Alexandra McEwan

What does a typical day in your current role look like?

A typical day is hard to describe! I work for Birmingham City Council as a Senior Transport Planning Officer. I’ve been in this role for nearly three years. When I first started, I focused on the early development of transport schemes, particularly active travel. I have worked on cycle schemes and liveable neighbourhoods in the aim of making walking, cycling, and public transport an accessible option for everyone.

Recently, I have expanded my skills, knowledge and experience into policy and strategy work. I’ve been involved in responding to both regional and national consultations to ensure Birmingham is well represented. This includes the West Midlands Bus Franchising Consultation and the Department for Transport’s Call for Ideas on the Integrated National Transport Strategy.

I like that my role isn’t totally desk-based. I spend a good amount of time out and about and it makes a big difference for me to visualise the areas we are working on and meet local stakeholders. I am never working on the same thing for long which keeps me engaged and excited for the next project to come along.

How do you feel the learning experience on your course helped to prepare you for your career?

The variety of topics and methods of learning on offer helped keep me engaged and interested throughout my three years at the University of Birmingham. This is reflected in my career as I enjoy the variety of topics and learning styles that remain on offer to me, whether this is independent research or senior officer shadowing and mentor sessions. The various learning styles and optional modules available on the BA Geography Course helped to widen my knowledge and skills. For example, in my second year I completed a ‘Neighbourhood Planning’ module that introduced me to the world of planning and development and helped me in my interview for my graduate placement at Birmingham City Council. I was also able to expand my knowledge through other modules such as ‘Carceral Geography’ and in my first year I completed a ‘Music in Society’ module as part of the wider horizons programme.

How did the University’s support services (i.e., Careers Network) help to prepare you for your career?

I didn’t use the Careers Network until I’d graduated. I completed my degree in 2020 which was obviously a difficult time. I knew I needed to find a job and my friend found me a position with a local estate agent. It was during this time that I looked at the Careers Network online, as I knew I didn’t want to continue a career in real estate and had a call with a Careers Advisor. We spoke monthly and it was a really useful way of consolidating my thoughts.

Geography can be a broad degree. Talking with the Advisor helped me think about what I had enjoyed during my studies and what I might want to do. He helped me look for jobs and supported me as I put together my application for Birmingham City Council. I genuinely believe that if I hadn’t had the support from the Careers team, I wouldn’t have applied for my graduate job.

What were the best things about your course?

The trips! Doing Geography, it won’t be any surprise that I love to travel and visit new places so the free trips on offer were one of the highlights of my university life. I had the privilege of visiting Rotterdam, The Hague and Berlin and learning about the local culture and environments, the Olympiastadoin being one of my favourite sites in Berlin.

What are your top tips for students graduating today?

It’s very easy to panic – the world can seem very focused on self-development, and this is particularly astute when you’re graduating. Take your time, you don’t have to have your career figured out immediately! Support your friends but try not to compare yourself as to what other people are doing, everyone is on a different track, and you will find the right place for you. There are lots of people who don’t have jobs lined up immediately after graduating (I was one of them!) – you have a lot of time.