Category: Careers

The successes and challenges of my work placement

MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering

an employee sitting in front of two desktop displays with lines of code

Having just finished my placement, I have a lot of thoughts on what met my expectations and where I could do better during that time. As part of my Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree, I had an opportunity to do a six-month internship over the last term of my third year and the summer. Now that I’m going into my fourth and final year of study, I can fully recognise just how much it has shaped my career goals.

Let me give you a bit more context before I dive into the details. I did the placement in software engineering, so not quite in the same field as my area of study. Admittedly, as an electronics student, going into software engineering is not uncommon, but it’s not a completely straightforward choice either. I was very proud that I have secured an internship in software engineering, especially since I didn’t have too much programming experience when I was applying.

Turns out that a lot of companies are happy to take on candidates without the knowledge required for the job, and you can learn most things on the go. So don’t be afraid to apply for an internship or job outside your area of study, it might not be as difficult to get as you think!

So what went well?

Firstly, and most importantly, I gained an insane amount of new knowledge about software engineering, and successfully completed the project I was assigned with. I built up my skills from practically zero to the level that allowed me to work on a massive, complicated codebase for a commercial web application.

Developing new skills

I think the major advantage of doing a longer internship is that with the right guidance, you can develop new skills rapidly and pave the path to pursuing a new career. The hands-on approach can be a bit of a shock to the system, but this allows you to be fully immersed in the responsibilities of the job and gain the essential qualifications quickly. The caveat is that it can be quite challenging to keep up with the fast pace that is almost a given when so much learning is involved. But despite the effort, the steep learning curve is very rewarding in the long term, and it definitely gave me the confidence to pursue a developer job in the future.

Time management

To my surprise, time management was more difficult than developing my technical skills. At first, it felt like I have more free time than during term time as I could close my laptop and finish work for the day around 5pm, but I didn’t account for how straining working productively for eight consecutive hours can be. A major advantage of university (especially in the third or fourth year) is that there are maybe a dozen hours of teaching in an average week, and the individual study doesn’t have a set timetable, so if I feel tired I can choose to take a random Wednesday off.

Responsibility and stress

Another thing is that a job comes with a bigger responsibility than university, and being part of a team at work means that other people depend on you to deliver your tasks. I wouldn’t say it’s not necessarily a disadvantage, but one needs to keep in mind that maintaining a good work-life balance is key to keeping stress at bay, and it is as relevant at university as it is at work.

I fully encourage anyone who is looking to gain more practical skills to do an internship or a placement. As long as you plan for the challenges that come with a professional environment, it is an extremely valuable and developing experience.

No idea on career trajectory? You’re not alone

MEng Mechanical Engineering

At 18 during my interview for Mechanical Engineering I quite confidently stated that I intended to pursue a career in consultancy engineering and eventually become a Chartered Engineer. And the basis for this? About 2 weeks shadowing at a consultancy company and thinking that it might be what the interviewer wanted to hear.

Ultimately, the reality is that when you are applying to university, or even during your degree, you may not have a concrete idea on what career path to pursue. There probably is that one person who knows exactly what they were going to be at 5 years old and is on it from Day 1, but rest assured you have time and resources to decide your vocation.

The decision on which career to choose is dependent on a multitude of factors that are individual, interest, money, and opportunity. The importance of each is clearly subjective but will work to guide your applications. A great resource to test the waters on these factors is the Imperial Careers website, where you can wade through hundreds of job and internship opportunities. These can be filtered to fields and pay grades that you may be interested in, and the website itself is complemented by the many workshops run (and relentlessly advertised) by the Careers Service, so you have plenty of opportunity to have a taster in industries you may never have heard of before, like Management Consultancy. If after this, you’re still confused, you can always book an appointment with an advisor who would be best suited in pointing you towards industries of interest. If at first you start in a career you find you don’t enjoy, you can still reach out as a graduate of 2 years to the Careers Service and access the same resources.

