They say to succeed in business you need great contacts – an old adage that has rung true for De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) student Sofiya Abdullatif who has earned a year-long placement in Taiwan.
Leicester-based Sofiya visited Vietnam last year via DMU Works, which offers students career opportunities in every year of their degree, and the university’s international experience programme DMU Global.
The trip, in conjunction with Pagoda Projects, involved meeting people offering training, placement and job opportunities in Asia and further afield.
While there Sofiya met up with somebody who explained about scholarships being offered to work in Taiwan, Vietnam, China and Mexico.
As soon as she returned home, Sofiya looked up her contact, applied and has now earned a Women in Technology scholarship to work in Taiwan for up to 12 months.
“It was really exciting when I found out”, Sofiya says. “It is something I have always wanted to do but I really didn’t know how to go about it.”
“The trip to Vietnam was fantastic. It was a really good experience for me and it presented me with the opportunity to meet and speak to people who could help me achieve what I wanted to do.
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“All of the students I travelled with were from other disciplines, studying different subjects from me. We worked in groups and it was great to hear business ideas from people who might approach things in an alternative way from me.
“The trip was for one week, but in that time I learned so much.”
It’s cause for a double celebration for Sofiya.
She has just completed her BSc in Business Information Systems, a course run in conjunction with computing giant Hewlett Packard (HP), which is specifically tailored to meet the computing needs of commerce and industry.
On the back of her studies and her experiences in Vietnam, Sofiya is starting a job with Next, the clothing giant whose headquarters are in Enderby, just outside Leicester.
The COVID-19 pandemic means the trip to Taiwan is on hold and Sofiya will be committing to a career with Next.
But she still has her business contacts in the Far East, for when the opportunity arises to travel again.
- The pandemic is restricting movement around the world but the award-winning DMU Global scheme is offering opportunities to expand your horizons while on campus, starting in September. Read about the opportunities here
Posted on Thursday 23 July 2020