What are your career plans? 

This is a tough one as there are so many things I want to try! If there’s one thing I know, is that nothing ever goes according to plan so I’m just going with what works for me at the time. Right now, I want to graduate and work as a software engineer for a company where I can grow my technical skills and create cool things whilst I’m at it. I’m interested in a wide range of modules at Uni and I think it’d be fun to explore these more in-depth later on. I am quite ambitious and would like to be a CEO one day, but I want to spend as much time as I can learning all there is to be a software engineer. 

How supported do you feel about engaging with Industry and as part of applying for your placement/graduate roles? 

For applying for placements, I felt thoroughly supported through the entire process. I used DoC’s InPlace system to find open roles to apply for and it was also great at logging my progress on searching for a placement. I used knowledge from my first and second-year modules as well as a bunch of coding books to prepare myself for the interviews and coding challenges part of the applications. I think it’s easy to overlook how brilliantly the degree prepares you for industry, as things we learn in the first year (e.g. how to use git, using an IDE, reasoning about programs) really do set up an engineering mindset and thus makes it easier for us to understand how to write code, which is a fantastic baseline to have when working in an industry setting. 

Which courses have you chosen to specialize in and why? 

I’ve chosen to pursue a non-specialised degree so that I can have the freedom to choose whichever modules I prefer. I actually applied for the JMC degree before switching to Computing, however, I do enjoy crunching numbers and solving the odd statistics questions, therefore I’m currently picking courses that have a strong mathematical foundation, such as Computer Vision and Intro to ML. One great thing about Imperial is that you can choose to study something non-STEM related through its Horizon program, so I’ve been studying Korean Horizons since the first year which has been a nice breath of fresh air, away from all my other technology-related courses.

What is the one thing that any new Imperial student in DoC should know?

The one thing I’d like new DoC students to know is that the department genuinely cares about students’ wellbeing. Each year we fill out feedback for our courses and lecturers and over the past few years, I’ve seen a drastic change in course structures which were in line with some of the feedback received. There is also amazing pastoral support and a pleasant atmosphere of bringing each other up amongst my peers.