How to highlight your Chevening Scholarship to employers

You’ve just finished your year abroad with Chevening and now you’re heading back home to continue your career. How should you frame your year abroad to employers?

Here are our tips for how to highlight your Chevening achievements to best position yourself to potential employers.

On LinkedIn

There are several ways to highlight your Chevening Scholarship on LinkedIn. Here are a few of our favourites currently being used by Chevening Alumni.

  1. Post about your experience

LinkedIn is a great place to celebrate your achievements, so why not write a post about your experience in the UK and with your Chevening network? This will let your immediate connections know you’re available for work and help you get seen by potential employers.

Remember to tag people who have been instrumental in your journey, for instance classmates or fellow Cheveners. Don’t forget us, either find us on LinkedIn under Chevening Awards!

  1. Put “Chevening Scholar” in your LinkedIn headline

Your LinkedIn headline will appear just below your name in searches and when you show up on potential employers’ news feeds. Including your Chevening Scholarship – as well as other notable achievements and specialisms – can be a great way to stand out to employers.

  1. List your scholarship as work experience

On LinkedIn, your degree will appear at the bottom, beneath all of your work achievements. This is why it’s a good idea to list your Chevening Scholarship as a position you’ve held, so that it appears at the top of your profile to quickly explain the gap in your CV, and let employers know about this big achievement.

  1. Link any coverage of the scholarship

Finally, include links to any coverage of your scholarship online. This might be on the UK Government’s website, or any local news sources.


On your C.V.

Similarly to your LinkedIn profile, you should list your Chevening Scholarship at the top of your CV, as your most recent work experience. Make sure you include some key facts about the award, for instance

  • Chevening Scholarships are awarded by the UK government to develop international leaders.
  • Scholars are selected based characteristics including leadership potential, networking ability, and having a clear career plan.
  • Just 2-3% of applicants are accepted into the programme, making it a very prestigious honour.

In job interviews

In an interview for a new role, the hiring manager might ask you what relevance Chevening has to your overall career trajectory.

Just as when you were preparing for your Chevening interview, you should make sure to be specific here about your overall career goals, and where your Scholarship – and now this new role – fits into that plan.

For example, if you used your Chevening Scholarship to pursue a degree in Managing Information Systems, you might explain how that fits into your overall goal of becoming the Chief Technology Officer of a social startup – and how the role you’re applying for is relevant to this journey.

Other areas of your Chevening Scholarship you might highlight to an employer include:

  • Any Chevening social media posts or blogs you’ve written or featured in
  • Any extra-curricular activities you pursued while in the UK
  • The community you’re now able to tap into, both within your own cohort, and within the wider Chevening Alumni network

Your acceptance into the Chevening Scholarship programme already proves you’re an exceptional individual with a purpose and the motivation to achieve your goals. With these tips in hand, you’ll be unstoppable!

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