As a second year undergraduate, it is time to realistically
assess my future career options.
Thankfully, my degree is in History; a subject known to appeal across
all job markets and shout to employers, “LOOK! I can analyse lots of odd stuff
AND think quickly under pressure!”
Simple? Unfortunately
not: for me, I have found that there are two stoppers in this plan.
1)
I’m not entirely sure which career path I want
to take
2)
All of my possible choices are amongst the most
competitive graduate markets
You can see my problem.
Using my logical and analytical history brain, I decided
that vacation internship applications were my best strategic step. Indeed, for companies such as Deutsche Bank, 80%
of interns were taken on after penultimate year placements. It is a massive and almost necessary route
into the big companies. So, thinking
along those lines, I decided to apply for the Barclays Marketing Summer
Internship.
Now, don’t get me wrong.
Marketing is something that I’m really interested in. I find the opportunity to be creative in my
line of work a necessity for any graduate career that I eventually pursue. Applying to the Barclays scheme seemed an
extremely sensible idea and, although it would undoubtedly be competitive, if
successful it would be an amazing foot-in-the-door.
So, I registered online and started to progress through the
application programme. My love of being
busy and constantly on the go shone through in the questions relating to extra
curricular activities. Being a part of
the history society, women’s football committee, and writing for Target Jobs
all undoubtedly helped me through the first round.
And then came the numerical reasoning test. As my friends and family would tell you,
numbers are not a strong point. I can
deal with them in small doses, and in practical situations, but at the first
sign of a mathematical test I crumble.
It is, in effect, my Achilles Heel.
After whining to my mother for days over the Christmas holidays, I
started my ‘numbers’ revision.
It didn’t go well.
With a massive difference of 46% for my numerical practice
and 76% for my verbal, the prospects of getting through the Barclays
application second round was looking slimmer every second. And, true to form, on the real test I managed
to get 3/15 correct.
I was devastated.
After three days of revision (I know, I got a bit engrossed), I still
had performed poorly even by my dire mathematical standards. My career in marketing seemed over before it
had even begun.
Until my wise mother reminded me of a vital point that, in
my excitement and desire to work for Barclays, I had overlooked. I had applied for an internship in a bank, an
organisation where numbers are everything.
I was never going to enjoy and thrive working in an environment where
everything revolved around shares and fiscal evaluations. My strengths lie in writing and words, not
economics.
So I have now decided to ‘crack on’ with finding work
experience within publishing; a market no less competitive but with options
that suit my personality, including marketing.
And although it requires perseverance, and a lot of telephone calls, I’m
enjoying the application process. I
finally can look forward to competing for a job that can challenge me in all
the right ways.
If you are searching for an internship or need advice on how to complete your applications, why not search and use our internship advice pages.
