Our Students
Arun Joshi - BSc Business and Management (Accounting)
Arun graduated in 2011 with a with a first class honours degree in Business and Management (Accounting) as well as the prize for the Best Accounting Project Prize.
"I studied on the 4-year sandwich course at Brunel: Business and Management: Accounting. I managed to secure a one-year Business Placement at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accountancy firm. Hence, I took a year’s sabbatical from my degree and worked at the firm before returning to Brunel to complete my final year. I value this scheme greatly as not only did it give me real-world experience of working in a great firm, but also meant that when returning for my final year I was in a good position having already studied a lot of the final year modules whilst working towards my ACA qualification on the placement year. On completion of my degree at Brunel, I then returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers and resumed my employment and my training with the firm.
I highly recommend the sandwich course as not only is the experience priceless, but the fact that I returned to my final year having already secured a job offer meant that I was able to fully focus on my final year modules and dissertation rather than being distracted applying for graduate jobs. This was partly the reason I was able to secure the prizes of Best Accounting Project Prize and the Best Student Medal. I thank Brunel for the opportunity to study on the 4-year sandwich course and for enabling me to launch my career at an early stage of my studies. I also am greatly appreciative of the Brunel staff for their support and guidance throughout my four years at the university."
Nikesh Santilal – BSc Business and Management
Nikesh graduated in 2011 with a first class honours degree in Business and Management as well as the prize for the best management project.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Brunel and 3 years have passed in the blink of an eye, yet there are a million memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life. The atmosphere that engulfs the campus is something truly incredible, with various activities going on everyday that leaves you spoilt for choice. My personal memorable moment has been aiding the business school in the promotion of BEST event. This was a networking event, which had over 25 professional individuals coming from respected corporations such as Nike and BP to share their experience and personal advice to each individual student.
I was on the Business and Management (general) pathway, which gives you the best of every world, as it covers a great proportion of various business activities and sub-activities. The module that I really excelled in was the final year project, which paid dividends with the Best Business and Management Project award. My project looked at the cross-cultural communication challenges between Indian and UK employees and took 40 interviews from 2 multinational organisations.
The future holds something different for each graduate, with separate career paths, yet certain relationships developed with various students and tutors will be embedded for a long time.”
Khushali Depala – BSc Business and Management (eBusiness Systems)
Khushali graduated in 2011 with a first class honours degree in Business and Management (eBusiness Systems) as well as the prize for the best eBusiness Systems project.
“During my 3 years away from home at Brunel, the experience was by far invaluable. At first moving away from home sounded daunting but the location of the university was convenient and Brunel's campus was always lively. The accommodation on campus is close to all the main facilities which made studying and seeing lecturers that much easier.
Lecturers at the Business School were always on hand to offer their help and support, especially in the final year when having to complete the final year dissertation.
After my second year at Brunel I completed a work placement with the Metropolitan Police Service in the Project Management Office. This placement has provided me with hands on experience in the real world and I begun to understand the importance of effective communication and professionalism. This experience has today driven me to attain a job in the Project Management environment and further study to gain the Prince 2 Project Management qualification.
Any spare time I had at Brunel I spent involving myself in the Hindu Society, which gave me the opportunity to 'mingle’ as well as attend events and help out with charity initiatives on campus. Overall, studying at Brunel has developed me both as a person and professionally.”
Simandeep Malhi – BSc Business and Management (Marketing)
Simandeep graduated in 2011 with a first class honours degree in Business and Management (Marketing) as well as the prize for the best marketing dissertation and university medal for best overall project.
“Brunel provided me with the necessary foundation and guidance to build my future career. The experiences I have gained whilst living on campus for 4 years has taught me the meaning of community and support. I took an active role to be involved in Brunel BUSS Volunteering club, which helped me interact with different students in Brunel and allowed me to give-back to the local community.
My lecturers at Brunel were always available to help and were willing to share their personal career experiences in relation to our course material. This provided me with a clear understanding to the practicalities of the modules I chose. Thus, my sincere thanks goes to the all the lecturers for their encouragement and knowledge throughout my time at Brunel.
Having the opportunity to do a placement in IBM provided me with an insightful perspective of working within a blue chip company. I worked with teams across the world, managing analytical sales forecasts. I provided specific operational support to identify strategic solutions and to provide an overlook of sales performance, coupled with the ability to think creatively. Working with international and national teams, led to a flexible attitude of working patterns. I was consistently disciplined and organised and maintained good relations with my colleagues and managers; even after my placement ended. Thus, I decided to base my dissertation on IBM and received the full support from my superiors.
My future aspiration is to gain a career which allows me to continually grow. I would like to take some time to travel, to learn and enhance my knowledge about different cultures. This would enable me to gain new experiences and skills that I would integrate into my future working career.”
John Bridger – BSc Business and Management (Accounting)
John graduated with a 1st class honours degree in Business and Management (Accounting) in 2011.
“As someone who grew up in Somerset, I was particularly attracted by the idea of studying in or near London. I was also keen to be able to continue to pursue my sporting interests which include running and swimming. It was therefore great being able to use the new Olympic-sized swimming pool in Uxbridge and Brunel's fantastic gym facilities.
“I started out studying for a BSc Business and Management but over the course of the first year I realised that I was a numbers person so I switched to the Accounting pathway – it’s really easy to switch at Brunel. As a subject, accounting is sometimes perceived as rather dry and uninteresting but this was not the case with the course. I particularly enjoyed the modules on strategic financial management as well as the one on corporate finance where we looked at how shares are valued.
