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Operations Officer: Inspire Me

By UCL Careers, on 10 October 2015

As part of our #UCLInspireMe series, Laura Davies, UCL Alumnus (BSc Human Science, 2013 and MSc Technology Entrepreneurship, 2014) and Operations Officer at BaseStone, talks to us about how she got this role and shares some tips for UCL students who want to get into the sector. basestone.laura

How did you get into your role?

I’m Laura, I am the Operations Officer at BaseStone. BaseStone is a tool for architects and engineers to capture and communicate data more effectively. It connects people and data in construction, reducing costs and mistakes on projects.

I found out about the role through a mentor of mine. She knew the founder of the company and knew that they were looking for someone to help them grow the business. The majority of the team was made up of software developers so they were hiring for new employees on the business side.

I chose this career because of the opportunities for growth. There was a huge amount of potential for me to develop my own skill set, confidence and abilities in so many areas. I think I recognised that the business was at a really interesting point – the technology was in demand by the industry and there were many customers in the pipeline.  But there was a need for all of the pieces of the puzzle around the technology to be put in place – I wanted to be the person to do that! It was an exciting challenge and I knew that this would give me a breadth of experience like no other.

What are the best things about working in your role?

I think working with the a team that care so much about what they do is my favourite part of the job. Everyone is so passionate about our mission – bringing change to the construction industry. We work very closely together so it really helps that we all get on!

The work is also interesting. What we are doing is quite ground-breaking – we’re disrupting an ancienct industry. It’s really interesting to be part of the change. I get to go out on construction sites to visit our users. So I have been on Crossrail sites, seeing London’s future infrastructure being built which is pretty cool too.

As part of my role, I work with a huge range of people – from graduate engineers to important industry figures. It’s great to have that diversity

Biggest success in your role?

I am really proud of the community we have built around what we are doing. As the industry is quite old fashioned, we’ve developed our own community of disruptors. We hold events to champion disruption and discuss the future of the built environment. The last event had over 120 attendees and caused a real stir in the industry.

What are the biggest challenges you face in your work?

The biggest challenge is having to hit the ground running with things you’ve never done before. But technology is a really supportive industry – there are mentors, events, free courses and many meetup groups that you can get advice from.

It’s a challenge but it pushes you to realise your full potential. It provides an excellent springboard for your career.

What top tips would you pass on to a student interested in this type of work?

Developing your network is the single most important thing. As I mentioned, the world of startups and technology is friendly and supportive. People will generally be happy to have a coffee or call with you if you reach out to them. So don’t be afraid to ask!

I would recommend getting some experience in a startup before you jump right into one. I did the UCL Advances Summer Internship Programme in my second year of university. You get a paid internship for 8 weeks in a small company – I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.

You can also develop yourself and build your skill set. I did the CodeFirst:Girls coding course which gave me coding skills that I still use today. There are many free courses like this in London, for both men and women to develop skills in tech. UCL Advances also do many events and workshops.

Good luck!

To find our more about working in a startup, either come in an speak to a Careers Consultant or visit UCL Advances.

How my arts degree led to a career as a digital entrepreneur

By UCL Careers, on 16 September 2015

This guest post is from Zoe Amar, Director of Zoe Amar Communications
Zoe Amar headshot

Earlier this summer Forbes proclaimed that arts degrees were the hottest ticket for a career in tech. It reminded me of my own journey from a BA in English Literature at Warwick to running my own digital marketing agency, working with clients such as Charities Aid Foundation, The Commonwealth War Graves Commission and The School for Social Entrepreneurs. Careers in digital and communications are popular options for undergraduates, as is eschewing the conventional graduate scheme for life as an entrepreneur. UCL have asked me to share what I’ve learned along the way.

