Congratulations to Year in Business Graduates!

Although we couldn’t celebrate in person with the Year in Business (YIB) Graduates this year we were thrilled to hear of their success in their Finals. 70% of the students secured a First Class degree, which is significantly higher than the total School of Business and Management cohort. A massive 95% of YIBs secured either a First or 2:1 grade.

 Loulwa graduated with First Class Honours in BSc Accounting and Finance  and has secured a place on a Masters' degree programme

 I am so proud of this cohort of students and everything they have achieved over their 4 years at Royal Holloway, School of Business and Management. This is particularly in light of the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown. All students have shown real resilience in handling the changes thrown at them. This shouldn’t surprise me – Royal Holloway YIBs show incredible persistence when securing a placement, which can be as tough as the process for securing a Graduate job. They tend to be very highly rated by their placement providers, and then come back to University and successfully apply their insights and learnings from Industry into their final year courses. I recall one of the Graduates last year, Ellen Pearce, explaining that the Placement year "helped my confidence to grow as well as my abilities and knowledge of accounting and this massively helped in my final year. I was able to apply real examples to the modules and had a better understanding of them which helped for the exams!"

Alice  graduated with  First Class Honours in, BSc Management with Human Resources and will be undertaking a Masters before joining the  EY Graduate programme as a Workforce Advisory Consultant.     

  Students are graduating into one of the toughest job markets of recent years. We are delighted to learn of the successes of many of our YIBs after Graduation (joining companies such as EY, KPMG, Nomura and Saga to name a few) while others have plans to continue studying (eg enrolment on Masters programmes). For those who have not as yet secured positions, we genuinely believe that the skills you have developed and experience gained during your placement years will help you in your pursuit of a permanent position. We also want to remind all YIBs that Royal Holloway’s Career Service is available to support all new Graduates for up to 2 years from leaving the University. More details here: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/our-alumni/for-alumni/recent-alumni/careers-advice-and-support/

                                         

 I would like to quote one of the students from this year group, Andrea Totaro, who was offered a Graduate position with SAP as Chief of Staff following his placement year at the Company. Andrea says: “I think Year in Business is the bes thing you can do at University for 3 reasons:

•       It gives you business awareness and understanding

•       It can help you secure a Graduate job if you give your best during your placement year 

•       It helps you to grow as a person – after 6 months in SAP I was a completely different person: I gained confidence and I learnt more about the business “

Another student Shamini Mustoe, who has just graduated with a First class Honours degree, says on her Linkedin page “I recommend doing a placement year because it will increase your confidence in a business context and expand your network vastly before leaving university. It is one of the best time investments you can make for your career. A big challenge facing graduates is being able to demonstrate capabilities with little experience in the real world of business. My placement year (and additional summer placement) has and is shaping me into a well-rounded candidate aware of real business challenges and flexible to adapt those skills to any industry”

We hope this is inspiring to 2^nd year YIBs as they return to University in the Autumn ready to embark on their placement search. 

We wish all the best to the graduating Royal Holloway Management YIBs in the future - do keep in touch!