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BA (Hons) Social Science聽with Management, 2014
My current role as a Service Delivery Manager requires me to look after our suppliers and ensure they are providing the service they should be. This requires a bit of travelling to visit them and making sure they are operating as expected. However, my 鈥渉obby鈥 which is basically my second full time job is as a referee. In Scotland I referee men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 football. Men鈥檚 as an assistant in the Lowland, East of Scotland and Juniors leagues then I referee in the Women鈥檚 Scottish Premier League, which is the highest league in Scotland. I am also a FIFA Assistant Referee, which means I can run the line in Champions League, World Cup and European Qualifiers as a few examples!
Once I left Abertay I was lucky enough to get a job at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as an Assistant Venue Logistics Manager. It was a great job and I had to learn a lot of things quickly! I also had front row seats to the Commonwealth Games, which was fantastic. During this I applied for the Operations Graduate scheme at Standard Life Investments and was successful. Since starting at SLI, I've had four聽placements around the business in over two聽years, which resulted in a full-time role in our Global Supplier Management Function. I have now been in this role for two聽years and love it!
Refereeing-wise I continued to work hard after university and was lucky enough to be nominated in 2016 for my FIFA badge representing Scotland. Since then I have travelled to Austria, Albania, Croatia and Northern Ireland refereeing in Champions League, Euro and World Qualifiers. I am excited to see what the future holds in this space!
My degree helps me every day in my role, it really relates to business every day - whether that is dealing with/managing suppliers or during a football match and managing stakeholders. It is funny when I am on training courses and a lot of my degree reappears within the theory side; it鈥檚 great that I already have that edge.
My degree helps me every day in my role, it really relates to business every day - whether that is dealing with/managing suppliers or during a football match and managing stakeholders.Vikki Allan | Standard Life Investments | Service Delivery Manager
Definitely the people, the students that I met and the lecturers were all great. Charlie Malone was an excellent lecturer and so encouraging. I always look back at聽the feedback and opportunities he gave me, they are still relevant today in my job and I am聽grateful for that. Jan Law was also excellent and another one that her ideas and lessons are still relevant today. I loved that she was so passionate about her subject and was great for creating a debate, which has definitely helped me in my role when I need to stand my ground in something I believe in.
Another big aspect I鈥檓 grateful for was the Principal's Award. I really appreciated the experiences I gained from that. The mentor I had was excellent and then the chance to have a mock assessment centre and interview was also amazing! I was able to use this experience on my CV and during interviews; they were all impressed I had done that little extra while at university to get ready for the world of work. I highly recommend this to any student looking for that little something extra!
Gosh, there are so many to choose from! One of my favourite modules was where I got to go and work with a charity for the year. This experience was fantastic and I was聽essentially a project manager at a local charity. I then managed to connect this in with the University and聽run a careers fair in the Union, which we managed to get Microsoft, Police Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland and many others along. I loved the opportunity to collaborate between the charity and use my connections from my time at Abertay.
Graduation was obviously a lasting memory as well, being with all of my friends and lecturers to celebrate our four聽years together!
Grab every opportunity that the University offers you. I think I gained additional skills from taking part in the Principal's Award and the module in fourth year to go volunteer at a charity that others in my year didn鈥檛 have. The University genuinely want all of the students to do well, so ask for help when you aren鈥檛 sure and work hard!