On Tuesday 12th October the Sixth Form enjoyed an inspiring talk from two NHEHS alumnae who both work at Google. Georgie Altman is a Strategy and Insight lead at Google. After leaving NHEHS in 2008 Georgie took a gap year and then went on to study Modern History at The University of Oxford. She started her career in retail working in various commercial roles before moving across to the advertising and media industry. She was a strategic planner at creative agency VCCP where she helped shape campaigns and strategy for brands like EasyJet and O2. From there she moved to Google where she works with the company’s biggest retail clients, helping them solve strategic challenges and grow their businesses with Google media products.

Persa Shadnia is a Video Sales Manager at Google. After finishing her A-Levels at Notting Hill she went to study at Manchester University. During her time there she did multiple work experience placements in different advertising agencies and fell in love with the agency culture. After university she moved back to London where she began her media agency career at Mindshare. In her role at Google, she spends most of her time talking about how great YouTube is to a wide variety of banking and payment advertisers in the UK.

Georgie and Persa spoke brilliantly about the pros and cons of working in a large multinational corporation, working and living abroad, working with truly international teams from a huge range of backgrounds, the pressure of a high-paced work environment, how to incorporate creativity into your career, staying curious and saying ‘yes’ to lots of different opportunities. 

Georgie and Persa also reassured the Sixth Form that university life and careers can be squiggly rather than linear and that changing degree course, taking a gap year, taking time to find your strengths and natural skill set and experimenting with lots of different types of work experience was all part of the journey. 

The Sixth Formers asked great questions including the importance of regulation of big tech, how to navigate language barriers when working abroad and how to get valuable work experience. 

A huge thank you to both Georgie and Persa for their time and sharing their experiences and top tips.