your canvas (a website where you get all the course material and submit your assignments, which you will check regularly during your time at the university).
I remember that just a few weeks after the beginning of the first semester, job fairs for the different subjects such as Engineering, Science and Technology Fair, Low Fair, Business, Finance, and Consultancy Fair and etc. were held from time to time. There were also various workshops that helped you prepare for the career or further study happening nearly every week from letting you know your personality type to teach you how to prepare for video interviews. I attended one fair for STEM students and got a rough idea about what companies I could join in the future. I also booked an appointment with Careers Network which helped with my CV. The tutorial of how to write your CV from the Careers Network pages on canvas were quite useful for me because the style of CV in the UK is a little different from that of my home country of China. It made my CV look more suitable when I applied for a UK company. The experienced staff from the career centre helped with my CV and gave me some advice about finding an internship in the UK. Although in that winter I did not manage to get an offer of the internship, the preparation I did gave me an opportunity to get know the application procedure and get more information about positions related to STEM subjects. This made me start thinking about what I could do in the future and what corresponding skills and knowledge I needed for my future career.
The academic English support
The language support is from Birmingham International Academy. You will find lots of help on offer to improve your academic English, such as one-to-one appointments for your essay or report, regular lunchtime English lectures every day and workshop for academic writing. You could even get the chance to learn a second language here just like me – I am taking a free language course to learn French every week.
The care from the College of EPS
As an international student studying in another country, I could feel the friendly and warm effort from many aspects at this university. The latest one is on the day before the beginning of the Christmas holiday, I received one email from the student experience officer at my college. It included lots of information for what was happening around campus and in the Birmingham city over the Christmas period and some tips for looking after our mental health for whom still stayed in Birmingham in case of feeling lonely when away from family and friends. It made me feel that the University was very considerate and concerned for its students.
The support from the Guild of Students
The Guild of Students runs a scheme called ‘Global Buddies’ to support international students to settle into life at the University of Birmingham. There are a lot of volunteer ‘buddies’ who can offer informal peer-to-peer support. Regular social events and activities such as the Global Café are held on a regular basis where you can have plenty of opportunities to network with other students. I knew a lot of other students from different disciplines and countries on Global Café. It was very an interesting and rare opportunity to learn from, and meet people from different cultures and lifestyles as well as exchange ideas.
There is plenty of support for students that you could find if you look into the university website or just look through the poster/flyers at the corner in your college building. A lot of support and resources are provided for your life and study at the University of Birmingham. You could even ring the Nightline run by students when you have been feeling a bit down and don’t know who you could talk with at night. They will just listen to you and won’t judge anything. When you study here at the University of Birmingham, I assure you that you will feel at ease. You don’t need to worry – any problem you have there will always be someone to turn to for help.
