Alumna of the month - February 2012
Elizabeth Adeniran
BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance, 2011
LSBU graduate Elizabeth Adeniran has secured herself a position at premier site, Bloomberg, after returning from her language placement in China. With her intuitive nature Elizabeth took every opportunity throughout her degree building on her experience to help her stand out to employers in this challenging economic climate.
Elizabeth is currently living in Kunming in Southeast China on a one year government scholarship studying Mandarin. Elizabeth found out about the scholarship through the Confucius institute who contacted the Chinese government in UK. She moved over to China after completing her degree achieving First class honours. She was keen to learn another language to expand her skill set and aid her professional development. Although her weeks are packed with lessons she has found time on the weekends and holidays to travel around South-East China Provinces. Elizabeth was the only student from LSBU, but has met many people from around the world on the course. She decided to spend Christmas and New Year in China to experience some of the local culture, and was fortunate to attend a Chinese wedding on Christmas day.
Just before heading over to China Elizabeth completed a 10 week placement with Bloomberg, premier site for updated business news and financial information. She heard about the opportunity through the careers department and after attending the interview secured her placement in the sales and analytics department, 5 weeks in each. Three candidates from LSBU were offered placements at Bloomberg and across the company there were a total of 125 placements offered to graduates from UK Universities. Elizabeth’s role was to advise clients on how to utilise the Bloomberg terminal and analyse their finances. “As the job role is so broad it is a good place start when you are not sure what area you would like to specialise in. I really enjoyed my time there; the company really looks after their employees and there is a very friendly atmosphere amongst staff.” Elizabeth returns to Bloomberg in September to start her permanent position in analytics.
Whilst she was studying Elizabeth was a member of the Entrepreneurship Society and Accounting and Finance Society. She started thinking how she could offer students support in the Accounting and Finance Society and gain leadership skills for her personal progression. She put a case together and nominated herself as president in her final year. Along with a team of her peers they helped students within the society to adapt their CV and skill set when looking for graduate jobs. Elizabeth’s role as president was to manage a team delegate jobs and advertise the society to fellow students. The society was sponsored £500 by CIMA (Chartered Institute of management accountants) to help with events. A number of networking events and lectures were organised, inviting guest speakers (often past alumni). There were also CV clinics where accountancy recruitment agencies were invited to attend helping students improve their CV and register for jobs. The society would send out weekly newsletters to members containing relevant job and company information, voluntary opportunities and tips to increase their job hunting success. The society was nominated for the PQ (part qualified) magazine award last year.
With a predominantly academic CV Elizabeth was keen to expand her work experience and began voluntary work with two social enterprises. She started working with Young Black and Successful (YBS) – a Southwark based organisation and Visible Women (VW), both organisations organise mentoring schemes, aiming to place young individuals with successful role models in their chosen that field. YBS was initiated by Richard Kuti the former Students Union President. Having worked with him in the Entrepreneurship Society, Richard asked Elizabeth to join the enterprise growing the team to six members within a few months and becoming community interest company (CIC).
Elizabeth later joined Visible Women (VW) – linking graduates and undergraduates with women in senior leadership positions, showcasing successful women for mentoring and lectures. She would contact organisations to such as Deloitte to find candidates willing to participate in the scheme and organise a series of meetings. Elizabeth found working for the enterprise really helped her build her confidence and organisational skills, preparing her for her internship with Bloomberg.
Top tip
Elizabeth’s top tip is “Don’t give up; it is very easy to think there is no hope or nothing in the job market. Expand your horizons for example look beyond the top four companies and research different job opportunities in this field.”
We would like to congratulate Elizabeth on her achievements and wish her every success in her new job.