By Miss Parr, Head of Careers

After two years, finally, this week we were delighted to be able to hold our first live‘ in school’ Careers event!  On Thursday 31^st March our Parents’ Guild Careers Committee organised a bespoke Year 11 Careers event, with an amazing line-up of speakers.  Students were able to rotate, across a carousel of four panels, in these areas: ‘Creativity,’ ‘Sustainability,’ ‘Media/Digital’ and ‘Careers Just Invented.’

Students were able to listen to and ask questions of our experts from both the Parents’ Guild and alumnae.

In the Creativity Workshop we heard from the writer Davina Tijani, Oliver James, who works in Visual Effects, Interior Designer Tori Malone and the Creative Director Dean Woolley.

Our Sustainability speakers included the behavioural science non-for-profit Founder David Hall, Environmental Media Consultant and NHEHS alumna Michelle Whitehead and the Commercial Director Oliver Wragg.

Within the Media/Digital field, we heard from Product Director Michele Swaine, Digital Marketer Nicola Franks Huet, Journalists Sigrid Goddard and Olivia Demetriades and a Senior Partner at Carat, Sanjay Nair.

For the newest and most intriguing workshop entitled ‘Careers Just Invented’ students got to quiz Founder of Curious PR, Hannah Kapff, AI expert Daniel Stringer, Lucy Parker, who works in Leveraged Finance and Machine Learning Engineer Giles Shaw,

All our panellists shared what they had studied, the career paths they have explored, what these involved and the best elements of their current job.

Here are some of our panelists’ top tips:

The industry you might currently be attracted to will change in unimaginable ways over the next decade, so choose subjects that genuinely interest you, not subjects other people think you should do. Get a solid grounding in your subject, so you can adapt as the world changes.

Give it a go.  Don’t let a fear of failure deter you from trying.  If something doesn’t go to plan, you can learn from that experience and you’ll be better equipped for next time.  And if an opportunity doesn’t appear to be perfect, don’t write it off as it could still give you valuable experience to get you closer to your goal.

Study and do what you are passionate about. University study is a long process that will require you to dig deep and put in many hours of hard work, if your subject area interests and motivates you, then it is much easier to apply yourself. Developing your career and your working life will be an even longer process, so doing something that you are motivated and inspired by will help you dig deeper, push harder and achieve more. You may have a set idea of what you plan to achieve in your career or how it will develop, but it is important to have a degree of flexibility in your career plan and take opportunities when they present themselves. It’s very rare to find the job that you want, in the location that you want, on the salary that you want. So you have to consider which of these is most important to you and which you are prepared to be flexible on. Be true to your life goals and ambitions, as well as your career goals. Far too often people can put their career goals ahead of everything else, but it’s important to remember that your career and job do not define you. 

Don’t wait until you have finished your education! If you are interested in becoming a journalist, you can already start now and give it a go (join school radio or a local paper, start a blog, make a podcast,…). Experience is very important (Channel 4/BBC and radio stations offer summer internships, etc.) 

Be yourself! Your own natural skill set and personality is your unique advantage and value add – you will perform your best when you are able to enjoy what you do. Every team / career requires a variety of people with a variety of perspectives in order to be a success. It is easy to write off career options because you do not fit into the “typical” box, however bringing something atypical to your role can be your greatest advantage. Also – ALWAYS keep peoples’ contact details and follow up! If someone offers to help out with your career in any way, or offers time to chat, take them up on it! You never know what you might learn, or who they might know to help you on your path. 

A huge thank you to our Parents’ Guild Careers Committee for organising the event and to all our fantastic speakers for sharing their experiences and valuable career advice with our students.