As an economics student, you will have numerous opportunities to gain experience through internships and work placements, which will enhance your degree and give you an advantage in the graduate job market.
We want to give you the opportunity to make yourself known to recruiters and build a network of contacts. Many of our students take up summer internships at the end of the second year and 'spring weeks' or insight days in their first year. You also may have the opportunity to take an optional placement year.
Insight days and spring weeks are opportunities for first-year students to learn about a specific industry and make connections with potential employers by spending time at a company's offices. These events are often used by companies to identify potential candidates for internships the following year.
Besides participating in insight weeks, a lot of our students take advantage of summer internships during the period between their second and final year. These internships are typically paid and last for 6-12 weeks. They provide students with valuable hands-on experience, and a head start on their career while studying for their degree. Our students have recently finished participating in spring weeks and internships with reputable companies.
I've been with Microsoft for nearly 10 months now. For me the placement year provided invaluable experience. The opportunities I've been exposed to and the skills I've developed from becoming more embedded in the organisation and company culture.
So far, one of my highlights would be my work surrounding sustainability. I'm really proud of organising, hosting and presenting our Azure sustainability offerings event back in February. I spoke about the Microsoft sustainability commitments, the journey and road map and I was also the initiator of our emissions impact dashboard, our sustainable data centre tours and then the sustainability assessment services we run. Correlational data showed that sales attached to our sustainability tags did increase with the organisations who attended the sessions and over $60,000 were added to the sales pipeline in a month, which I think is pretty cool!
Networking is also so important. Historically, I've often been really embarrassed to network and sort of 'inflate' my value to people. However, my experience in such a huge organisation has shown me that, you need to elevate the skills you have and what you have done and tell people about it and let them know the kind of person you are; it's hard to be direct in that way. Lay your foundations by networking with people before you apply or even while you're applying. It's also really important to keep your cool. Focus on the quality of the application and then finally network, network, network!
Overall, the placement has been a positive experience on the whole. I thought when applying I might find something more relevant to my degree than to what I'm studying but that hasn't really been the case. I've had to work hard to bridge the gap between opportunities the placement provides and the application of my studies, but on the other hand, I was plunged into something completely new and different.
- Maliaka, economics student
Image of Maliaka
I did a a term-time placement working with the University of Nottingham’s Market Research and Insight team. My job involved analysing quantitative and qualitative data to identify trends and produce clear and concise insights that could help the university market itself effectively to students both nationally and internationally.
There was a lot of work in excel, involving data cleaning and data visualisation (making graphs and tables to show the main findings from the data). I analysed surveys, conducted competitor analysis and examined international intake data to identify top source markets and demand patterns across faculties.
During the placement, the Market Research and Insight team provided a massive amount of support – they were always available if I had any questions or queries, and were incredibly kind and supportive throughout the placement. I really felt like a part of the team, and it was interesting to see some of the more advanced projects that some of the members in the team were working on.
This placement has helped me realise how much I like finding trends from data and being able to effectively communicate them to stakeholders. It has solidified my existing career choice, which is to go into consulting – either economic consulting or management consulting.
- Harsaran, economics student
Image of Harsaran
