This is the first Coventry student ever to be offered an internship at Google

Bilal Sayed Gol, a Coventry University student who's currently on his gap year working on his own business, is flying out to Dublin this June to work for the multinational technology company that is Google. This makes Bilal the first ever Cov student to be offered this opportunity.

The internship will be for 3 months, meaning that Bilal can go straight into his final year at Cov Uni afterwards. He'll be working in marketing and sales during his time at Google, and will be given the opportunity to work with massive agencies and companies, helping them make the most of Google adverts, Google analytics, etc.

But opportunities like this don't come easy, and Bilal has certainly put the work in. He said:

"I started preparing from my first year onwards really. I did a spring week in my first year at L'Oreal, which is basically an internship that you do for one week in April. I was doing that to build my CV, and I knew I had to start early. Then I did another Spring week in Edinburgh with RBS last April. So that all really helped my CV get to a place where I could apply to places like Google."

Bilal received support from one agency who aim to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds, but also found the support available from the University itself invaluable. He said:

"Students don't know about the amazing resources that can help them get a top internship, and there is a lot; the employability office, the employability officers, the Moodle page that has all the internships listed, there's people to look at CVs, cover letters, they have students from top companies coming in to teach you. I had one guy from Microsoft, who's also a Coventry University student, helping me as well."

In terms of the future, Bilal has big dreams, but doesn't intend on leaving Cov Uni behind. He said:

"I'm going to go to Google this summer, see if I like the job, come back to university, continue working on my business 3-4 days a week whilst I go to my classes and finish my exams, and then after I graduate, if my business is generating good money, then I would continue with my business, if my business is not generating the money I want, I would like to go back to have a job at Google.

"If not, I'd like to go to somewhere like Microsoft or IBM, somewhere I can go to become better and improve as a person. But I would also like to come back to the University and give talks to other students and help them out, as well."

Bilal said he felt "amazing" having been given such an incredible opportunity and beating all the odds, and wants to help others from Cov Uni achieve similarly amazing things, even offering to share his own CV with others for guidance, and look over cover letters and CVs himself.