University student scores a Google first
THE countdown has started for a Coventry University student who is set to make history when he takes up a sought-after internship at Google.
Bilal Sayed Gol will be the first Coventry University student to take up a placement at the Silicon Valley tech giant.
The international business management student will fly to Dublin in June, where he will complete the threemonth internship working in marketing and sales at Google’s European headquarters.
Currently on a gap year developing his own marketing business, it represents a dream come true for Bilal.
However it is also the result of a lot of hard work and comes in the wake of him overcoming more than a few life challenges.
Bilal arrived in the UK as an immigrant from Afghanistan along with his family.
Explaining his journey he said: “My family is from Afghanistan, we came to the UK as immigrants and got granted citizenship after a few years.
“I went to a normal secondary school and got my GCSEs after which I did a BTEC in engineering at college.
“I spent one year at Wolverhampton University and quickly figured it wasn’t the place for me, so I transferred to study at Coventry University business school for my second year.
“In my second year I had to work a lot on the side and I had a part-time job.”
Bilal has always been focused on the importance of getting the kind of work experience with companies people are queuing up to work for.
He has already completed shorter spring internships at L’Oreal and RBS.
“I was applying to three different companies a week for spring weeks so after about 50 applications and many interviews I got two spring weeks, one at L’Oreal and one at RBS.
“I spent one week with L’Oreal but wasn’t offered the summer internship and one week at RBS and I was offered the summer internship.”
That spurred Bilal on to pursue his dream of working for one of the most influential companies in the world.
He said: “Come the summer of 2018 I knew I wanted to be in an amazing company, so I started applying to summer internships and after 200 applications and more than 100 rejections I managed to get an offer from Google.
“I was actually interviewed by eBay, Amazon, Deutsche Bank and other household brand names too but was rejected every single time.”
Bilal says he is hugely excited about his Google placement.
He said: “I will be in their Dublin headquarters starting in June and I will be placed in the global marketing solutions team.”
He hopes the experience will prove invaluable as he bids to build his own marketing business.
“I took this year off university to work on my own business where I help local business with digital marketing - my company is called Grow Smartly,” he said.
“I am hoping to move to London with my business partner after university and work full time on my own marketing agency.”
Bilal hopes landing the Google internship will inspire other students too.
He said: “Coventry University is a great place where you can thrive and be amazing at what you do, and I would suggest everyone at the university apply to their dream jobs - even if its at JP Morgan, Google or any other firm that seems impossible to get to.
“I just feel like if an immigrant kid with a poor background and a public education can get to Google, everyone else has a great shot at getting what they want in life especially in their careers.”