Indeed consultancy is one of many fields where the degree subject is not subject to stringent scrutiny. You may think that with pursuing a purely vocational degree, like Engineering or Medicine, you would be pigeonholed into a certain career path. That could not be further from the truth – there are many opportunities to work in a range of industries where STEM degree skills are highly valued beyond just their direct content correlation, from Finance to the Civil Service.

On top of university wide resources, you will likely find that your department (and the society affiliated with it) will run events providing career inspiration.

In the Mechanical Engineering department, Industry Talks from alumni/professionals happen almost every two weeks. These provide an opportunity to learn about a niche field you likely wouldn’t see in a Google quiz of ‘What career should I do?’ and to engage with professionals to start building your network. The department also liaises with the Careers Service to ensure all students are delivered talks on careers so that you aren’t caught out of the blue even in first year.

The student-run department society (MechSoc) also frequently run events to help with careers, from arranging free headshot pictures for CVs to running networking events with recruiting professionals from large companies such as Shell.

Additionally, there is always more informal support available. This is in the form of personal tutors and academics with whom you can discuss general career aspirations and who can give concrete ideas on where to apply for relevant opportunities.

To summarise, as a prospective (or current) student at Imperial, you don’t need to have your professional life mapped out in Freshers Week. You will have plenty of support to capitalise around you to not only gain insight into careers to pursue, but also in how to get there with CV and application process help.

 

5 Things You Can Do For Your Future Career Before You Even Leave University

Medicine

Believe it or not, going to university isn’t just attending lectures and passing exams. When you are at university you have an amazing opportunity to boost your CV and prepare yourself for life after you graduate. Honestly, as a medical student, I know I have more time at university than your typical undergraduate but the thought of graduating is already making me a little nervous. Here are a list of tips and advice I have gotten to help build those systems and networks to support you in your career.

1. Networking

Networking is an amazing way to make connections in your industry before you even graduate, go to events and talks run by your university, department or the career service and get curious! Ask questions to the guest speakers and keep contact information somewhere you can refer to like and Excel sheet, Notion or LinkedIn. I know it can be awkward or intimidating at first, but faculty love students being passionate about their field of study. Start out a little easier by approaching a familiar face like a lecturer you see often or even more senior student like Master’s or PhD students that run tutorials or lab work. Ask questions about the content they teach or their field of study and get to building those professional relationships.

2. Education

Of course, you are being educated for your degree, but push your boundaries further. Pursue interests outside of your course and get certifications to boost your CV. I really enjoy learning languages, so I took courses in my first and second year in French and British Sign Language. Equitable access to healthcare is something I am interested in and I am thinking of a way to incorporate more research into this next year. I am trying to branch out my reading from just fiction to some non fiction whether this be through articles, research papers or books.

3. Passion Projects

Just because you are a student doesn’t mean you can’t get involved in volunteering programs or make your own outside of your course. Are you passionate about humanitarian work or tutoring your subject to younger students? I tutor online because I love to teach so I am sure I see some academia and teaching in my future and I also work as a mentor through university outreach but also through a separate program to support Black heritage students access higher education because that is something I am very passionate about.

4. Internships

I know I am a medical student, but other degrees offer various internships you can participate in to get some experience to fill your CV and give you some more confidence in your field before you leave university. Another great place to network too! Keep an eye out for applications in university newsletters or alerts from the careers service. Even if you are just making coffee or doing admin work being in that environment will teach you a lot about the working world and about different roles and responsibilities in the workplace.

5. Laboratory Work

Take some initiative and reach out to companies and working professionals you take an interest in. Email asking about shadowing opportunities, mentoring or supporting lab technicians. This could also be a great opportunity to build rapport with people who work in the company which could help with securing employment after graduation as you already have a professional relationship with them.

I hope these tips were helpful!

What is a UROP?

Yee Tong Siow

MEng Mechanical Engineering

As summer is approaching, this is the time of the year where students are all panicking about finding a summer internship to ensure that they have a fruitful summer. Students often search for summer internships for a few reasons. Some students would like to use summer internships to gain more exposure to the different industries they are hoping to land a graduate job in, as experiences in industry allows them to apply the knowledge they have learned throughout the year and to enhance their passion for the course too. Employees love to see students who go an extra mile to learn something, and it increases your chances of getting hired significantly. Besides that, some students search for summer internships to evaluate what do they want in life. Even though a large majority of students have a set idea of what industry they want to go into when they graduate, there remains a larger majority who are still finding the right path for themselves. Summer internships are one of the best resources for students to expose themselves to different industries and to gain more insights into the daily lives of working in different industries.

