Building Employability at Birmingham Business School

Choosing to study Business Management with Marketing with a Year in Industry at Birmingham Business School has been one of the best decisions I have made for my future career. Throughout my degree, the Business School has consistently prioritised employability and provided students with the support, opportunities, and confidence needed to succeed in a competitive graduate market. From dedicated careers support to internships and placements, my experiences at Birmingham have helped me grow both professionally and personally.

One of the biggest strengths of Birmingham Business School is its dedicated careers team. Applying for placements and internships can feel daunting, especially when competing against students from across the UK. However, the careers team made the process feel far more manageable. They regularly advertised new opportunities and were always available to provide support, whether that was through CV and cover letter advice, mock interviews, assessment centre preparation, or simply discussing career options. I genuinely associate much of my application success with their guidance and encouragement.

As part of my degree, I completed a 12-month marketing placement at Air Products within its UK Hydrogen team. My placement gave me the opportunity to experience what working in a global organisation is really like and to take on meaningful responsibility. I worked on a wide range of projects and was trusted to lead projects independently including market research, strategic analysis, event planning, communications, and digital marketing support so I really managed to gain a broad insight into a career in marketing. I developed both practical and transferable skills that employers highly value. I conducted research into industry trends and policy developments in the clean energy sector, analysed data in Excel, and created presentations and reports for stakeholders. I also designed marketing materials, supported social media and website updates, and helped coordinate the team’s attendance at key industry conferences.

The placement also helped me grow personally. Before starting, I was naturally quite shy, but being placed in a professional environment pushed me outside of my comfort zone. Over the year, I became far more confident in communicating ideas, presenting to stakeholders, and working collaboratively with different teams. It taught me that a placement year is far more than just work experience, it is a full-time role where you are trusted with real responsibility and expected to contribute meaningfully. What made the experience even more rewarding was how closely it linked to my degree. My modules at Birmingham Business School encouraged us to apply theory to real-world business situations, so I felt well prepared to bring ideas and insights into the workplace.

Alongside my placement year, Birmingham Business School has also provided additional opportunities to build my employability through a range of internships. One of these was the B-Experienced Internship programme, the University of Birmingham’s flagship work experience initiative designed to help students gain professional experience and develop employability skills. Through this programme, I worked as a Junior Digital Marketing Executive at Accentuate Agency. At the time, I had very little professional experience, so this opportunity was incredibly valuable in helping me gain hands-on marketing experience linked directly to my degree.

I also completed a Summer Research Internship within Birmingham Business School. Although this was not a traditional corporate internship, it highlighted the wide variety of opportunities the University offers to improve student employability. During the internship, I supported a communications research project aimed at improving student engagement and understanding of quality assurance processes within the Business School. I evaluated current communication resources and created more student-friendly messaging. This experience allowed me to further develop my research, stakeholder engagement, communication, and content creation skills while contributing to projects that positively impacted the student experience.

Overall, Birmingham Business School has provided me with incredible employability support and opportunities that have prepared me for graduate life. Through my placement year and internships, I have gained valuable technical and soft skills which I can transfer to future opportunities. These experiences have also given me a much stronger understanding of the graduate application process. From completing psychometric tests and video interviews to attending assessment centres and formal interviews, I now feel far more confident approaching graduate applications because I have experienced these processes before.

My placement year has also completely changed the way I approach my final year at university. Returning to Birmingham after working full-time for a year has given me much greater confidence in both my academic and professional abilities. I have developed strong time management and organisational skills from balancing multiple projects and deadlines during my placement, which has helped me manage my final year workload far more effectively. The experience has also motivated me academically, as I can now clearly see how the theories and concepts studied at university apply directly to the workplace.

My advice to students wanting to follow a similar path would be to make full use of the careers team, say yes to new opportunities, and not give up if applications feel challenging. The process can be competitive, but the experience, confidence, and skills you gain make it completely worthwhile.