“The rise of fractal politics” was first submitted to the Nine Dots Prize in response to the question, “Are digital technologies making politics impossible?” The essay was written as a thought piece prior to the announcement of the 2017 UK General Election.

Dr Gordon Fletcher

Fractal Politics

In this essay “the rise of fractal politics” describes the current state of development in advanced capitalist economies. This is a development that has been accelerated by digital technologies while also describing wider ranging changes in contemporary society and politics (Marcuse 2002). Equally, many of these social and political changes have themselves become possible because of digital technologies (Rosa 2013). This is the ever-present reminder that technology is both a product of the society that produces it and a key agent for its change (Laszio 1992).

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Adam Mitcheson, BSc Business Management Studies, 2008, CEO & Founder my2be

My startup entrepreneur journey started when I went to University almost by accident! After leaving school, the job I went into required me to attend University of Salford one day a week. I soon realised that neither the job nor the course were a good fit for me, but still didn’t really know what I wanted from a career. So I decided to switch courses to a Business Degree and go full time, to keep my options open whilst I tried to work out what it was I wanted to do.

I graduated in the summer of 2008, however, that same summer the global recession hit and the graduate market collapsed. I couldn’t get near anything I wanted to do and went through a variety of soul destroying interviews with bogus companies that were springing up, as well as odd jobs. In 2010 I turned towards finance, something I’d actively tried to avoid, finding myself a job with BNY Mellon in Manchester.

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Karl Chevalier

For me, leaving University was one of the hardest challenges I have had to face so far. Having previously studied at a small independent faith school with a population less than that of a coal miner’s convention – it was hard to embrace the fact I would be competing for a place in this crowded digital environment. With hundreds of people graduating alongside me in Greater Manchester alone, and an extra few hundred graduating each year thereafter what are the chances of me being noticed? How would I ever stand out from the crowd and land my dream job?

Thousands of pounds and several hundred caffeine induced beverages later and I found myself standing looking deep in to this digital precipice with an abundance of career options available. A fantastic new parachute-shaped degree strapped to my back – but is a degree alone enough to stand out from the crowd and help land your dream job?

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Huzayfah Bukhat, BSc (Hons) Business Information Technology Graduate

Like many other graduates who recently graduated in the summer of 2016, I started to search for that ‘dream job‘ and in my instance – The first job. How to get a graduate job will depend on you and your personality and here is my way…

Every graduate had the same attitude and drive as me. And this meant that I needed to up my game.

As part of my final year, I learnt how to target employers using social media networks. I had already created a personal website as part of my BSc Business Information Technology program but this needed optimising to further target employers.

I would write blog posts regarding project management, web design and business analysis to build an online network and also show employers that I understand my field and what I am passionate about. It was writing these blog posts that helped me to understand what career path I wanted to take – business analysis. Here are my seven steps on how to get a graduate job:

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Alex Mellor, Medley Academy Co-Founder

You’ve done it. You’ve finally done it. Three years at University have come and gone in a flash. You’ve spent thousands of pounds, you’ve endured thousands of hours staring at PowerPoint presentations and you’ve spent what felt like thousands of hours in the library, juiced up on Red Bull. But, it’s all amounted to something. You’ve got your degree! But what’s next… Are you looking for some careers advice?

I joined a highly successful social media start-up – Social Chain – pretty early on. During my 18 months at the company, we hired A LOT of staff. I watched the company grow from 6 to 40+, all of these staff members were under 28 years old (the average age was 21). When we hired, we never ever went off academic credentials, who had the ‘best degree’ from the ‘best university.’

We hired based on drive, determination and knowledge of the space.

Here are four tips from me on how to use the summer months to gain the advantage over fellow graduates and to land that dream job:

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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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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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Hayley Daniels

How many students can say that after studying law they are graduating with a degree from THE Business School of the Year?

For one, Salman Kotwal can.

In 2015, Salman gained a first-class degree in LLB (Hons) Law from the University of Salford, which helped him to gain a place on the BPP Law School Legal Practice Course. A dedicated and committed student, Salman made the most out of his time at Salford. He seized every opportunity that was presented to him whilst studying law.

“We live in a world where every student must make themselves different,” says Salman. “I knew that the University of Salford was providing opportunities to aid my development as a prospective lawyer.”

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Dr Maria Kutar

For all #ClassOf2016 final year undergraduate students, Semester 2 of the final year here at Salford Business School is now underway! This week, to mark your time with the School and in anticipation of Graduation, we are taking class photos. Class photos were taken for the first time in 2015 with our Law students and proved a real success, so this year we will be taking photos across all programmes – it would be fantastic if we could get a full house!

The photoshoots are all taking place on the Peel Park campus, and your Programme Director will take you from class when it is time for your session. Claire Angel, our Student Progression Assistant, (who was a photographer in an earlier life!) is manning the camera, and staff from the School are on hand to make sure it all runs smoothly.

Salford Business School will be providing you all with an actual print for your wall, as well as a digital copy, as a memento of your time with us.

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Spiros Kontogiannis – MSc Marketing Alumnus

What did an MSc Marketing student do two years ago? The first blog post went live on this blog and at the time, I was a Marketing student working on my internship at Salford Business School. I was practising my business blogging skills by helping to develop a strategy for the Business School blog.

Now, fast forward two years and the blog has been nominated for the UK Blog Awards 2016 and has over 110 authors, 157 blog posts, resulting in over 100k page-views from global readership of 202 countries. And what about myself? Well, the internship at Salford Business School helped me to get a job in the industry – I now work as a Content Strategist at customedialabs.

So, my internship has made a direct impact on my career choice – and the content shared on the blog has triggered wider social media conversations on multiple social media channels – Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube – helping other students, academics and business owners to learn and further refine their understanding of blogging for business purposes.

At the outset an important role for the blog was to allow academics to share research findings, current students to share their views and develop their own business blogging skills as well as alumni – like myself now – to come back to school and share my business experience after graduation and keep in-touch with the #SalfordBSchool community. Has this vision materialised?

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