As part of my studies, I completed a placement year split between two organisations, which provided me with experience in both higher education and the financial services industry.

For the first six months, I worked as a Placements Intern within the Placements Team at Loughborough Business School. This was an incredibly rewarding role because I could see the direct impact of my work. Many of the students I supported had little or no prior work experience and were unsure about their career goals, so working with them to build their confidence, strengthen their applications and ultimately secure placement offers was one of the best aspects of the role.

For the second part of my placement year, I joined HSBC as a Human Resources Intern. This role was very different from my experience at Loughborough and gave me exposure to a global organisation operating across multiple countries and time zones. One of the highlights was meeting senior executives across the business, including HSBC's CEO and learning about the different career paths available within the organisation.

These experiences gave me a much clearer understanding of professional life. While university develops your academic knowledge, a placement year teaches you about responsibility, accountability and the importance of collaborating with people from different backgrounds. It also helped me develop the confidence and workplace skills needed to transition successfully into full-time employment after graduation.

I now work within the UK Sales team of a global multi-specialist asset manager. It is a fast-paced, people-oriented role that combines communication, relationship management and commercial awareness. My Economics degree prepared me well for this career. Many of the concepts I studied including financial markets, economic trends and the factors that influence investment decisions, are topics I encounter and discuss regularly in my day-to-day work. The degree also strengthened my analytical thinking and problem-solving skills both of which are highly valued in the asset management industry. The Foundation Year was the starting point that made all this possible. Without it, I would not have had the academic foundation that enabled me to succeed and thrive while pursuing my degree.