Although students often source for internships through career fairs and external sources, I want to bring everyone’s attention to an amazing opportunity that can be found in Imperial – UROP. UROP stands for Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programme and through this blog, I hope to give everyone a better understanding of what a UROP entails and how you might be able to apply for one.

What is a UROP and how can you apply for one?

UROP is a summer research opportunity hosted by Imperial and is run by different professors from different departments. It is an amazing opportunity for students to gain experience in the research and development field and to also enhance their understanding of the theory that has been taught in class. Lecturers in Imperial normally undergo research during term time, and during summer break, they will open up their research for students who might potentially want to help out with it during their 3 months summer break. As an exclaimer, I have not undergone a UROP myself as of now, but I will be working on a UROP project this summer and have undergone all the application processes, so I hope I will be able to guide everyone on that process through this blog.

UROPs last from a minimum of 6 weeks to a maximum of 12 weeks. It is opened to all students, regardless or not whether you are studying in Imperial. To apply for a UROP, it is essential to decide on which lecturer or project you would be interested in working on. Some UROPs are advertised on the departmental website, but some UROPs are not advertised by your lecturers. However, they are more than often happy to cater and form a personal UROP project with you based on their project and what you desire to learn. Sometimes, your department will also send out some UROP opportunities through email so keep a lookout on that!

After you have heard back from a lecturer, try to set up a meeting with them to discuss about an opportunity and for you to get to know each other better as well. Be aware that as a lot of students are searching for UROPs as well, some lecturers might not be able to take up more than one student and you would have to search for another lecturer to work under. After you have searched for a suitable project and a lecturer to supervise you on it, you will then proceed to apply for funding. Even though UROPs are not paid opportunities, Imperial does offer a range of different bursaries to some of their students to allow them to support themselves in London while working on the project. The application for the bursary opens during January and ends at around February. Results for the bursary allocation will be announced during April. Bursary amounts range from £250 to £350 a week. To apply for the bursary, students are required to talk about their project, the potential contributions to society, and also the student’s motivations and expectations.

Through the pandemic, some UROPs have been changed to a remote setting as well, allowing students to work in the safety of their own homes while gaining a similar exposure. I hope that some of you might find this useful and remember that even if you find it difficult to secure a summer internship this year, remember that there are a lot of other activities you can think of doing to keep yourself productive and have a fruitful summer such as volunteering, spending time with family or even pick up a new hobby! Most importantly is that I hope everyone manages to do something that they enjoy and they find the most personal meaning in.

From Student to Teacher

Mathematics and Statistics

My Final Year Teaching Module

The Secondary School I attended weekly

One of the absolute highlights of my time at Imperial has been taking part in M3T, a module offered in the Mathematics department that is titled “Communicating Mathematics”. This project module basically involves spending 1 day a week in a secondary school during term 2 of your final year. Since the secondary school I attended is very nearby to Imperial, I was lucky to do this project there.

Module Structure

During my first 2 or 3 visits I spent most of my time just observing lessons. During the term I would be focusing on 3 groups of students, Yr9 middle set, bottom set Yr11 preparing for GCSEs and a Yr12 Further Maths class. Soon enough, probably before I was totally ready, I was thrown into the deep end and teaching probability and tree diagrams to the Yr11s! It was a strange experience and initially I struggled to get the students to recognise me as a teacher rather than an alumna.

Week after week I felt like I was growing in confidence, teaching longer segments of lessons, and getting to know the pupils a lot better. The hardest part of the whole experience was definitely getting the students to behave. This offered me a different perspective to the classroom than what I remember of being a student.

