What Comes Next? is a course-aligned event series aimed at sharing the knowledge and experience of recent graduates. This will help students to better understand the variety of opportunities and career fields open to them after university.
Until now, What Comes Next? has delivered several events across all three University colleges featuring recent graduate panels who spoke with current undergraduate students and shared their own stories regarding what they each did with their degree. The event series continues to expand across priority courses.
Who are the events aimed at?
The events so far have proven to be very successful and useful to students.
- 97% of student attendees found it useful to hear from recent graduates
- 100% feel that they have learnt about resources aiding their employability
- 91% found the speakers approach to be ‘good’ or ‘very good’
As the events are course-aligned, they are aimed at the students on specific courses. Students will be notified by their lecturers if and when a What Comes Next? event will be run for them during the academic year. Students across all levels from those courses are welcome to attend.
The benefits of attending
- Learn from recent graduates (who graduated in the last 3–4 years) who have dealt with the same concerns and gone through similar experiences as you might be going through
- Discover the career opportunities available to you after graduation – including off-the-track fields. For example, some of our speakers have gone from:
- Studying International Relations to working at the Cabinet Office or in Investor Relations
- Studying Business Management to working in advertising or founding their own business
- Studying Criminology to working in Cyber Security Technology or at the Serious Fraud Office
- Hear about the interview experiences of recent graduates
- Learn how to connect with employers and secure a job via networking or cold-calling
- Find out about resources that can help enhance your skills or help you with your job search
2021–2022 pilot-year events
51 student attendees completed the post-event feedback form:
- 92% found the content to be 'good' or 'very good'
- 94% felt that they have learned about resources to improve their employability
- 96% found it useful to hear from recent graduates
- 90% of students found that there were ‘good’ or ‘very good’ takeaways for the sessions
- 100% of students found the speaker approach to be ‘good’ or ‘very good’
- 90% of students feel better placed in terms of employability after attending a WCN? event
Testimonials:
It was an honour to come back to Westminster to speak to the students and give them advice, as it wasn’t long ago that I was in the same position and would have loved to have this opportunity. I’m glad I could be of assistance and hope that the advice given will help them in their careers.
– Speaker Tasfia Sufi, Support Team Leader at the Cabinet Office (International Relations BA, 2018)
Testimonials:
To see former students return to Westminster and share their wisdom, maturity and guidance was most heartening and reassuring.
– Dr Sanjay Joban, Course Leader for the Psychology and Counselling BSc
Testimonials:
It’s a good experience to have these conversations because you’ll also learn through hearing from the other speakers or responding to questions you might not have asked yourself.
– Speaker Rania Joudi, Security Specialist at the International SOS (Criminology and Sociology BA, 2019)
It’s an absolute pleasure to see what interesting and important things our alumni are doing and to give them a chance to share their experiences with our current students. I couldn’t be prouder of our alumni. Undoubtedly, our current students will have a much better understanding of what they need to do to get the job of their dreams following this event.
– Dr Lea Sitkin, Senior Lecturer and Co-Course Leader for the Criminology BA
It was great to participate in the Biosciences alumni panel and impart a little wisdom on working life after graduation!
– Speaker Orlando Ross, Technologist at Abbott (Biomedical Sciences BSc, 2021)
2022–23 events
After a successful pilot, ‘What Comes Next?’ expanded across all three colleges in 2022–23, including the College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries (DCDI), Westminster Business School (WBS) and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS). The event series also returned to being delivered in person, giving students the opportunity to network with recent graduates.
211 student attendees completed the post-event feedback form:
- 97% of students found it useful to hear from recent graduates
- 91% of students intend to participate in more employability skill development activities
- 94% of students understand what networking is
- 87% of students feel confident in their ability to link study subjects with career opportunities
The Alumni speaker event was great because it provided insight into the industry from someone that attended our University. Besides that, the panel gave us advice and feedback on what it takes to go to the next level in our professional career. Personally, I feel motivated and would advise anyone who is interested in working in the financial sector to attend similar events.
– Timotej Zrnec, Finance student
The Alumni Panel was quite informative about what’s it really like to find a job after university, and how certain steps I am able to take to improve my chances as well as broaden my knowledge on the types of jobs in IT, I left the event more dedicated than ever. Thank you!
– Christopher Pascal-Kelly, Computer Science student
I had such a great time at the event, it was a really valuable opportunity. And so great to hear the students felt it made a positive impact too!
– Lauren Gillies, Alumni speaker
Thank you so much for having me! I really enjoyed the event and am glad that we covered such a broad range of topics relating to industry. It genuinely was lovely to see so many people interested in working in industry.
– Etive Pomfret-McHardy, speaker
I especially enjoyed that the speakers were working in different fields, so I got to listen to different experiences.
– Alen Melero Yerinkova, Politics and International Relations student
I had a great time at the event and would like to say thanks for organising the whole thing, it felt very streamlined and professional. It's also great to hear that students found the event useful!
– Jake James, speaker
My experience at the event was really moving. I was so inspired by the honesty of the panelists about their choices and tough decisions… It gave me a taster of what really comes next after school.
– Omotola Akinnagbe, Human Nutrition student
Playlists
Want to learn more about our events? Access the full recordings via our YouTube playlists to find out more:
Alumni video series
In addition to the events, alumni from the School of Humanities, School of Architecture and International Business courses have also shared their experience and top insights in 2–7 minute videos. The videos can be watched via the below links:
- What Comes Next? Video Series – School of Humanities
- What Comes Next? Video Series – School of Architecture
- What Comes Next? Video Series – International Business