Hello everyone my name's Xilin. I graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2017 with a BEng Civil Engineering with one-year industrial year placement.
I had a really enjoyable student life in the University of Birmingham because I did a four year program as a BEng student. A lot of people ask me why it’s a four-year course – it’s because I take one year out as a placement student.
I was working for Peter Brett Associates in the Highway Team and during that year it was brilliant, fantastic, because this kind of like whole experience to help me to narrow down which kind of sector I would like to go for in the future. It's kind of like funny story behind that, initially I would like to say I would like to go for structural engineering and I was really keen at beginning, but in the end I found out that I literally just fell in love with highway engineering because of this lovely experience.
If you ask me what my favourite - some of my favourite – modules are, I think the answer is: I can't tell you because I literally just loved all of this. Because why I chose Birmingham is because I love the modules so much!
I would like to highlight such as construction management because we're going for the surveying that will provide the opportunity to go in for site investigation and also for group projects - that's one of my favourites. It's like you get the chance to talk to people and see different people from different backgrounds and have a brainstorm that I enjoy so much, as working as part of group. And also to enhance my ability to working in the future as a civil engineer, it’s kind of a key skill.
All international students if you have a chance to come to Birmingham, just come! The University Birmingham is the best decision I never made before.
A lot of students think study is always a priority, but to be honest with you your personal life is another important thing. Obtaining experience is more important than results because focus on experience rather than the result is another important thing when you are a student. Don't worry too much for the results, once you work hard and you do a lot of practice work your result will be absolutely fantastic. But not stick with the result in the end, that's not always the right thing to do as a student - trust me!
The final thing I would like to say [is] when you are a student, do as much as you can do and try as much as you can try. Trust me, the University of Birmingham has plenty of societies, sports and also a lot of great modules you could choose, such as the Personal Skills Award modules and Careers Network support, and also like Summer Skills Program.
You can find out plenty of opportunities to obtain the information you need it in the end once you graduate. We have found out if you achieve all these kind of things you don't need to worry about too much in the future because your future is just in your hands.
Return to Graduate Stories