Check out the Oxford Guild featured in The Independent on Friday 8th June 2012. The full article is copied below:

Resurrecting the Guild to its former glory

How one Oxford student, disappointed with the
lack of career guidance at the university, brought the once-prestigious Oxford
Guild back to life

MICHAEL YOUNG

FRIDAY 08 JUNE 2012

As the UK’s largest and oldest student-run business society, the Oxford Guild has for decades been associated with a range of commercial organisations from investment banks to industrial firms.

With the aim of equipping its members with ‘the knowledge, transferrable skills, and networking opportunities needed to develop successful careers in their chosen area of the business world’, the positive praise and accolades the society has received throughout the years,along with the high ranking positions of many of its alumni, is testament to its success.

Until 2005 the Guild had its own offices on George Street, a commercial thoroughfare in the centre of the city, where it would host events and first round interviews with a range of global firms. A generous annual budget of hundreds of thousands of pounds enabled the society to throw events such as the main fairs at Oxford and publish its own career guides. In 1996 it almost merged with the illustrious Oxford Union debating society.

But at the turn of 2005 things changed: the once-thriving society split into smaller societies and, over the following years, declined until it was no longer an active presence at the university.

This continued to be the case for the next five years until 2010 when, in his first year studying history at New College, student Abbas Kazmi decided to address the situation. Along with his peers, he was struck by the lack of career guidance at Oxford. The work done by the existing business societies had stagnated and their events and offerings were not of adequate quality to meet demand. He did not approve of the way they were spending sponsor money on their own committees rather than on services for sponsors and members.

Kazmi decided he would take action to change the status quo, wanting to “offer something different”and set about resurrecting the Oxford Guild society, which he’d heard about from his uncle – a member some fifteen years before.  He got together a group of keen and motivated students who shared his vision and sought support from the Oxford University Student Union, the Careers Service and the Said Business School. From there, the wheels were set in motion and the Guild’s progress has been rapid beyond imagination.

Today, the Guild has a 35-strong committee and more than 15 sponsors and 6,000 members, much more than any other society of its ilk across the country. While the past year has been “hectic but enjoyable” Kazmi is proud of the society’s achievements and attributes its success in part to support from his co-president, Adam Chekroud and vice-presidents, Jacqueline and Sam.

The Guild now holds a large number of events and activities for Oxford students ranging from presentations and speaker events to mock interviews, assessment centres, internship opportunities and the chance to compete in managing a virtual online portfolio.

Other highlights over the past year have included the champagne socials with Deloitte and Unilever (the biggest events held by any society in Oxford in the Michaelmas and Hilary terms), a huge buyside vs. sellside presentation with BlackRock, a banking afternoon tea for first years with nine investment banks attending, a garden social with BP and talks fromMade in Chelsea star and entrepreneur Francis Boulle and the society’s honorary President, Peter Cruddas, the billionaire founder of CMC Markets.

A 60-page careers guide is due to be published in the next month but the most exciting venture on the society’s horizon is the launch of a network for business societies, the National Union of Student Business Societies. The brainchild of Kazmi, the union is made up of one representative from each of the 24 Russell Group universities with the goal of creating a national network founded by student business societies for student business societies.

The network will support and represent the societies to help promote careers in the business world. The long-term vision is a thriving network of student-led business societies or groups in every university and college in the country, providing the essential information, advice and inspiration needed for young entrepreneurs within five years.

With the economic crisis, Occupy protests and current climate, Kazmi stresses the importance of promoting careers in the business world to young people to show them commercial careers in the right light. Society support will include training, advice and shared best practice sessions, annual society one-day bootcamps, a national mentorship scheme and link-ups with secondary schools. The NUSBS also plans to organise a yearly trip to New York, an annual conference and work together on a termly collaborative magazine.

The hard work carried out by the committee has paid off: the society has received glowing testimonials from both students, sponsors and others and helped one large FTSE 100 firm increase it applications from Oxford by more than 20 per cent. Featured as a ‘rising star’ in the Gateway National newspaper the Guild’s brand name and reputation are unrivalled, re-establishing itself as one of the powerhouse societies in the country. Its reputation is based on experience, expertise and in-depth understanding of both the university academic community’s and sponsors’ needs. With this illustrious history and a dedicated and motivated team with strong leadership at the helm, the Oxford Guild can only grow even more.

For more information visit http://theoxfordguild.com/