  1. Accept that any career path you choose may be circuitous and involve some risk. After graduating, I was an English teacher for a year before heading to law school then working in the City. But even though I did well in those jobs and learned a lot, there was always something missing. I quit my job as a lawyer and thought long and hard over what I wanted to do next, aided by John Lees’ invaluable book How to Get a Job You Love. It was a bit scary to walk away from a well paid job but without doing that I would never have ended up in a job I love so much. I took a placement doing marketing on a pro bono basis at a national charity which specialised in digital services.  Just a few weeks in they offered to create a new role for me as head of marketing, and after I’d been there for 5 years I left and set up my own agency. I’d say learn whatever you can from every job you have and follow your instincts about what is right for you.
  2. Digital doesn’t mean that ‘soft’ skills are redundant. As the Forbes article showed, digital is evolving rapidly and requires strong technical and analytical knowledge. Yet people skills such as being able to ‘read the room’ and nurture client relationships are necessary to capitalise on the benefits of digital. Much as I love it, digital is just a set of tools. It’s how you use them that counts.
  3. Being an entrepreneur is hard but rewarding. It might sound glamorous but running your own business means taking on a lot of risk and round the clock hard graft. The upside is that it stretches you and is incredibly empowering. It’s also offered me amazing experiences such as working with household names, giving a lecture on digital strategy at Cambridge,  and doing a bit of radio and TV. If you have the opportunity to work for yourself I urge you to take it. I’ve run my own business for the last couple of years and recently blogged about everything it has taught me.

I’d recommend that anyone starting out in their career is open minded and learns everything they can.  Work isn’t one linear path from university to the corner office anymore; it’s a journey. Enjoy it.

Zoe Amar is Director of Zoe Amar Communications. She also writes for The Guardian Voluntary Sector Network about how nonprofits use digital, and is a trustee of a national charity.

To discuss career options, book an appointment to see a Careers Consultant at UCL Careers.

Head of Specialist Factual, Reef Television : Inspire Me

By UCL Careers, on 26 August 2015

As part of our #UCLInspireMe series, Ben Weston, Head of Specialist Factual, Reef Television,  talks to us about how he got this role and shares some tips for UCL students who want to get into the sector.

How did you get your job?  After graduating with a BA in Music from Oxford University I tried but failed to get into television.  I was trying the route that everyone tried in those days – the BBC Production Training Scheme – but it was the most highly subscribed way to enter the business.  I ended up working in a PR agency for two years and then in arts administration for three years before getting onto Granada Television’s management training scheme aged 26 and relocating to Manchester.  I’ve worked in TV ever since.

How did you decide what you wanted to do?  I knew from my teens that television was something that really excited me.  I also knew that music was my biggest passion, so the dream job would be something that involved both.  But it took me many years to actually get to that point – by the age of 30 I was finally producing music on television and radio.  Better late than never!

How relevant is your degree to your job?  I don’t think any degrees are specifically that relevant to a successful career in television, but it’s still good to have a degree in something.  I’m a bit old-fashioned on this, so I’d also add that in my view a degree in a ‘real’ subject is more worthwhile than a degree in Media Studies.  The most important thing to work in the creative side of television is a sense of curiosity, and I think that’s better nurtured by the more traditional degree subjects such as English, Languages or Law.

What are your main work activities?  My job is fundamentally about coming up with great TV programme ideas, selling them to broadcasters and then overseeing their production and delivery.  Any one of those activities may be taking place on multiple projects at any one time so there’s a lot of juggling.

How do you use your degree in your job?  My degree in Music (insofar as I remember what I learnt!) is useful when I’m making programmes about music, but that’s not always the case.  I’ve made programmes about everything from nightclubs through to gardening and stately homes.  I think your degree becomes decreasingly relevant in your work as you begin to build on it with real work and life experience.

What are the most challenging parts of your job?  The long slog of pitching new ideas and the torrent of rejections one gets before winning a commission.  And the fickle nature of our industry which is riven with politics!

Career highlights/best moments?  I produced a film for BBC Two 10 years ago about the role music played in Auschwitz.  Making that film was without doubt one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life (let alone my career).  The film went on to win a hat-trick of a BAFTA, an Emmy and a Royal Television Society Award, so that has to go down as an abiding highlight.

