OXFORD

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GAINING EXPERIENCE + DEVELOPING SKILLS
CORE SKILLS
INITIATIVE & PROBLEM-SOLVING
Recruiters want you to be able to analyse facts and
situations, and generate creative solutions on your own.
Ideas to help you develop this include:
] Organising a unique fundraising event for a charity.
] Helping to increase participation or membership for an
event or society.
] Setting up an Oxford student arm of a professional
organisation or a charity.
] Joining The Student Consultancy or building a business
plan within the Business Mentoring programme.
] Developing your own website, or building one for a
student society.
] Starting your own society, social enterprise or small
business.
COMMERCIAL AWARENESS
All organisations – including not-for-profits – will want
you to understand the key factors behind successful
businesses. You can develop commercial awareness by:
] Organising an event that has to turn a profit, such as a
concert, Ball or a college bop.
] Joining The Student Consultancy to get an insight into
a local business.
] Suggesting ways to improve efficiency at work,
resulting in time or cost savings.
] Attending the Careers Service’s Insight into Business
programme.
] Negotiating with a local business to give a discount to
members of a student society you belong to.
] Taking part in a business case studies workshop run by
The Careers Service.
] Joining relevant student societies, such as Oxford
Entrepreneurs, or the Oxford Guild or Oxford Student
Foundation.
] Joining the Business Mentoring programme, and
producing a business plan for feedback – or for
launch.
] Taking part in virtual investment competitions online.
LANGUAGES
You could improve your linguistic skills by:
] Organising a language exchange – weekly chats over
coffee – with another student to mutually improve your
language skills.
] Seeking an international internship where you can
also use the language.
] Learning a new language completely, with a course
at the Oxford Language Centre.
LEADERSHIP
Employers will want you to have the ability to motivate,
influence and organise others. You can develop this by:
] Taking a position of responsibility in your Common
Room or with OUSU.
] Producing or directing a play, or organising an event,
such as a Ball.
] Joining the Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps,
for their leadership development training programme.
] Volunteering with youth organisations, such as the Girl
Guides, Scouts, or even a cycling proficiency group!
] Offering to help train new staff in a part-time job.
] Captaining a sports team, or running a student society.
] Leading a team on The Student Consultancy.
] Encouraging students to apply to Oxford.
COMPUTING & IT
You could boost your IT ability by:
Sam Stoll
Balliol College, BA Mathematics
and Philosophy, 2013
Software Engineer, Ensoft
"Take an online coding course,
or build a small project. It'll
give you a better idea of what
software engineering is like, plus it
demonstrates an interest in the field and gives you
something to talk about in interviews."
] Enrolling in a free course and learning something new:
] Oxford’s IT Services offer a wide range of free
courses during term.
] Free coding workshops are run by CompSoc and
CodeFirst: Girls.
] Self-directed video based learning: use your SSO
for free access to www.lynda.com via the Oxford IT
Services website.
] Downloading professional software, such as Adobe
Creative Suite, and seeing how proficient you can
become during the free trial.
] Familiarising yourself with another operating system.
] Taking online courses to develop greater skill with
Excel or other aspects of Microsoft Office.
And if you are already quite skilled, you could try:
] Designing an app.
] Making a website for a student society.
] Volunteering to help out your college IT officer.
] Joining CompSoc, attending Oxford Geek Nights,
or a Oxfordhack to meet and learn from developers
and designers.
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www.careers.ox.ac.uk