My Special Project Dissertation

Special Project

For this module, you have to submit 3 pieces of work. The first is a teaching journal recording your adventures in lessons! You then also have to write a report and do a presentation on your special project. Your special project can literally be anything. Within my cohort alone students carried out projects on introducing students to data science, creating revision packs and supporting various groups of students. The school is non academically selective and therefore mixed ability. This results in certain students possibly not getting as much support as they need. Therefore, I decided to focus my project on helping students at the tail ends of the ability spectrum.

To support the students who are struggling a lot, I worked the GCSE students preparing for their exams but struggling to get close to their predicted grades. In this process I tutored them outside of lesson time and created “cheat sheets” on various difficult topics to provide them with more manageable chunks of information.

On the other side of the project, I worked with gifted and talented Yr8-9 students, preparing them for the UKMT Team Maths Challenge. This is initially a fun, regional competition where schools compete in 4 rounds including a crossnumber and relay. The students really seemed to enjoy the novelty of the mathematics involved in this competition. Although some of the students picked up the tricks quicker than others, all of them seemed eager to keep going, and not wanting to leave the classroom after each of the sessions!

My project eventually became redundant due to Covid-19 cancelling GCSEs and the competition, however I am glad to have contributed something to the school in the form of resources made for both sides of my project. I even made a little mock maths challenge for the students who missed out on their competition.

What I Gained from this Experience

Finished my degree!

Looking back on my degree, the skills and experience I gained in this module were monumental. After 23 lectured maths modules, getting out of Imperial and into the world was so much fun. The module wasn’t all easy, with 2 long dissertations, almost 17,000 words in total, and a presentation to complete before June, however I really did enjoy writing and speaking about my experiences at the school.

After being thrown into a school as a teacher, my respect for teachers has grown so much. The patience, dedication and expertise of a subject is a complex combination to achieve and I was incredibly motivated by my teaching mentors. But most of all what I loved about this module was being able to go into the real world and share my passion for Maths with the next generation of Maths students. I was so happy to be going into the community to help spread joy around Maths. Students often get bored of preparing for mandatory exams, bringing some challenges and novelty into it, the girls were finally thrilled to be doing Maths. This was absolutely the highlight of this whole experience for me. What a wonderful way to finish my degree at Imeprial.

Best,

Aishy

Career development support at Imperial

Max Gracyk

Computing

When you’re a student, it’s good time to start serious thinking about your career development. CVs, cover letters, interviews, internships, graduate schemes… all of these can be daunting for someone unfamiliar with the professional world.

Thankfully, Imperial doesn’t leave you alone with that as Careers Service offers you all necessary career development support. Don’t underestimate its value! In my case, Careers Service has proved useful several times already.

The range of available services is wide. There are lots of online resources, e.g. the CV writing guide and interview preparation tips. Additionally, you can book one-to-one tailored sessions, where you get personalised help with job applications and interviews. Everything is free of charge!

My experience with Careers Service has been very positive so far. For example, in the first year, I applied for an external scholarship scheme and got to the face-to-face behavioural interview stage. It was my first interview of such type and this is where I found a mock interview session useful. The booking process was straightforward: I just had to fill in a simple form and attach it with my original job application to an e-mail to Careers Service. In the session itself, I had a chance to practice my stress management, speaking, body language and answering questions in general. Afterwards, my mock interviewer discussed thoroughly my performance with me and gave me his written feedback at the end. Thanks to the session, I got to know some extra questions I hadn’t prepared for before. Later, in the real interview, one such question actually appeared!

Currently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Careers Service doesn’t hold any face-to-face meetings. However, it hasn’t shut down! Its services are now available online, including remote consultations. Praise for that, especially when many students are left with cancelled internships.

As always, stay safe 🙂

Final Year has hit

Mathematics and Statistics

Module Choices, Job offers and tough decisions

Whilst my first two years at Imperial could be largely summed up by my extra curricular activities, coming into third year I have decided to focus my attention on my degree in order to secure that 2.1. (I’m not that academic :/ )

Tough Choices

With this in mind, my first step was to decide what activities I would continue into final year, and what would sadly have to face the chop. Having been elected President of MathSoc, I knew that this would be my biggest focus and would take up most of my free time. This led to my decision to relinquish the position of Chair of Women in Maths. However my toughest decision was deciding about whether I should continue playing netball or not. For those of you who have read my previous posts, you’ll know that Netball was my saving grace for the past two years, so this decision really hit hard. After my deliberating, a poorer set of second year results than expected, I finally decided that 4 hours of netball per week plus over 4 hours of commuting just wasn’t going to work for me. I had promised myself that I would replace Netball with jogging, as form of exercise, but as you can see, this didn’t really pan out. But who knows, New Years Resolution?