Where do you hope to be in five years’ time?  To be running a creative and profitable organisation, making memorable output, staffed by happy productive people.  I think Reef Television can tick most of those boxes actually!

To find out more about careers within Television, visit Careers Tagged.

– Helen West, Careers Consultant, UCL Careers

Assistant Underwriter: Inspire Me

By UCL Careers, on 5 August 2015

JENNIFER MOLLOY ATRIUM213875Jenny Molloy, an Assistant Underwriter, tells us about what it’s like to work for a medium-sized insurance firm in the City of London, plus tips on how to make a good application.

What company do you work for?

I work for Atrium Underwriters, a Lloyd’s of London syndicate. We write a variety of insurance classes including aviation, marine, casualty, property, energy, reinsurance, war and terrorism. Lloyd’s is an unusual environment to work in as I work on a trading floor. There is always a hive of activity as brokers visit the underwriters to discuss and negotiate business.

What do you do?

My job title is Assistant Underwriter, which involves risk modelling, data management and assisting the underwriter with underwriting decisions. I specialise in aviation reinsurance, which is the insuring of aviation insurers.

What did you study at university?

I studied Maths, which is useful for my role because aviation reinsurance is quite a technical class of insurance. My peers at Atrium have a variety of degrees including Business, Biology, Engineering and English.

Since joining Atrium I have been supported in studying for my insurance qualification from the Chartered Institute of Insurance and I now hold an Advanced Diploma in Insurance. This took about three and a half years to study for in my spare time but I was fully supported by my company and my managers.

What does a typical day in insurance look like?

I don’t think there is a typical day in insurance underwriting. Our class has busy renewal periods where a lot of our clients renew on the same date. If there is a big renewal date coming up I might be analysing our clients data to understand and price their risk, this involves using mathematical models to determine their exposure. I could also be reading through renewal information or checking contracts. We would also be meeting with the brokers who are representing our clients to discuss or negotiate the risk.

Outside of renewal season we could have client meetings, we could be planning for the year ahead or I could be working on projects which could be researching loss trends or updating modelling software. I also have to do a fair amount of admin – making sure the information on the system is up to date and correct.

Also as we sit on the trading floor at any point a broker can come in to see us with new business, to request changes to contracts or discuss renewals.

What do you like most about your job?

I like the combination of analytical and interaction with clients, brokers and colleagues. I need to be able to analyse and process complex information and maintain good relationships with brokers and clients. I have also started travelling to meet with clients in the US and in Europe. Insurance isn’t an obvious choice of career but can be very interesting and is very connected to the wider world as we can insure a huge range of things from satellites to insuring against the risk of terrorism.

What about any challenges?

I would say that it can be quite stressful around renewal periods when you need to get a lot done in a short period of time.

How did you apply for the job?

I found the job on milkround.com. I sent my CV and covering letter, and was invited to interview with my current manager, the Class Underwriter, and the Head of HR as well as taking numerical and verbal reasoning tests. In my second interview I also spoke to the Active Underwriter, who is the head of the syndicate, and an Actuary.

What makes a good application?

I would say that any application would have to demonstrate analytical skills as well as good communication and business awareness. Maths ability is very important. I also think that IT skills are a must, especially a really good knowledge of Excel. Any prior experience with contract wordings may be helpful but a keen attention to detail is an important attribute.

Any tips for getting into insurance?

I would recommend getting work experience. It is important to get a feel for how the industry works and Lloyd’s especially as it is a very unusual work environment. Lots of my peers at Atrium got their role following work experience at the company. Applying for structured programmes is a good idea as well as networking with people in the industry. Work experience isn’t essential, though, as that wasn’t my route in and the industry is often keen to recruit talented individuals.

What are the progression opportunities like?

In underwriting there is quite a linear progression – as you gain more experience, you are given more responsibility.

For more information about Lloyd’s you can find lots of information here: http://www.lloyds.com/lloyds/about-us/what-we-do

Written by Rhiannon Williams, Internships and Vacancies Officer, UCL Careers.

