Pages

Monday 25 October 2010

Future in Finance Employability Event

The Guidance & Employability Team (GET) gave a presentation in my finance lecture on Monday. This was for the forthcoming Future in Finance employability event. This event is a very rare opportunity for us to meet and talk to managers from Barclays, HSBC, IBM, Royal Mail, Northern Trust, and Investec Asset Management who currently work in accounting and finance jobs. Managers from professional bodies such as ACCA, CIMA and CIPFA will also be there to give advice on professional qualifications and how these can help us in our chosen careers. That is so ideal for me!

In preparation for this event, the GET team run series of workshops to help us students develop and improve our CV. This service runs occasionally - they have drop in sessions and it is on a first come first serve basis. They mentioned in the presentation that this would help us to focus on our strengths and encourage us to think about the areas of accounting and finance that we are most suited to before meeting managers who currently work in these areas.

I am definitely interested in going but have a lot on... A LOT!!! I need to think quickly or otherwise a good opportunity will go begging.

My third year experience to date is not at the level of what I had experienced in my second year simply because there is so much work to do (it is just constant). In truth, I neglected as you know a lot of theory work in my second year and I would say that I got away with it by memorising most of the key points... no jokes. I seriously do not think that I can maintain that approach this year. The best advice I can give to you all is to work out what works well for you. In other words, do you like working with numbers? Do you like theory? Etc. Once you know what suits you best then you can go for your ideal course. I know that it will be hard picking out the right course because you may have to deal with both (as I am currently experiencing). Definitely read the opinions of past and current students that are on your preferred program of study. Read our blogs people!

That is it for now! Enjoy your coming week people!

Thank you!

Wednesday 20 October 2010

1 down... so many to go!

First thing:

Our group presentation took place this week and we did extremely well. Seriously, I am not making it up. Our tutor as well as our whole class praised us. We have set the standard now for the others to beat... obviously, I would expect them to do it but it will be extra work for them. I will admit that I was nervous at start but it was cool afterwards. After the presentation, we had individual feedback and it was encouraging news for all of us. We then had the questions to finish the session. Our tutor honestly thought that we had plenty of practice. However, we practiced only ONCE and that was the day before. I would therefore advise you not to take that approach. Luck was on our side that day.
That is one down... finally! It is good news for us but for me personally... I am not going to take anything for granted. I still haven't started on my initial study yet. I will make a start on it after I finish up on this blog... that is a promise. It just keeps on coming! The finance coursework is to be given to us on Monday... cannot wait... yeah right! LOL. What else can I do... nothing but weep.

Moving on...


Our open day took place this week (Saturday). The turnout was immense... thanks to everyone who attended. Hope you all enjoyed your visit. Yes, it was busy but time was flying big time I would say. Our group was responsible for campus and accommodation tours. A lot of people opted for accommodation tours rather than campus... I found it weird but it was fun doing the tours. I met many people who were interested to apply for my same course. I just gave them advice and my experiences to date.


If you have missed it (the open day... of course), do not worry because we have more open days throughout the year. The next one will take place on Saturday 27th November. In general, I would strongly recommend you to attend these events because it is not just about tours and stuff but you get the chance to meet course tutors and academics who will give you advice.

Until next week people.

Thank you as always!

Monday 11 October 2010

Too tired!

It has been exactly two weeks in uni so far and I am completely knackered already.

This week was busy busy busy for us. The pressure is creeping up, as we have to deliver a presentation next week. We have done a lot of work in terms of research and we have done so much more which is good news but the only problem is that we are finding it hard to break down large chunks of information to fit into about twelve slides - that is tough. Obviously, we have a lot of talking to do but then again we have to take into account of the time (20 minute duration). We already know which area we will be covering but it is all about having the end product.

As the presentation is based on a real life company (Inditex Group - so... store brands e.g. Zara, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti etc) - we simply cannot afford to make stuff up on the day. Our tutor will obviously suss it out... LOL. Do not worry people we do not intend to do something like that. Who would eh? Even our tutor said that we are bound to make mistakes. We simply cannot afford to make silly ones!

There is more that I have to do (coursework!) which I had mentioned in my last blog. Can I actually work under pressure over and over again? Only time will tell.

This is for your information: once you are a university student, you will come across working in groups to deliver presentations and complete other forms of assignments etc. There maybe times where you get to pick your own groups or your tutors will pick them for you. I know it is hard working with people you do not know... I still remember my first year (I had a silent partner too... chaos!). However, there are good things that come out of group work. You will get to know more people and realise their strengths and weaknesses - you end up learning from others.

You will experience the ups and downs of working in groups... just take it to your advantage. The key thing to remember is that it is a team effort all the way! Therefore, no one man soldier antics. If you take that approach then you will not get far.

That it is for now people. Enjoy your coming week!

Thank you all.

Monday 4 October 2010

A tough start!!! Please help me!!!

Yes the title for this blog entry is fully justified. So this week university started and boy we are all dooooomed. As I have mentioned so many times before that this final year is going to kill me. There is no room to be chilling about – no more pool in the SU and other stuff too. I am serious. I have to admit and say that this first week I had witnessed was really bad. The first and second year students can get away with at least two to three weeks off doing nothing – not for this year though. Ahhh man!!!


The sad thing is that I have to submit all of this (below) before December:

1. Finance: Financial report

2. Current issues in financial accounting: Initial study

3. Strategic financial management: Business report + portfolio

Hard times!!!

Ah man... we (a group of five) have to do a presentation in less than TWO WEEKS time. This is for strategic financial management. As we are the first group to present one topic out of six, we seriously need to set a standard for the other groups to beat. That is not going to be easy. We volunteered to do the first presentation because we just wanted to get it over and done with. Time is the only problem here and we need to just have the belief that we can pull it off. Boy if we can deliver a strong presentation, we can build on that because it is going to help immensely on the report we have to do afterwards (it is all linked). I am currently doing my research now and bringing ideas for the presentation. We just have to be on track at all times.

I start term time work next week Tuesday. This is the case for me... I work one Tuesday and I miss the next Tuesday. Only twice a month. I would say that this is ideal for me because of the workload from uni studies coming up. The Tuesday that I am free, I have made commitments to go into uni and work my socks off. Please say that I stick to that valuable commitment.

I wasn’t working this week and I have missed to say my final goodbyes to two of my colleagues who left this week. Nikki and Summi. Nice people. I have learnt a lot from them in terms of work and other stuff too (they know what I am talking about). Thank you. It has been a pleasure working with you both and all I can say is that I wish you all the very best in life.

That is it for now. Got a lot of work to do.

Thanks for reading everyone.