Yousef Essali tells you why lack of experience should not limit your ambition

In the 2nd year of my BSc at Salford I applied for a lot of placements. Not even once did I get to the interview stage! What was I doing wrong? That was during my undergraduate degree where everyone was fairly similar in age and experience. But, when you think about  the postgrad level it gets even tougher. Suddenly you find yourself competing with peers with wider levels of experience and talent.

Why did I return straight away after graduation to start MSc International Business? One reason was the opportunity to do an internship or placement as part of my course. However, after the rejection fiasco in my Undergraduate degree I knew I needed a new approach! How could I change the playing field to my advantage, bypass the traditional recruitment process and get face-to-face with potential employers?

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Ian McHale, Professor of Sports Analytics

Now that SAM’s predictions for Premier League matches are on the BBC website every week, I am getting asked three questions a lot:

1. What is SAM?
2. How does SAM work?
3. Is SAM any good?

In this blog I hope to give pretty simple answers to these questions, and point the interested reader in the right direction to get more information.

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Nim Tennakoon, MSc Digital Marketing student

Before I started my Search and Social Media Marketing module (SSMM), I did not consider optimising my digital profiles or worry about the ranking of my name in Search Engine Results Page (SERPs). Knowing what I know now this is one reason as to why I study Digital Marketing at Salford.

Most of us have social media profiles such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I actually have more than 5000 friends on Facebook! Even my Facebook page has more than 2000 likes. On Instagram I have nearly 3500 followers. For a long time I was active online posting around twice a day. But only recently I have started to understand the theoretical and financial values behind it.

Once I began to appreciate the theory of social media marketing I became fascinated. Did you know I am what you might call in digital marketing a micro-influencer?

It’s true! I have now even read some studies that suggest users like myself with smaller follower numbers actually have higher engagement rates on social media compared to some Megastars. Therefore, people like me with similar followings can be of huge benefit to online brands.

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Seema Dosanjh – why students should do a work placement

Are you a student eager to finish university and jump right into your amazing career? Are you excited to have a professional job title and the salary that comes along with it? Are you ready to hear to the unfortunate truth about the reality that awaits you after graduation? Read this blog post on why you should consider doing a work placement to broaden your horizons.

As a natural optimist I hate having to do this. If you’re a student waiting to start your first job after completing your studies, you may want to may want to re-evaluate this decision.

The workforce is slowly but surely shifting as employers are demanding more from their applicants. There used to be a time where an undergraduate degree would get your ‘foot in the door’. Over the recent years, more job listings require candidates to have 1-3 years of work experience to even be considered for an entry level position.

This is not to say that students who don’t have prior work experience will not be employed. Instead this blog post looks at how doing a work placement during a your academic career is helpful in accelerating your professional career.

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MSc Project Management placement experience to employment – Suhan Setty

I would like to tell you how my MSc Project Management placement was a springboard to full-time employment.

I am a mechanical engineer. It has always been a dream of mine to find employment here in England because I perceive the UK to be one of the world’s most technologically advanced countries.

I did a 6 month of work placement experience in Street Crane Company  Limited which I started in October 2015 as a part of my MSc Business Innovation Project module.

Street Crane Company is the UK’s largest overhead crane manufacturer. They have a history spanning more than 70 years and their products are synonymous with quality and reliability. The business was founded back in 1946 with capital of just £88 which they used to create an 800 square foot workshop and install basic machinery. Nowadays it is a £50 million turnover company, producing around 400 complete cranes and 2500 hoists and crane kits every year.

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Jennifer Faughnan

Twitter. A place where people update the world on the mundane occurrences of their every day lives in 140 characters or less, right? Well it doesn’t have to be –  it could actually be a good place to find a job!

I’m a MSc Digital Marketing student at the University of Salford Business School and recently started employment at PushON, an award winning Digital Marketing and eCommerce agency in Manchester. How did I land this amazing opportunity I hear you ask? Why, on Twitter, of course!

In this post I will share my personal experience of how to use Twitter to find a job. It began when I shared an article about how great a job as a “Social Media Manager” sounded. That was it – I simply shared my opinion on something I was passionate about.

You might have heard some people talk about a time where products and services find you based on your interests – well that time is now! And this is how it happened on Twitter for me:

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Pernille Doxrud, MSc Project Management

In January 2015 I began studying an MSc. in Project Management. One of the reasons I chose to study at University of Salford Business School, was the possibility of a placement experience in a company whilst writing the dissertation. I believe that the practical work experience you can gain from this postgraduate programme is unique; it gives you a different angle on the dissertation, as well as possibly opening doors to permanent employment.

Higher Education courses widen your horizons, make you a more aware person. But, whilst education for general knowledge is helpful, practical work placement experience is getting more and more important in the competitive work environment. It is often challenging to find a first job after being a student for many years. A work placement will improve your CV and gives you an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

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Sophie Iredale

Yesterday, I found out that I was shortlisted for The Drums prestigious Women In Search Award 2016 (#WomenInSearch)! The Women in Search Award is a celebration of women in the field of search marketing, particularly those who have demonstrated expertise, creativity and innovation.

What is Search Marketing? In its simplest form, Search marketing is a form of digital marketing that aims to improve the visibility of a website or digital profile, such as a social media page, within a search engines results pages. The overall aim is to improve web page ranking and drive targeted traffic back to a webpage or profile. A variety of techniques, tactics, tools and strategies are utilised in the process. For more insight into Search Marketing, in particular search engine optimisation, visit this page.

The Drum said the initiative also aims to highlight the “gender imbalance in the search marketing industry and to showcase and celebrate the opportunity for women in the sector”.

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Joshua Jones
Team Director, Salford University Race Team

Ever wondered what goes into building and financing a formula one car?

A team of mechanical engineering and business students have been finding out!

For the first time ever the University of Salford is competing in Formula Student. It is the world’s largest student competition, involving 100 teams from across the world tasked with designing, building and racing a formula style single seat race car. This is a multi-disciplinary project and requires a team from across a number of subject areas including business where sponsorship and marketing activities are required to raise the funding for the car’s development.

Salford University Racing Team is a fantastic opportunity to work on a real world class project. Currently we are in our first year and we are looking to develop a critical mass of enthusiasts to keep the momentum going for many years to come.

Do you like fast cars and want to get closer to understanding how the racing business works?

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Le Hung, The Salford MBA student

Lê Tuấn Hùng came to Salford Business School from Vietnam to study for The Salford MBA. He had originally studied at the University of Transport and Communications in Hanoi, Vietnam, majoring in Construction Economics and after graduating, worked for a shipping company as a sales executive.

“My main job was to search for potential clients and convince them to use my company’s services, while dealing with and keeping existing clients the company had assigned. In this time, I achieved many new and well-known clients for my company. After that, I moved on to work for a Japanese freight forwarder as a sales manager.”

At this stage, Hùng realized that, if he wanted to progress his career, he would have to return to study to update his skills and to fill the gaps in his business knowledge.

“I realised that the practical experience and knowledge I had gained were not enough for the personal development of my career. At this time I also decided to study in a developed country to acquire this knowledge in the best way.”

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