PhD Archaeology Student/Tutor at The Brilliant Club: Inspire Me

By UCL Careers, on 7 July 2015

As part of our #UCLInspireMe series, Vana Orfanou, Brilliant Club tutor and PhD student in Archaeology, talks to us about how she got this role and shares some tips for UCL students who want to get into the academic sector. Vana Orfanou

How did you get into your role?

I am a PhD Archaeology student at my writing up stage and I also work as a Tutor in collaboration with The Brilliant Club. I first found out about this charity organisation through an email circulated by UCL calling PhD students to participate in a teaching programme focussing on non-selective state London schools and, then on, by visiting The Brilliant Club’s very well organised website.

The idea of conducting university-style tutorials to underprivileged pupils, and promoting their research and essay writing skills which would in turn raise their aspirations and increase their chances of getting accepted in one of the top UK universities seemed quite appealing from the beginning. What is more, teaching with The Brilliant Club provided me with the exciting opportunity of designing and delivering a course on a topic immediately relevant to my research focus.

What are the best things about working in your role?

The best thing about working with the Brilliant Club is the interaction with the pupils itself. Only too often I am struck by students’ perceptions and interpretations, while interaction with each group of pupils is a unique experience. The high-standard content taught also provides a challenging ground for some amazing discussions to take place. Watching the students producing their own, well-structured and justified arguments is probably one of the most rewarding moments. As I said to my students in my last placement, ‘my Brilliant Club day was the best of my week’.

What are the biggest challenges you face in your work?

Amongst the biggest challenges of being a Brilliant Club Tutor is communicating to pupils complex ideas by making them approachable at the same time. Keeping expectations high could prove a challenge as usually students have already enough on their plate.

What top tips would you pass on to a student interested in this type of work?

In becoming a Brilliant Club Tutor it is important that emphasis is put on teaching and creating knowledge rather than on merely presenting it. Excellent organisation and communication skills, and a drive to create opportunities for school students will definitely help!

To talk to a Careers Consultant for further information on applying for a PhD, visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/careers

Programme Manager: Inspire Me

By UCL Careers, on 2 July 2015

As part of our #UCLInspireMe series, Nicola Harwood, Programme Manager at the Prince’s Trust, talks to us about how she got this role and shares some tips for UCL students who want to get into the Third Sector.

“I have worked at the Trust for 3 years now, starting off supporting schools with excluded young people, and now managing a programme working with unemployed young people. I have always worked in the charity sector as I love having a job that makes a difference (as clichéd as it sounds). Seeing the difference our programmes make to young people every day makes it all worthwhile and I am not sure I could work in any other way. The best bit is seeing someone who’s struggled finding work and who’s struggled with things in the personal life, suddenly have that light bulb moment where it all comes together and they start to make positive steps forward in their life. The biggest challenge is that sometimes it’s hard to switch off. The job is so varied I can be writing a business plan for next year one minute, and supporting a young person with their personal issues the next. I love how varied it is, but sometimes it can be hard to balance my time between the two given they are both crucial parts of my role.

My advice to anyone who’s wanting to get into working in the third sector would be to volunteer. I have complimented my career with a whole  host of volunteering opportunities starting when I was at university and continuing it throughout my career. This has not only given me more experience with working with vulnerable people, but it’s also strengthened my applications for jobs. Also make sure you have some real office experience too. My first job after graduating involved a lot of photocopying like everyone’s but it also gave me vital office experience and skills, which alongside my volunteering really helped secure that first real job.”

To find out more about Charity roles, visit Careers Tagged. For Volunteering opportunities, visit the Volunteering Services Unit at UCLU

 

Senior Research Executive: Inspire Me

By UCL Careers, on 29 June 2015

As part of our #UCLInspireMe series, Matthew Colahan, Senior Research Executive at Ipsos MORI, talks to us about how he got this role and shares some tips for UCL students who want to get into Research.

