Career Counselling

Session
At Balochistan University of Information Technology and
Management Sciences (BUITEMS)
by

RAFIULLAH KAKAR
 Preparing a scholarship
application
• Basic Thinking and Brainstorming

• What are your future plans/ career goals?

• Why do you want to apply for a Scholarship?

• How will the Scholarship help you achieve

your career goals?
Now that you have decided to
apply for a Scholarship

• Do some basic research

• What are the potential scholarships you

can apply for?

• Think about your course of Study/Degree

 Potential Scholarships
• Two main methods:

• Secure Scholarship before securing admission

• Secure admission and then look for Scholarships/funding sources

• Famous Scholarships

• Fulbright

• Chevening

• Commonwealth

• Australian Awards

• Gates

• Lady Noon

• Weidenfeld

• Erasmus mundus

• HEC Scholarships

• Rhodes
 Developing a strong
Scholarship Application

• Personal Statement (and Statement of

Purpose)

• References/Letters of Recommendation

• Resume/CV
 How to write a Personal
Statement
• Potential Game-Changer and the only lever under
your control

• Determine your purpose in writing the SOP

• Keep in mind the audience

• Why is the scholarship important to

you?

• Then work on the actual content of the SOP

• Your SOP must be “personal to the core”

 Content of SOP
• Answer the following three questions:

• How have you pursued your education?

• (inspiration/motivating factors, challenges; What has made

you what you are?)

• What are your future goals/career plans?

• (How did you develop the interest and what you want to do
with it? Suggest a future plan with some evidence of interest
and preparation?)

• How will the Scholarship help you achieve your career goals?
 Style of the Statement
• Beginning of your essay

• An interesting story/experience

• Qoutation

• Catchy and appealing but no need for drama and spice

• Set the primary theme of your essay here

• Don’t jus recount your experiences

• You need to give more than mere descriptive account

• Describe what you learned from a particular experience and how

it changed you as a person
 DO’s
• Be self-revelatory, honest and objective!

• Be specific, modest and realistic

• Maintain a coherent theme throughout your essay

• Include interesting facts that are not mentioned elsewhere in the application

• Correlate your academic background with your extracurricular experience so as to show how
they unite to make you a special candidate

• Do explain an extra-ordinary inconsistency in your score/career

• Devote almost equal space to different aspects of your life

• Give a Conclusion: Summarise the value and meaning of your experience, link it with future
goals and end it on an optimistic note

• Do edit and revise it (Grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalisation) (Minimum 5-8 drafts)
 DON’Ts
• Don’t turn the SOP into an extended version of CV (Incorporate only the most
important and relevant aspects)

• Avoid sweeping statements (e.g., I like helping people, I want to bring change) and
overly-common words (fascinating, hard working, remarkable, valuable). DO EXPLAIN
and justify if you have to use them.

• Don’t lecture the reader (e.g. Communication skills are very imp in this field). No
condescending tone

• Don’t give unrealistic and lofty ideals/goals

• Don’t flatter the University or Scholarship Committee

• Don’t repeat any information unless very necessary to make a point

• Don’t try to be funny. It can backfire

• Don’t use slang, abbreviations and casual language

 Conclusion
• Plan ahead

• Smart work is better than hard work

• Smart work = Hard work + Planning

• ALL THE BEST

• THANK YOU VERY MUCH