Technology Entrepreneurship | CAREERS © PLACEMENT

Careers and Placement

Naturally, the first thing you will want to do is celebrate!

The award of a Surrey degree is a significant accomplishment and is not achieved without a lot of hard work and ability on your part. We in the School will wish to join you in the celebrations: at the School’s graduation reception for graduates, their friends and families; or at the very popular Graduation Ball organised by the Students' Union.

The University's record for employment is excellent

Graduates from this programme will have an appreciation of the IT and engineering processes behind innovative high-tech companies and it is envisaged that they will readily find employment at the interface between IT, engineering and business.

It is anticipated that some of the graduates from this programme will start their own business, whilst others will join engineering or IT companies as project managers firstly, and then start their own business in the future.

What about the Placement Year?

As befits a university that pioneered integrated professional training, the University of Surrey is famous for its consistently outstanding employment record. Hundreds of companies all over the world have found that the University of Surrey’s renowned professional training programme offers unrivalled opportunities.

Salaried professional training is offered to all our students and is taken between levels 2 and 3. It provides you with many skills other than those obtained through knowledge of your chosen subject area. These enhanced interpersonal and management skills – highly valued by employers – provide UniS graduates with a headstart in the jobs market.

Simon Blamires talks about his Placement Year:

"I am currently taking a self employed placement year. I have been building my skill base and knowledge in the field of laptop computers for the past 2 years and began working with them on a small scale in parallel to my degree course.

Having already been involved with the business activities on a small scale I felt I already had a good grasp of how to move things forward. Having produced a first draft business plan, I sought advice and support via UniSdirect who were willing to offer guidance and support as to what to do next, as well as put me in touch with GRIST who offered a suitable loan following a well prepared presentation.

I have a business mentor from SETSquared via UniSdirect offering me telephone support whenever I need it, with regular face to face meetings to discuss where I am now and where I want to be in X months time. I also have access to the facilities at UniSdirect Seedpod with internet access and business/legal knowledge on tap if and when I need it.

The main skills I have developed are people skills – interfacing with customers and suppliers. On the phone, in emails and in person I have built up confidence and expertise in dealing with most eventualities whether it be an enquiry, complaint or sale. I enjoy both sales and marketing and convincing buyers about which product is best for them. In dealing with suppliers on a regular basis I have improved at negotiation to get what I want – longer payment terms, lower prices etc plus have built up a network of other suppliers as a result of liaising with each on an individual basis.

Personally I have already learned an extensive list of skills and knowledge which a degree course or typical placement could not have taught me and I look forward to applying them in a future business."

Where are they now?

Arran Broadbent

I am currently a Project Manager for BT, working on the Internet Protocol Convergence Project for the Department for Work and Pension. I am managing one budget of over £ 1m and another of £ 2m and have received outstanding feedback from first reviews.

I liked the programme due to it diverse and very engaging modules, the opportunities for business ventures, excellent support from staff and because of the whole programme community of staff and students. It has moulded me into a punctual and disciplined individual - fit for the volatile young professional world.

Fabio Aragono

I am currently working for BEA Systems, a software company amongst the market leaders in middleware recently acquired by Oracle. My role is to find business opportunities and pass them to the account managers in Italy and other regions of the SEMEA within my territory who finalise the deals I created.

The degree programme was without any doubt a challenging course for the simple reason that it varied in modules, teaching styles and techniques. Combining science, engineering, IT and business studies all in one course revealed many times to be a very difficult task. I strongly recommend the degree programme to all of you who have the vision and desire to do well in life, are ambitious and have an hard working mentality – from my experience nothing is achievable without hard work and determination.

Claudia Neto

I’ve set up a Ltd company from which I am contracted by eBay UK Ltd as UK Product Planner and Project Manager, Product Operations and Local Development team. My role also requires me to manage a £5m budget and I’ve recently been asked to spend 50% of my time working with a small strategy team to manage a top business initiative for this year.

I would recommend this course to anyone who appreciates how today’s business world acts/reacts and is moving forward. Whether you want to be an entrepreneur, an intrapreneur or simply a smart business-person – this degree will give you far more than book-knowledge which the average person you will be competing against for a job will have.