How did you get into your role?Matt Colahan

At the beginning of 2012 I was writing up my PhD in social psychology and considering moving outside of academia.  I wanted to stay in research and use the skills I had developed so I looked for research companies who had a strong social research background.  Ipsos MORI looked ideal and so I sent the Head of Qualitative Research an email introducing myself along with a copy of my CV.  I openly acknowledged that this was a “shot in the dark”, but I asked if she would be willing to meet me and tell me more about the work that Ipsos MORI were doing.  Fortunately she agreed, and we had a fruitful discussion (like an informal interview) where we talked about my experience and the nature of the work at Ipsos MORI.  This paved the way for the formal interview process, and two weeks later I had completed two interviews and was offered a full-time permanent position.

What are the best things about working in your role?

The variety of the work – both in terms of the topics and the methodologies used.  I work in the ‘Public Affairs’ section of the Social Research Institute at Ipsos MORI and most of our work is commissioned by the Government.  Public Affairs is therefore split into teams which broadly map onto the different government departments.  I’m based in the ‘Employment, Welfare, and Skills’ team so I tend to work on large scale quantitative employer surveys for clients such as the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, HM Revenue and Customs, and The Pension Regulator.  However, I have also worked with our ‘Health’ team for the NHS, and also our ‘Education, Children and Families’ team for the Department for Education.  In addition, I have undertaken lots of qualitative work and am also now involved in economic impact evaluation projects.  The opportunity is there to develop a huge range of skills and experience whilst working on projects that interest you.

What are the biggest challenges you face in your work?

 Never enough hours in the day!  Project timetables can be challenging and the job can be very stressful at times when you’re facing tight deadlines.  Developing project management skills is essential in order to juggle the competing demands of the different projects you’re working on – these could be from a client, your project Director, or from internal operations teams who need input from you.

What top tips would you pass on to a student interested in this type of work?

 > Working in research requires a good understanding of theory and So know you research methods theory well, but also have an appreciation of the practical side of doing research (even if you haven’t done much yet).  There are a lot of very practical (sometimes seemingly mundane) steps that need to be completed in order to collect and analyse data (e.g. if you want to speak to certain people, where will you get their contact details from?).

> Demonstrate times when you’ve displayed project management skills.  This could be from any part of your life – just a few examples where you have had to balance competing demands and systematically deal with them.

> Speak to people.  When I worked at University I always encouraged my students to approach employers directly.  It might feel daunting, and it might not necessarily lead to a job, but it could get your foot in the door, and demonstrate that you’ve carefully considered a company and really want to work there.

> Read some of the reports / publications that a research company has produced.  This is what you will be working on so show that you understand what they do.

For more information on becoming a Researcher, visit Careers Tagged

 

Writer and Blogger: Inspire Me

By UCL Careers, on 23 June 2015

As part of our #UCLInspireMe series, Nicola Twilley, Writer and Blogger, talks to us about how she got started and shares some tips for UCL students who want to become Writers.   

What do you do?

I live in Brooklyn, and I am a writer, so I have to have a few different jobs in order to have a hope of paying the bills. I run a small event space in lower Manhattan for Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, which involves organising talks, conferences, exhibitions, workshops, and tours that fall within our mission of providing a platform for conversation about the future of the city. We’ve done smell walks, harbour dredging boat tours, talks about the design of abortion clinics, panel discussions on air rights, hologram workshops, and more. Then, the rest of the time, I write!

I just finished a long story for the New York Times Magazine that I travelled to China in January to report. As well as freelance assignments, I also maintain my own blog, and try to post there once a week, at least. I mostly cover stories related to agriculture, food, and design. Finally, I end up doing a lot of little paid gigs — to give you a sense, in the next month, I’ll be consulting with the Institute for the Future, working on a pavilion design for a UK trade expo, speaking at a MoMA event on slaughterhouse design, and lecturing at a university in Delft.

How did you get in to this role?

