From South Africa to KPMG: What Real International Student Career Support Looks Like
- Student Circus
- Jun 24
- 2 min read
The Story Behind the Statistic
When people talk about international student employability, they often reach for statistics — visa approval rates, employment percentages, graduate scheme numbers. But behind every stat is a person who spent nights refreshing job boards, emailing unanswered applications, and wondering whether their ambitions had a realistic home in the UK.
Jessica Pagel was one of those people. An MSc International Finance student from South Africa at the University of Westminster, Jessica arrived in the UK with drive, qualifications, and a very real problem: most employers wouldn't even read past the words "requires visa sponsorship."
A Platform That Understood the Problem
Jessica discovered Student Circus during her studies and credits it with changing the trajectory of her job search. "It was very frustrating having to search for companies that sponsor visas," she shared. "Student Circus was super ideal in how it lists and posts jobs that sponsor the Skilled Worker Visa."
She went on to land a role at KPMG — one of the world's leading professional services firms — through a targeted, visa-aware job search that Student Circus made possible. Her story is not an outlier. It is a blueprint.
Community Over Competition
What Jessica's story illustrates is something broader than a successful job placement. It reflects the community ethos at the heart of Student Circus. The platform's co-founders, Dhruv Krishnaraj and Tripti Maheshwari, were themselves international students navigating the same maze. That shared experience shapes every feature, every piece of content, and every ambassador the platform recruits.
At the University of Westminster, Student Circus ambassadors are visible presences on campus — at career fairs, on panel discussions, at welcome events for new international students. They aren't brand representatives. They are peers.
The Westminster Model Worth Replicating
Westminster's Careers and Employability Service Manager, Tracey Wells, summarises the value clearly: "Students like to hear from other students and recent graduates, and ask them questions." It is this peer-to-peer quality — layered on top of robust career tools — that has made Westminster's partnership with Student Circus so enduring since 2018.
The university even featured Student Circus on its podcast Flip It, in the Global Ambitions series, where campus ambassador Nicolle Bonciu offered practical advice on using the platform for job searching — further evidence of how deeply the partnership is embedded in student life.
If you want to understand what genuine, community-centred international student career support looks like in practice — not just in a mission statement — this story is worth reading in full.
Sources:
Comments