Finding a path for International students to thrive | Kritesh Bisht

In this blog we feature University of Birmingham Management graduate Kritesh Bisht who has created a start-up inspired by his own personal experience. Kritesh recently shared a Linkedin post to reflect back on his journey.

Kritesh: Over the past 7 years, I completed my Bachelor’s, started a company, moved to a different country, finished a Master’s, and started another company InStudents. Yet, I never really posted anything on Linkedin about this, until now. 

As a textbook introvert and someone who has battled imposter syndrome throughout his life, I never thought I had anything valuable to share.

What changed today then?

I think at some point in our lives we find a cause that is much bigger than us. A cause that gives us purpose. A cause that pushes us to do things that we’d normally not even think about. I am lucky to have found my cause – Education.

Education enabled Kritesh, a boy from a middle-class family in rural India to start a company at the age of 20. It gave him the courage to move to a completely different country to pursue a Masters. Education taught him that he should not wait, but bring the change that he wants to see in the world.

After talking to hundreds of international students and graduates in the past few months who shared experiences that were strikingly similar to mine, I realised that there is a serious need for change.

Before coming to the UK, I had a long chat with an international student who shared his struggle to find his first full-time job. Last year, when I was going through that phase, I could resonate with everything he said. For an international student, it is not just about finding a job, we need to find accommodation, deal with the uncertainty of our visas, figure out how to write a dissertation, work part-time to pay bills, and, on top of that, save money to pay back our education loan. This might not apply to every international student, but the majority of us go through our version of this taxing and mentally exhausting phase.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩 is InStudents’ attempt to support international students through this difficult phase and assist them in finding their first full-time job in the UK.

PathFinder is by no means a substitute for universities’ career services. In fact, if you ask me, the university’s careers team is the best resource to find a job. PathFinder intends to build on the brilliant work they do and compliment them. 

The idea is to create a cohort system to provide broader, but personalised, support to international students. If you are an international student/graduate in Birmingham (or know someone who is) and are looking for your first job in the UK. 

Feel free to apply here to join the pilot cohort (https://lnkd.in/ewJgmq2p). It is absolutely free for all students and recent graduates. 

A change is long overdue, and I am excited to see how the PathFinder Project positively affects international students’ experience.

With thanks to Kritesh Bisht
Added by Bob Lee