University of Birmingham graduates from a range of subjects talk about how their time at the University of Birmingham has helped them achieve success in their chosen career.
Title: Next Steps – Careers of University of Birmingham Graduates
Duration: 3.40 mins
Speaker Names (if given):
S1 Dr Helen Parry – Medicine Graduate
S2 Andrew Murphy – General Manager, SportEx Graduate
S3 David Lindley – Business Graduate
S4 Louise Hazel – French Graduate
S5 Emily Hall – Dentistry Graduate
S1 I graduated from the University three and a half years ago and since then I’ve been rotating around various medical specialities such as infectious diseases, acute medicine, oncology, and these specialities have helped to – helped me along my career path to become a physician. I’ve just recently taken my postgraduate exams and I’m now registered with the Royal College.
S2 I’m currently General Manager of Sports Coach Linited. We put sports coaches into primary schools to deliver PE lessons.
S3 At the moment I’m working for the National Grid on their graduate scheme. It’s an eighteen month programme and involves three, six month placements, which can include anything from customer services all the way through to the operations of the business.
S4 In my current role at the University I work with the Sports Scholarships Officer and also as an administrator for the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme. In addition to this I’m also an international heptathlete and hope to compete in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
S5 I think first and foremost my practical skills are probably the thing that developed the most. Obviously to do dentistry you have to be practical and you get a lot of help with developing your practical abilities, but also my interpersonal skills. You have to learn how to talk to patients and how to empathise with people and those sorts of skills; they set you up for life really.
S2 I did a lot of volunteering at the University of Birmingham through the guilds, going into local communities, local schools and delivering coaching sessions to young children. This really led into my current role because with that coaching background and managing other coaches I really was able to step into the role that I do currently.
S1 The skills I learnt at university include communication skills, proficiency skills. which is very important in the job that I do. Often we’re under time pressures to reach deadlines. Clinical skills: Birmingham is renowned for producing excellence in clinical skills and certainly from the round the bed teaching that we achieve at medical school, I do think this has helped me in my current position. I also think I intercalated and spent time researching in a laboratory and this basic laboratory skills has helped me for my future career in academic medicine.
S3 In my third year of university I was offered the chance to do a placement year and I went to National Grid and I really enjoyed my time there and that’s how I then applied to their graduate scheme to go back.
S4 During my time at university studying French, we were lucky enough to spend a year abroad where I worked with the National Decathlon team. It not only helped me develop my language skills but also my sporting skills; so having the flexibility to manage the two was a real benefit to me.
S5 I intend in the next couple of years to get my specialist exams and to become a specialist. I really enjoyed the lecturing aspect of it; so I hope to continue to be a lecturer and I’d like to go on to become a consultant orthodontist.
S2 I’d like to carry on working for this company and maybe in the next couple of years turn over a million pounds and be in charge of doing that. The reason I feel comfortable to manage these kind of people is because of the skills that I’ve learnt throughout my time at university.
S1 In the future I want to become a consultant haematologist; so looking at blood diseases, particularly the cancerous blood disorders such as leukaemias and lymphomas. I’m hoping to combine clinical with an academic career, as I like research and would like to continue this in the future.
S4 My plans for the future are to continue working with the Sports Scholarship Scheme; also raising the profile for the University of Birmingham Sport and obviously training hard and working towards my goal of competing at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
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