The question of how I got into any of these roles is a little trickier. I’m not quite sure myself. My BA is in English Lit. (Leeds) and then, just for added unemployability, I got a MA in Art History at the University of Chicago, which is where I met my American husband and ended up living over here. I wanted to be a writer always, but I wasn’t sure I had a novel in me (still not sure) and, when I was in University, it was pre-blogosphere, and you had to join your local paper and report about missing milk floats in order to get into journalism. I was much more shy then than I am now (this is what more than a decade of living in America will do for you!), so the thought of calling strangers for quotes made me have a panic attack. So, instead, I got into various random public programming jobs: organising stuff like a citywide autobiography competition to mark Ben Franklin’s 300th Birthday, etc.

As I got more experienced, I ended up putting together some things on my own, rather than doing them in a job — so, for example, a friend and I launched a multi-city event series called the Foodprint Project, and my husband and I created a 10 week workshop with artists, filmmakers, game designers, architects, and writers on the theme of quarantine, and then curated an exhibition of the resulting work at a gallery here in NYC. Those were fun, although finding funding is always a challenge. That sort of thing prepared me for the Columbia job, I suppose.

As far as writing goes, I started a blog. Pretty much all my freelance work has come out of that — sometimes editors read it and ask me to pitch them, and, at the very least, it’s a portfolio. The blog also ended up leading to all the other random stuff, like speaking gigs and making scratch-‘n-sniff maps of New York City, etc.

What are the best things about working in your role?

Well, right now I have a pretty great set-up, because I have a flexible job that gives me a reliable salary but also still gives me time to write and do all the other random things I like to do. The Columbia job has an expiry date, though, at which point I will end up looking for something to replace it — probably part-time, so I can still travel to report and write. I love so much about writing and reporting: researching odd things to find a story, interviewing fascinating people, having the chance to see things most people never see, whether it be a geologic tomb for nuclear waste or a dumpling factory in China, and even the writing part, as long as it’s going well! I also like curating events, although it is more frustrating — there’s always a couple of audience members I’d like to push off a cliff. But when a workshop or tour or panel conversation goes well, it’s brilliant — you’re learning and seeing new things, and you’re also on a high from seeing how enthusiastic and interested the audience is. Basically, the best part of both jobs is that I get to follow my curiosity and learn about all sorts of fantastically interesting things, all the time.

What are the biggest challenges you face in your work?

Earning a living. Without at least one steady, regular job to rely on, it’s hard to go from freelance gig to freelance gig. People take forever to pay, editors sit on stories for months, editors reject your pitches all the time, stories get killed because someone else just did something vaguely similar… and the gigs don’t even pay that well in the first place. There’s also wrestling with my extraordinary ability to procrastinate, and the inevitable panic attacks about whether my piece is any good or whether I just fluffed an interview with a really important person, etc. In short: lots of anxiety. And I have no work/life balance. Everything ends up being work or work-related, somehow.

Top tips

I would have said have a blog, but I don’t know — the world of online publishing is changing so fast. Single author blogs seem to be going extinct. Either way, write and publish as much as you can, and then make sure people can find all your writing on your own website. You have to write to be a writer, which sounds obvious, but took me a while….

On the programming side, it’s surprisingly easy to put things together if you don’t mind working for free and like a dog. Organise a mini-lecture series/quiz show in a pub back room. Curate an exhibition in a lift in your dorm. Lead walking tours of the chewing gum on London’s pavements. Etc. Oh — and the most important thing is to document these events. Make them look good, put the photos on your website, and it doesn’t matter that it was actually crap and everyone left after 10 minutes! This is cynical advice, but it really is worth thinking about your event in terms of how it’s going to look in photographs. A media outlet will cover a fizzle of an event based on amazing, weird photographs/video of people crouched on the pavement sniffing gum (or whatever), and not cover an amazing event that has dull or no images.

Two final things: You don’t have to study a specialised course for a thing to be able to do it. I didn’t go to journalism school, but learned how to write magazine pitches by looking it up on Google…. Also, who you know is really important (which I know is common wisdom), but you can find ways to get to know interesting people by sending them something that they might find useful or interviewing them for your blog or inviting them to speak at an event, etc. Just don’t invite them for coffee — have something concrete and appealing in mind. It’s more work, but it will work.

