Martha is a winner in Student Employee of the Year Awards

Essex business management graduate Martha Cook has won a Student Employee of the Year Award (SEOTY) for her internship at Colchester-based MSX International.

The national competition recognises and promotes students who successfully combine a part-time job alongside their studies and who make an exceptional contribution to the organisation where they work.

Martha, who lives in Colchester, was the South Regional Winner in the Above and Beyond Award, which honours exceptional students who consistently exceed the level of their duties and demonstrate outstanding commitment to their employer.

She successfully secured the funded part-time internship through Essex Interns during her final year at Essex. The internship was created exclusively for University of Essex students following a business networking event hosted at the Innovation Centre on the Knowledge Gateway, where MSX International is based.

MSX International is a leading, global provider of technology-enabled business process outsourcing services to automotive manufacturers and Martha’s role during her internship was Business and Administration Associate, where she worked alongside the HR/recruitment team but also supported ad-hoc projects in other teams.

“I really wanted to do an internship because I was well aware of how competitive it can be to find a graduate job once you’ve finished university,” explained Martha. “I had already completed a placement year, but I really felt that I needed to get as much work experience as possible to really improve my chances of standing out to future employers.”

She added: “I really enjoyed the role and it was great to gain a valuable insight into a different side of a business that I hadn’t worked in before and to understand better the day-to-day tasks of people in different roles. The role also helped me develop my time management and planning skills as it was important to be as efficient as possible so the team could progress through any projects we were working on.”

She was nominated by the HR team at MSX International, who described Martha as “a real trooper and superstar”.

The nomination stated: “Working within the HR department of any business is never easy - especially with the complexity of certain situations, however, Martha has remained professional and courteous to all. She proved to be an incredible, loyal, motivated, knowledgeable and hard-working member of our team.”

Martha, who is now currently applying for graduate roles, added: “I’m really pleased that I am a regional winner. It’s so nice to know that my work was appreciated and is something I am proud of.

“Essex has really helped me secure these work experiences, from helping me find and prepare for a placement year to helping secure this internship. Even now I have graduated there are lots of resources available to help me look for a graduate role. The support available at Essex is definitely something I’m really appreciative of and is something that I definitely think sets Essex apart from other universities.”

Susan Stedman, Employer Services and Work Based Learning Manager at the University of Essex, said: “We are delighted to be working with MSX International to provide internships exclusively for University of Essex students this year and the fact that their first intern from us has been given this prestigious award shows just how much of a positive impact internships can have for both the intern and the company.”