RCSU Committee past and present

Unfortunately third year started, and I once again found myself running for more committee positions. This time Sponsorship officer in the RCSU (Royal College of Science, my constituent union) and as the UG Science representative on Union Council. This basically involves attending council each month and voting on various decision affecting students, including the recent debate on halls rent increase. Yes, I know this means I’m back up to having 3 volunteer positions the same as last year, but I have found that these take up way less time than last year.

Academics back on track

All nighters in the study room

After what could largely be described as a treacherous couple of years for my academic record, I knew that choosing the right modules would be crucial to my success in final year. Looking back on second year, the only modules I seemed to do fairly well in were Statistics modules, so it seemed sensible to take 5 stats modules. My other 3 modules are Data science, Economics, and a communication module that involves teaching at a local secondary school.

I am delighted to say that with my new work ethic and suitably chosen modules, I am finally enjoying me degree. I actually understand the lecture notes and am able to follow the lectures. Although there have been some crazy all nighters and coursework has taken over my life, juggling so much has been a rather useful experience.

After Uni?

When in final year, the most frequent question you are asked is “so what’s next?” and trust me it’s stressful coming up with an answer. Some of you will remember that over summer I spent 3 months interning at Atkins in their transport consulting department. I am pleased to say that this really paid off and I received an offer to return in September 2020 as a graduate consultant.

Whilst I really enjoyed my time at Atkins, I thought it would be a good idea to still keep my options open and consider other transport consulting graduate schemes. (as few as there may be). After 3 stressful years at Imperial, the idea of taking some time off to do something very different also popped into my head. But given the current level of jobs in the industry, I have decided that it would probably be best to accept my current job offer than to risk having to find a job later on.

Plenty more to come on life after uni so check out my next few posts!!

 

 

Internship Applications: My Story

Mathematics and Statistics

Did I manage to get an Internship?

Here’s a timeline of how I finally secured my Second Year Summer Internship at one of my favourite companies.

August – It’s all about the CV

A year in advance I found myself sitting in the waiting area of an empty careers service getting my CV checked. I would throughly recommend using the service over summer before they become extremely busy in October again. The careers service was able to not only identify key experiences I should include in my CV but also suggested some structural ideas. Whilst I know loads of people who LaTeX their CVs (overkill IMO) I think that you can make a perfectly good CV on Word. (I even know someone who made theirs on PowerPoint!!)

October – Get the ball rolling on applications

Whilst researching industries, I soon realised that I had this strong inclination to work in transport. Weird, I know, especially for a maths student. Unfortunately I could only find a few internships that fit the transport bill so I also applied for other management consulting internships mainly in finance.

Soon I was getting used to the endless cycle of online applications, cover letter writing and online tests. (See my last post for more details on these parts of the process). I even started to get some replies and then finally an invitation to a telephone interview from Nomura. With its excellent reputation and a fantastic summer intern programme, I was extremely excited to have this opportunity.

November & December – Dealing with the first rejections

Although I felt that the telephone interview had gone well, unfortunately I was rejected a few weeks later. At first this felt like a major set back. However with the sound advice of friends around me, I soon realised that rejection isn’t something personal. It just means that company had a particular person in mind for the role and you might not have matched it perfectly. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t progress further in that application process as it probably wasn’t a role that was very well suited to me, and I wasn’t overly passionate about it anyway.

But it wasn’t all bad. Aside from the rejections I also completed a number of video interviews and continued to submit more applications. I started to get the hang of it and applying almost became quite addictive really. In hind sight I probably spent too long on applications, but I just wanted to be sure that I would get something for the summer.