For more information on how to become a Writer, visit Careers Tagged.

Entrepreneur: Inspire Me

By UCL Careers, on 18 June 2015

As part of our #UCLInspireMe series, Tarek Pewter, Cofounder of Wakefield Media talks to us about how he got started cofounding a business and shares some tips for UCL students wWakefield Media Tarek Pewter Imageho wants to start their own business.  

How did you get into your role?
I’m the cofounder of Wakefield Media – a digital & experiential content creator that helps folks connect with exciting companies. I’m a repeat entrepreneur and I found myself here after my last company didn’t materialize into what we had hoped, after 2 years of trying. I have experience in event production and launched a concept event in the Summer of 2011 for emerging startups that are hiring and it took off like wildfire – a few months later we pursued a greater mission by launching Wakefield and incorporating our events into it. In March of 2012, Wakefield was born and Uncubed, our event, continued to grow.

What are the best things about working in your role?

I’m an entrepreneur, so my perks are a bit different than others. I create my own schedule, I get to have the largest influence on what is important to pursue and what isn’t, I get to meet a slew of interesting people, including successful entrepreneurs, policy makers and amazing talent. The nature of our company also gives us unusual insight into what companies are working on and what it’s like to work there – so we are often visiting the offices of great, young companies and getting a look to see what they are building. It’s very inspiring.
What are the biggest challenges you face in your work?

Moving quickly and providing your community with content, experiences and product that they are yearning for. We connect people to great companies, so not having a platform to facilitate that sets us back. Until now, we didn’t have a job board or any technology to help solve this problem and it was tough on us as a business. We are now learning how to bring tech into our community, and it’s a challenge, since the team we’ve built, to date, is made up entirely of folks that are NOT technical (almost 15 of us now).

Other challenges we face, like anyone else, is vying for the attention of our audience. This is when competition plays a larger role in the decisions our business makes. If you do not move fast enough or capture an growing audience quick enough, then someone else will – and it’s much harder to get their attention at that point.

Finally, perhaps the challenge you’ll hear most often from founders, finding and managing talent. Ensuring your employees are always challenged, fairly compensated and enjoying what they do is a tireless job and one most managers (including myself) do not do well enough.

What top tips would you pass on to a student interested in this type of work?

Spend time with people who are in a position you desire to be in. It will quickly teach you whether or not this is a road you’d like to pursue. That person, should you pursue this path, could (and should) become a long-term mentor to help you overcome obstacles and stay motivated.

First time entrepreneurs almost always fail initially. So it’s important that one understands it’s not about success out the gates as much as it’s about building a legacy (should you be pursuing entrepreneurship to make an impact – which all entrepreneurs should) – and building a legacy means suffering failures, learning from them and teaching along the way. Success comes to those who work hard at something they care about – it’s inevitable.

To find our more about how to start your own business, visit Careers Tagged or speak to UCL Advances

Corporate Cult? We try to work with everyone.

By Phil Howe, on 11 June 2015

George Monbiot’s recent article in The Guardian, “How a corporate cult captures and destroys our best graduates”, raised some interesting questions about graduate recruitment at the UK’s top universities. At UCL Careers we recognise not all organisations have equal resources, and that it is our responsibility to give non-profits, public sector organisations and SMEs every chance to promote their career opportunities to UCL students and graduates.

The article criticised several Russell Group universities and, although his researchers did not contact UCL and nor were we criticised in the article, we wanted to share what we are doing to ensure students and graduates find out about and have access to more than just City careers.

The article accused leading universities of passivity in the face of “love bombing” from large corporates, suggesting they should be doing more to counter this. UCL Careers devotes considerable time and resources to initiatives alerting students to alternative career options, and encouraging non corporates to come on to campus. Looking at our events this week, we are working with 23 employers on our Global Citizenship Employability Programme, of which 50% are charities, SMEs or public sector bodies, including Think Ahead (a graduate programme for mental health social work) Ark Schools (an educational charity) and Bartonia Care (a healthcare scheme for the elderly). Likewise, looking at the employers collaborating on our Focus on Management course, these include the Civil Service Fast Stream, Researchers in Schools and Repositive (an SME working for efficient and ethical access to genomic data), alongside several large corporates. Finally, just over 25% of the employers attending our Jobs Market, are from the public and charity sectors, or are SMEs.

