Year-in-Industry student Roshan Hirani returned from his placement at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) in 2021, having worked from home through the pandemic. He is now savouring his last year of campus life.
‘Overall, I felt as if a year of what could have been. I was thankful for all the different knowledge that I had gained over the year. However, if I had been able to work from the office, I would have learnt so much more and meet so many new people. Since being back though, I feel I have more of an idea that I want to take in my career. This made is very easy for me when it came to picking my modules. In terms of my habits, I noticed my ability to organise my day better. Having to handle multiple tasks at once allowed me to allocate my time between different activities much more efficiently. This has been hugely beneficial in my final year.
During my placement I kept in touch with the school, having had to undertake monthly blogs. It also became effortless to keep in contact with the school. It was great to have someone to fall back on when in need of some advice.
‘I noticed my ability to organise my day better. Having to handle multiple tasks at once allowed me to allocate my time between different activities much more efficiently. This has been hugely beneficial in my final year.’
As a returning placement student, I have gained a great amount of first-hand experience working from home. Covid has impacted everyone’s lives in different ways. As a result, I expected my final year to be very similar. However, things have been pretty good. For most of my university experience, I have been fortunate enough to take advantage of many different opportunities that you would normally expect. For example, being able to talk to someone without a mask on.
‘I was sceptical about coming back to Canterbury as I expected things to continue much like how my placement experience was… Working from home. However, being able to attend lectures in person and speak to seminar leaders, really does make a huge difference to the way we learn as individuals. As Covid picked up during December, it almost seemed inevitable that things would return to the days of lockdowns, but it was really encouraging to see society continue to work as normal and learn to live with the invisible enemy. As we reach the halfway mark of the academic year, I strongly encourage everyone to continue to take advantage of all the opportunities that the University has to offer, whether that being joining new societies, or simply going to see lecturers or seminar leaders to ask for some help. The overall university experience is very short, and you do not want to kick yourself and say ‘I wish I would have done this’. Do not hesitate, just do it!’
Roshan Hirani is studying for an Economics With Econometrics BSc (Hons) with A Year In Industry