January Part 1- Interviews

This was probably the busiest month in my internship cycle. I was giving up hope on finding an opportunity so started emailing smaller companies and start ups. Finally a 3D printing company responded and invited me in for an interview for a data analytics role. It was my first in-person interview for an internship role and although the role wasn’t well paid, I went in with an open mind. After 25 minutes of questions about my CV and relevant past experiences I was offered the role! I didn’t accept it then and there, because I knew I still had some companies that hadn’t responded to me yet.

Meanwhile I discovered that Imperial College Netball Club’s Sponsor MThree, was advertising an internship for Computing and Maths students. It was heavily tech based, something I lacked skill wise, but I thought why not and applied. After completing a numerical and coding test I was invited in for a first round interview. Even though I lacked computing skills, they decided to take me through to the next round (an assessment centre at their client Natwest Markets) given my enthusiasm for the role and eagerness to learn. This showed me how even if you’re not perfect for a role you can still bluff your way through.

January Part 2- Atkins!

Finally I got the email I had been eagerly waiting for, from Atkins, a civil engineering company. My first choice internship which specialised in consulting within the transport industry. It was good news and I was invited in for an interview. I found this interview the easiest to prepare for as I was most passionate about the industry. My interview with Atkins was almost fun. I enjoyed talking extensively about my experiences with MathSoc, rail fares!! and why I was passionate about transport. (very easy for me to answer). I came out of the interview positively buzzing.

The next morning I woke up and whilst still slightly dazed I got the email offering me the role! It was such an amazing feeling to have got an internship in something I was really passionate about. And finally it meant I could stop worrying about this massive part of my second year.

I am really looking forward to sharing my about my experience working at Atkins this summer so stay tuned for more posts!

 

 

Why I chose Imperial

Mathematics and Statistics

Everything that was going through my head when I firmed Imperial

For any perspective students reading this post, you’re probably going through the daunting process of selecting your firm and insurance choices on UCAS. I remember this being quite an important decision and a lot of time and thought went into making it so I thought I would share some of my thoughts on choosing universities.

After being a student caller, speaking to perspective students and answering all the questions over the  phone, I started thinking about all of the reasons I myself chose Imperial and I thought it would be useful to share some of them with you.

Prestige and Rankings

  • Imperial is obviously an incredibly prestigious and highly ranked university. Ranked in the top 4 (UK) consistently on most lists and top 3 for most subjects including most types of engineering.
  • Imperial, and its humanities counterpart LSE, are often considered the next best UK options to Oxbridge, a ver famous name amongst all UK universities and extremely well recognised
  • As a highly ranked science only university, Imperial offers a unique atmosphere, where all students have similar interests thus forming a pool of some of the brightest scientific minds in the world, what could be cooler
  • Imperial is regularly ranked as the number one UK university for research
Not quite graduating yet

Graduate Prospects

  • The Complete Guide to UK Universities ranks Imperial College as the top (non-medical) university for graduate prospects. This means that coming to Imperial gives you the biggest advantage possible in terms of finding an opportunity whether its in academia or industry for after university.
  • Imperial has some of the best connections with industry of all UK universities with regular careers fairs and each department being supported closely by relevant companies with extensive opportunities for students
  • Imperial boasts a careers service specialising in STEM/finance careers with opportunities to take part in work shadowing, research opportunities and get funding to work with charities
  • Imperial is a recognised name across the UK and around the world. Most employers will hold Imperial students very highly progressing them through application processes quickly due to the universities excellent reputation for standard of students

Location, Location, Location

Hyde Park on a lovely day
  • Being in London means many top employers are right on your door step. This mean more invitations to insight and networking events, easier commutes to interviews and internships and more chances to mingle with future employers
  • Spend less time commuting to interviews and have accommodation for summer internships which largely take place in London
  • Imperial is situated in London’s hub for culture and learning, with the Royal Albert Hall, three museums and glorious Hyde Park on the doorstep
  • Easy connections to Central London (15 mins), Shopping Malls (10 mins) and Bars and Clubs (10-30 mins)
  • Student Union on campus, unlike other London universities, offering regular events and a chance to wind down after a long day of work
  • A once in a lifetime opportunity to live, work and study in one of London’s most expensive localities
  • A campus university feel within the City Centre where you’ll get to graduate at the Royal Albert Hall

