Sumedh's success story: Securing a Graduate role with EY

Sumedh is a Computer Science graduate from Manchester University. He secured a role as a Technology Risk Graduate at EY in Manchester, through Bright Network.  

First, please tell us a little bit about yourself.

"I've always been interested in new technologies. As a kid it meant reading up on how different graphic cards can enhance my gaming experience and as an adult it's been understanding how I can leverage emerging tools to build cool projects. I love experimenting and seriously considered a career in academia.

Over time, I realised it's important to appreciate the commercial impact of projects to make a business case for my experiments. This led to me to pursue a business role where I can also use my technical background. I've found the perfect role to build this commercial awareness and I'm very happy about it!"

What motivated you to apply for your role?

"I noticed the role involved consulting some of the biggest businesses in the UK across a diverse set of industries. This seemed very interesting to me despite not knowing specifics of the day to day in the role.

On further research I learnt about risk consulting and how businesses benefit from it. I was doing a course on cybersecurity at the time that I was very passionate about, so it was a no brainer to apply."

What was your application journey like?

"It was very standard. I had taken quite a few of the situational judgement mock tests at that point and I had also researched EY's values on the website which helped me prepare.

I made use of my university's career advice services to do a mock video interview that helped me gain confidence before going into the actual interview."

What have you learned from going through the process?

"It's important to control your nerves. I was intimidated by the thought of being interviewed by senior management who have more work experience than me. It helped when I kept reminding myself that it's also another human on the other side curious to learn about me."

What are you most proud of about your journey?

"Not giving up! The grad schemes are incredibly competitive and the application and assessments are very time consuming.

Receiving rejection emails despite putting in all the time and effort can pull you down quite a lot. Not letting it consume me and being resilient only got easier with time and I'm happy things worked out for me."

How did Bright Network help you secure your role?

"I received email updates for roles that were suitable for my background and aligned with my interests. This allowed me to always apply to jobs as soon as they were posted and stay on top of my applications."

What are your tips for people looking to follow in your footsteps? 

"Apply early, complete your assessments as soon as you can since the deadlines can be a bit tight and follow the STAR technique in your answers."