What have you done since graduating from Royal Holloway? What do you do now?

Since graduating from Royal Holloway, I have completed a Master degree at the University of Cambridge. I am currently working in Real Estate Private Equity in London as an Investment Analyst.

What does a typical day in your job look like?

The first thing I do when I get into the offer is check my emails. Whilst going through my emails, I make a 'to-do' list. I will first go through the list and do any tasks that are quick. Other tasks that I will complete throughout the day may include financial modelling and completing appraisals, reports, market research and valuations.

Looking back, what are some of your best memories or experiences from Royal Holloway and how has your Royal Holloway experience impacted your life today?

Looking back, one of the best memories I had were as a Management Student Ambassador. I truly enjoyed organising and hosting open days for potential students and freshers week. 

My experience at RHUL impacts my life every day. I learnt so many valuable lessons on a personal level about living abroad and on my own.

What is a valuable lesson you learned at Royal Holloway?

Use the resources around you! For example, I was absolutely clueless when I started writing my dissertation - the extra help to use SPSS was extremely useful! The university offers a variety of extra classes outside of lecture time which are extremely valuable.

What piece of advice would you give current Royal Holloway students?

Believe in yourself. When I was applying to jobs and masters courses, I never thought I would be accepted. I got many rejections, which was quite demotivating, before receiving acceptances. Justin helped me realise my potential and I never would have gone to Cambridge without him (not just saying this, I promise)!

Is there any advice you would give to a recent graduate who is just starting out?

Don't limit your options. Unless you are certain of what you are doing, explore the different options you have. The Management degree provides you with the opportunity to go in different directions for jobs and future courses.

L’Oreal is the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty company, with brands including Garnier and The Body Shop. Mike obtained a first class honours degree. He started at L’Oreal on the Management Trainee Scheme and is now a national account executive within L’Oreal Paris managing the Boots account.

What first attracted you to Royal Holloway?

I just fell in love with the place and the course and reputation was really high. It’s also one of the top sporting universities in London so you have the best of both worlds. It was a really international environment, which is great because you get to experience a variety of different cultures, to learn from other people, and that’s a really important skill in life.                                

What did Royal Holloway teach you?

The balance between theory and practical was one of the biggest attractions of the degree. I could pick and choose modules from different areas, and I could also see how every module I took would help me in my future career.

Being president of the Management Society was the number one experience for me. It exposed people to the business world, built networks of contacts, developed skills and really helped me when I was going for interviews.

What’s happened in your career?

I applied to a variety of organisations, but the minute I came for the first interview at L’Oreal I was sold on it! The senior level managers have come from the graduate schemes and are some of the youngest directors in the industry.

Now I am a national account executive, managing the Boots account for L’Oreal Paris. I manage everything from designing the promotions to setting the profit margins. It’s incredible to have such responsibility at such a young age.

What have you done since graduating from Royal Holloway? What do you do now?

Upon graduating from Royal Holloway in 2015, I initially joined the big 4 firm PwC, working in their tax line of service as an HR tax consultant, before moving into their internal HR function. I more recently joined EY (Ernst & Young) in September 2017 as a HR consultant in their People Advisory Services practice.

What does a typical day in your job look like?

I am currently working on a leadership training programme for a large public sector client, focusing on evaluation and cultural change within the organisation. The modules I learnt whilst studying Management have really supported me in this role.

I lead my own area of the project, so on a daily basis I am working with senior individuals at the client to understand their needs and how we can ensure we are adding the most value to them.  I own the end to end evaluation, so I take raw data, analyse it and then present this to the client. I also work as a people champion on my engagement, and present on topics such as wellbeing, performance management and corporate social responsibility regularly.

Looking back, what are some of your best memories or experiences from Royal Holloway and how has your Royal Holloway experience impacted your life today?

My best memories of Royal Holloway are mainly of running the Ambassador programme in the School of Management. Working as head ambassador gave me such a great opportunity to lead my team, improve our impact within the School of Management (SoM) and most importantly speak to future students about Royal Holloway! This role absolutely set me up for the career I am in now. Implementing initiatives such as the ambassador helpdesk and a robust recruitment approach provided me with a wealth of transferable skills and great examples for interviews.

What is a valuable lesson you learned at Royal Holloway?

I definitely learnt the important of asking for help! If you aren’t sure, someone else will absolutely know. Some of the most successful people I work with are not afraid to say if they do not understand, have not got the answer or just need someone to talk things through with. I got through some of my most challenging times by having a group of friends I could talk things through with.

What piece of advice would you give current Royal Holloway students?

Extracurricular activities are so worthwhile! Having a good degree is just the tick box that gets you through the door of an interview. I have never spent more than 10 seconds talking about having a first class degree during an interview – that’s not to underestimate the importance of my degree, but employers want more than academics. My interviewers have, however, been interested about my part time jobs, my role in Enactus and my volunteering experience. It’s the situations that show you can work well in a team, that you can communicate effectively and show personal resilience that pay off.

Is there any advice you would give to a recent graduate who is just starting out?

Be patient. I know a lot of graduates do not always start out in the job of their dreams but hang in there, work hard and it will work out. I thought I would love my first job out of university, but the reality was it took a few months for me to work out what I wanted to do – and that’s absolutely fine! A career is a marathon, not a sprint.