I am Tung, currently a final year student studying BSc International Management. I did my exchange year in year 22/23 at Bocconi University, Milan, Italy. After graduation, I will start my graduate scheme in Morgan Stanley as an Operation Analyst.

As a final year International Management student looking for a graduate job, I started my day by checking my email inbox and jot down my to-do list for the day or the week. During job hunting season, there would be emails about assessment invites, video interview invites and other activities arriving at my inbox. I had an Excel tracker for me to track all my job applications progress and ensure that I don’t miss any deadlines, nor have any opportunity withdrawn. Next (depending on my timetable of the day), I would either start ticking my to-do list, do research for interviews, or prepare to go to class. One thing I really like about the International Management course is that students have huge flexibility on what modules they would like to take. For example, I take innovation, human resources management, supply chain management, healthcare management and digital economy, which cover a wide range of subjects. The reason behind is that I see myself working in finance or banking industry in the future, and I would like to make the most of university and try to get as much exposure as possible. I found that the people and the module contents are really engaging in the final year, with a lot of support from the professors and seminar leader. Usually after lectures or in between classes, I would sit in AMBS or the Engineering Building and apply for more jobs. I found that I work better when I am in campus, and university has a lot of study space that suits different learning environment requirement. There are cafes that have more background noise; there are also spaces that are extremely quiet. In between my applications, I would do my seminar readings if there were any or catch up on some lecture notes to make sure I achieve a great balance of job searching and academic work. I usually leave for home at around 7pm, and I will go to the gym. During dreadful and exhausting job searching process, I found that going to gym really helped me distress as I would be only focusing on my reps and my body.

In the second semester, when there is no stress on looking for a job, I have more spare time to do different things. I only have 3 modules in semester 2, so I only have in average 2 hours of class a day. In my spare time, I engage in Student Ambassador work and the Manchester Calling Campaign. These are great opportunities to earn a bit of extra income and meet new people, especially because student ambassadors are pretty easy to talk to and get along with. Apart from that, I spend more time reading books I like, looking at and trying out new recipes and hanging out with friends in second semester.

One thing I try to do in my final year is to keep up with different routines. I try to sleep before 1am and wake up before 9am, try to find the skincare routine that works for me the best, try to work out at least 4 days a week, and build up a study routine to ensure I am on top of all the modules. These are the little things that I did not enjoy as much in my 1st and 2nd year, but actually makes me feel fresh and organised in busy final year, which I appreciate a lot nowadays.

Written by Tung, current BSc International Management student at AMBS

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