Support

  • Despite the rumours Imperial actually offers a lot of support for students academically and pastorally
  • Academic: Tutorial groups with academic tutors, Peer tutorials with final year students, office hours where you can ask lecturers questions, problems classes with Graduate teaching assistants, Academic reps who work to resolve issues that arise in lectures and represent your views
  • Pastoral/Wellbeing: Tutors who meet with students individually about twice a term or as necessary in order to make sure students are okay, Wellbeing reps and student support, trained staff in all departments ready to speak to students
  • Services such as students finance (loans, bursaries, fees), student counselling (mental wellbeing support), Disability advisory service (for all needs and exam circumstances), Student Hub (accommodation, general assistance), International student centre (Visas)

    Nights at the Student Union

So although Imperial might have some other factors to consider, in my opinion, the factors above outweighed everything else and motivated me to choose Imperial. I have had an absolutely amazing time here without a doubt. Imperial has become kind of like a little family me, theres a very strong sense of community, and walking around campus has started to feel so familiar. Almost like being at home. There’s not a single day when I regret coming to Imperial. I have been able to juggle my studies with my extra-curricular activities, and still have a life and I’m very grateful for all of the opportunities I have got from being here.

I hope this post helps some of you decide to come here, and if you have any questions at all about what it’s like to study here, please feel free to contact me or comment on this post!

 

Women in Maths

Mathematics and Statistics

And my experience at Imperial

Studying Maths at Imperial does not only mean living in one of the most vibrant cities in the world, but also being a part of a top world ranking Mathematics department, boasting two field medalists. However as a woman in this department what I have appreciated the most is having female role models such as Professor Emma McCoy. Through lecturing me in first year, she not only taught me statistics in such a thorough and engaging manner, but who has also inspired me to focus my studies on statistics. By bringing in real life scenarios, including her own passion for cycling statistics, marathon times and rather controversially road traffic accidents, McCoy managed to convince my entire cohort that statistics was one of the most enticing areas of mathematics with countless applications in the real world.

Professor McCoy is just one of the amazing women in the department, something that is highlighted by our biweekly “Women in Maths lunches” where we have already heard from four fascinating women working in the department including McCoy this year. At these events, all members of the department regardless of gender, are invited to hear female alumni, current PhD students or lecturers speaking about their research at the university or how they have applied knowledge from a degree in their career. Speakers are always willing to answer questions at the time or in the future, many offering to mentor and advise students on finding jobs and progressing in careers. For more information, to sign up to the mailing list or if you’d be interested in giving a talk at this event, please contact Women in Maths’ expert organisers and third year maths students Alma Fredriksson and Manlin Chawla.

Whilst walking around Huxley, it becomes apparent that there is a slight gender gap however our undergraduate liaison officers create a friendly environment in which we are encouraged to speak out about issues affecting us and suggest improvements for the department, including events to bring together the community of female home students, the smallest minority. Through outreach programmes including visiting schools there is a strong focus to bring more women into the department.

Being a woman in a field dominated by men has never deterred me from pursuing a degree and a career in mathematics, if anything, it has motivated me as there is something special and more unique about studying such a fundamental subject when perhaps people don’t expect you to be able to. It’s so empowering to see a new generation of mathematicians more equally split in gender than ever before as it proves how there is nothing stopping women from excelling in this subject. Everyday I am surrounded by some exceptionally talented young minds, people who one day will be world leading researchers, thriving in finance or generally excelling in their field. But for now they are frighteningly intelligent and hard working peers who make up a community that I am thrilled to be a part of. 

Given my overwhelmingly positive experience, the advice that I would give to any young women keen on studying Maths at a higher level is that loving maths will be enough to carry you through your degree regardless of whether there is a gender gap because, at the end of the day, it is your passion that is most important. But most of all, be proud to be a woman in STEM.

Learn more about life at Imperial

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