“I chose to do my Final Year project on the issue of auditor independence, researching the extent to which the principle of auditor independence might be compromised should the same auditor also provide management consultancy services to the business. This proved an interesting topic.
“For my placement year, I was delighted to land an accounting role with IBM where I gained good experience of accounts in a large organisation. I also mentored secondary school students as part of IBM’s Giving Back to the Community scheme.
“When it came to looking for a job for after I graduated, the staff in the Careers & Placement Centre at Brunel were extremely helpful and I have now been appointed as a Foundation Technology Consultant in the Oracle Division of IBM working in a team of Consultants helping IBM clients with IT issues. I’m really excited about this.”
Ron graduated with a 1st class honours degree in Business and Management in 2011.
“I looked at a number of other universities before deciding on Brunel for my degree course. I’d always seen going into business as the end game so business and management was the natural subject for me. I chose Brunel partly because I really liked the look of the campus: I liked the fact that it’s self contained, attractively laid out and being close to Uxbridge makes it very convenient too. But I was also looking for a degree programme that was well established and Brunel’s BSc Business and Management is just that.
“I greatly enjoyed my time at Brunel and I got involved in lots of activities whilst I was here. In particular, I am delighted to have been able to join the University of London Officers Training Corp (ULOTC), part of the Territorial Army (an opportunity that’s open to all Brunel students), serve as a student ambassador for the Business School’s new Business Life initiative as well as lead teams in the IBM Business challenge over the last three years. This greatly helped my confidence and improved my presentation, team working and leadership skills.
“For my project in my final year, I looked at how businesses prepare to ensure continuity in the face of the continuing threat from terrorism and disruption. My research involved contacting a large number of organisations including store owners in Oxford Street and Regents Street. Ensuring continuity is an area of business that particularly interests me and I would like eventually to work for a consultancy specialising in this.”
Chantelle Lowe - BSc Business and Management
Chantelle graduated in 2010 with a BSc Business and Management as well as the prize for the best business and management dissertation.
“As part of my degree, I did a placement at Yell, Reading where I was a Project Management Officer. During my final year, I carried out my final year project on the potential of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) in enhancing a graduate's employment. It was evident that graduate jobs were and still are scarce and I wanted to find out whether NLP could be a learning tool to enhance a graduate’s ability to gain employment, which after interviewing numerous NLP professionals and graduate employers proved to be worthy tool.
“After a break to do some volunteering, I hope to secure a job in project management, study for PRINCE2 and to further my knowledge to set up my own business.
“I learnt a great deal and gained a lot of experience whilst studying at Brunel especially throughout my placement year, which I would encourage any forthcoming student to choose as part of their course. Brunel has a strong unit of academics who offer the utmost support and most of all Brunel offers a great social life with numerous clubs, societies and events. I have had some of the best moments of my life at Brunel and left with many close friends and fond memories, which I will never forget.”
Gayaneh Sahakian - BSc Business and Management (Accounting)
Gayaneh graduated in 2010
“Immediately after graduating, I went back to work at Walt Disney where I did my placement. I actually got a job as a ‘Professional Buyer’ in Walt Disney Motion Pictures which looks after Disney film releases – it’s similar to an accounts payable role. Whilst this position is only a fixed-term contract post, I’m hoping to get a permanent position either at Disney or another Studio. I’m also aiming to pursue further accounting qualifications and aspire one day to become the Finance Director of a well-established film distribution company.
“For my final year project, I chose to research the effect of organisational change and employee perception of corporate restructurings. I looked at the thoughts and feelings of employees towards a restructuring that took place within a company and used the academic literature to explore whether companies were carrying out the right procedure.
I loved the campus atmosphere at Brunel. I also built long lasting relationships with a number of the tutors and I know they are there if I ever need any career advice in the future.
Jaimini Dodia - BSc International Business
Jaimini graduated with a 1st in International Business in 2011
“I chose International business at Brunel University because I thought it would give me a wider context of business in a global world which is what we are becoming and Brunel also provides the option of picking up a new language!
“I picked the sandwich course and wanted to land myself industrial experience in a large company after working in many small companies part time whilst studying so I was over the moon when I got the job at IBM.
“I learnt a lot in the year and not just on a laptop, but people skills and my confidence grew dramatically. My role was sales operations support, which meant that I had the responsibility of supporting sales reps and sales managers ensured data quality and produce reports and revenues files to do this. IBM also encouraged a great deal of career development as all industrial trainees were assigned a development manager as well as a task manager. “
“Whatever pathway chosen I would thoroughly recommend doing a placement.”
Maria Medina graduated with a BSc Business and Management (Marketing) in 2010 and won not only the prize for the best Marketing project but also the medal for the best project overall.
“The best thing about Brunel for me was that we were given enough time to develop our private study and research skills. The international environment was also really good - you got to meet people from all around the world with all sorts of backgrounds. Furthermore, Brunel’s societies and sports clubs gave me the opportunity to meet new people - not to mention it has some of the best sports facilities of any University I've visited.”
For her final year project, Maria chose to study the applicableness of involvement theories and constructs to products in the entertainment industry, particularly television shows, by using Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a case study. Maria opted to do a master’s degree after she graduated.
Nitasha Parhar – BSc International Business
Nitash Parhar graduated with an BSc International Business in 2010 and won the prize for the best International Business project.
“I feel that Brunel University accommodates students from all backgrounds. It's a diverse institution allowing students to learn and develop themselves using the support Brunel offers. Thanks to my Brunel degree, I have been successful in obtaining a permanent position working at FTSE, working within the Financial Markets based in London”