We developed our themed weeks specifically to raise the profile of sectors such as Charities and NGOs, the Environment, and Museums and Cultural Heritage, and to place them on an equal footing with our Careers Fairs which feature more corporate career paths. Unlike our Fairs where organisations pay a substantial fee to attend, our themed weeks are completely free of charge for employers.

This year’s themed week programme comprised 26 individual events covering six sectors, and over 1,300 UCL students attended. They heard from expert speakers at organisations such as Amnesty International, Save the Children, the NHS Graduate Programme, the Institute of Conservation, the National Theatre, the V&A Museum, Global Alliance for Chronic Disease and the Stroke Association. Some weeks, such as Charities and NGOs, almost entirely featured SMEs, charities and public bodies, but even weeks such as Life and Health Sciences had representation from non corporates at every event.

The UCL Careers Twitter hashtag #uclinspireme highlights a range of career opportunities which UCL students and graduates may not be aware of- and where employers may not have the resource to promote them on campus. This includes a series of blogs written by people in less publicised graduate jobs including fashion PR, market research, and child safety, as well as highlighting less common vacancies such as “Epidemiology Intern”, “Content Marketing Executive”, and “Fundraising and Marketing Graduate Trainee”. Students can follow @uclcareers, or search for the hashtag #uclinspireme, to keep up to date with these.

We also make a great effort to involve charities and SMEs in our placements, internships and vacancy services. Smaller organisations are put off by fees to access university students, but are also often worried about attending high profile events and receiving huge numbers of applications, which they don’t have time to process. We set up our shortlisting service, UCL Talent Bank (which takes much of the legwork out of recruitment) specifically to engage smaller employers and bring their vacancies to UCL students’ and graduates’ attention. Since Talent Bank started, we have advertised around 175 roles for non corporates, including Rainforest Foundation UK, the Institute for Sustainability and homelessness charity Providence Row. Talent Bank is free of charge for employers.

Talent Bank is a service for all UCL students and graduates but we are also tasked with sourcing internships for specific courses at UCL, one of these is the BASc Arts and Sciences. Over the two years we have been working with these students around 65% of the internships they secured were with either SMEs or charities.

Finally, we often arrange for employers to visit departments to talk about relevant career opportunities. In two examples from this year, two panel discussions in the School of Public Policy involved representatives from Oxfam, VSO and Macmillan Cancer Support, while a recent panel event at the Institute of Education featured a large UK based charity, an international development organisation, the director of a small business and a self-employed consultant, the idea being to demonstrate to students the variety of the types of careers they could aspire to.

The Guardian article praised the Careers Service at the University of Cambridge for trying to “counter the influence of the richest employers”. It lauded their policy of imposing a fee on rich recruiters and using the proceeds to make it easier for non profits to recruit at the university. Almost all leading UK universities charge fees for recruitment services to larger organisations, and UCL is no exception. First and foremost, these fees have to represent good value for the companies who pay them or they won’t recruit here, and the many students who are interested in careers such as finance, law, consultancy, IT and engineering will miss out. That said, we consciously invest any surplus from these activities into services for all students, including the initiatives listed above.

We don’t believe our role is to make value judgements about particular career paths, and nor will we tell you that you should or shouldn’t pursue a particular job based on our own ethics. We do believe we have a responsibility to marry our knowledge of the many different careers UCL students pursue, with the availability and interest of particular employers when delivering our events and services. We hope this overview provides reassurance that we don’t just promote one type of career, but we are always interested in hearing from students and graduates if there are particular employers or sectors you want to see more of.

– Phil Howe, Employer Engagement and Business Development Manager, UCL Careers.