How the career services helped me land a job as an international student

7 November 2024

Are you anxious about navigating the job market after your MSc? In this blog post, Adrija, an MSc Medical Statistics graduate, highlights how the Careers Services at LSHTM helped her understand the job market in general, apply for jobs, and prepare for interviews.

Student in an online meeting looking intoa a laptop.

Careers appointments

These are 30-minute long one-on-one appointments with a careers consultant who welcomes any questions you may have about the job application procedure, perfecting your cover letter, CV and beyond. They can be either in-person or online. Throughout the year, I had about three of these meetings. I had a lot of questions answered on when and where to start looking for jobs and how to improve my cover letter/CV.

Practice Interviews: These are 45-minute long one-on-one appointments, available in-person or online. These sessions can be used as mock interviews to practice answering typical interview questions. I had one practice interview session. Prior to it, I was sent a set of questions based on competency, motivation and skill to prepare and I answered them during the practice session. Different answering techniques were also covered in the session. I received feedback on my answers at the end of the session too. This was particularly helpful in boosting my confidence when practising for interviews.

Alumni networking events

This year we had one in-person and one virtual school-wide alumni networking session. These were quite interesting as I got to meet alumni from not only my MSc programme but from other MScs as well. They told me about their journeys after completing their degrees, were quite welcoming to my questions about job opportunities and proceeded to give me realistic advice about the job application procedures. It felt motivating to see so many wonderful examples of people working in many different fields after graduating from the school.

Resources on Moodle

The has extensive resources on every step of the job application procedure. From writing a stellar CV/cover letter to nailing a final-round interview, there are a lot of guiding materials to support you. I was able to craft the best version of my CV and cover letter with its help.

Other opportunities (career workshops, online career fairs)

Some of the other services provided include career workshops and online career fairs. The Careers Service team runs numerous careers workshops throughout the year, ranging from topics like handling your LinkedIn account, finding and funding a PhD to job hunting strategies. There are also quite a few online career fairs held throughout the year where lots of pharmaceutical companies, non-profit organisations, health research centres, meet with students to discuss available positions within their organisation.

Overall, I had a great experience with the Careers Service. The team was very helpful and gave personalised answers to all my questions in a very prompt manner. I am glad to say that with their support, I was able to get a job offer which I am going to start working in soon after I finish my degree. I would recommend all international students planning to find a job in the UK to start early and make the most of the support available at the school.