Christina Singh – The Importance of the Student Job
In this series of interviews, we have talked to Christina Singh who is an international graduate with a Master of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. We asked her to share her story of how she managed to start a career in Denmark after her studies so that other international students could learn from her experience.
Christina’s story is one of the importance of getting a relevant student job and taking advantage of the flat hierarchy in the Danish culture.
Hired by COWI
Having finished her Bachelor of Political Science in Germany, Christina moved to Denmark to study Environmental and Natural Resource Economic in 2016. Half a year into her master’s programme one of her professors shared a job ad with her and the rest of the class. The position was a student job at COWI – a large consultancy firm in Denmark known – amongst other things – for their involvement in the Copenhagen Metro.
She found it odd that a professor would go out of his way to encourage his students to apply for a specific job, but she went ahead and applied for the position anyway. In the end it turned out that Christina was exactly the type of candidate they had been looking for as one of the requirements for the job was speaking different languages which gave her an advantage to Danish students. Shortly after submitting her application she was called in for an interview and was hired for the position.
With the experience and knowledge we have here at IDA please note that applying for student jobs early into your master’s programme is extremely important as the companies often prefer students who have more than a year left of their studies. So start early!
After graduation Christina was offered the opportunity to stay at COWI in a graduate position. This meant that she was hired on a 25-hour a week contract until COWI were able to offer her a full-time contract. Soon after, she was offered the job full time and today she is still working for COWI as a Consultant for Sustainable Biodevelopment where she works on projects all over the world. The pictures in this article are from projects where she collected data in Uganda on the potential of utilizing agricultural residues for producing energy/ rural electrification via micro grids and Colombia from a project on the potential of implementing blockchain in coffee value chains to accelerate sustainability, transparency and traceability.
Danish companies value work experience
Asked about what her best advice for international students in Denmark would be, Christina explains that it would always be beneficial for students to learn a bit of Danish to expand the range of jobs they can apply for after graduation. There are certain jobs you simply can not apply for unless you speak some Danish.
One of the things that surprised her was how little emphasis Danish companies put on high grades – she says that as a student you should definitely prioritize getting some relevant work experience be it through a student job or an internship. Finding a relevant student job is not easy, but with a professional CV and cover letter you can come a long way!
As a member of IDA, you can get individual feedback on your CV and cover letter from our career counsellors. Make sure to contact them as soon as you have found a relevant job to apply for. At IDA we know from our own reports that companies value relevant work experience when recruiting newly graduates, as this is the only way to show that you are able to apply all the theories you have learned during you studies to real life practical cases. Keep an eye on IDA’s job portal: IDA Student Jobfinder to find your next student job, internship or project collaboration. Here, only jobs within tech and science are posted and quite a few of them are in English.