What Do You Actually Do?

Vinusha is a York History student who completed a placement year in the NHS Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group as a Quality and Safeguarding Support Officer. Vinusha explains what she got out of her placement and has tips for current students starting their placement or work experience search.

Full transcript and useful links on our blog.

Vinusha's bio:

I am currently a History undergraduate student who is completing a placement year at the NHS Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group. Although my degree and the NHS may not appear to have a direct link, I have an interest to work in the public sector, in particular social services. I also have a passion for Arts and Humanities which is why I have a chosen to complete a History degree.

Want a job in research? Or interested in working in the media? This episode is for you. Today Kate talks to Lucy, York grad and current Journalism Researcher at BBC News, about what her job is actually like.

There's a full transcript and useful links on our blog.

Lucy's Bio:

Lucy is a Journalism Researcher at BBC News, specialising in home and social affairs. Before joining the BBC, she worked as a Research Assistant at a policy think tank in Cambridge. After graduating from York in 2017 with a degree in English and History, Lucy spent a year in China and shortly afterwards studied for a master's degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge.

Think you want to be a CEO? Interested in marketing, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) or the world of ethical business? This episode is for you. John Steel is the CEO of Cafédirect and has worked his way up through a number of FMCG businesses after beginning his career in a marketing grad scheme.

Even if you're not interested in this area of work, it's worth listening for John's insights into finding value in your working life.

Find a transcript and useful links on our blog.

More about John and Cafédirect:

Cafédirect’s CEO, John Steel, is a business leader and social entrepreneur with a passion for making business a force for good.
Under John’s leadership Cafedirect has returned to growth, become profitable and yet maintained its sustainability commitments to its producers. 

John is determined that Cafédirect, as one of the UK’s pre-eminent Social Enterprises, plays a pivotal role in leading the change agenda. In 2018 Cafédirect became the 1st coffee company in the UK to be B Corp certified and was recognised as the Social Enterprise of the Year.
John Steel first pursued a career in marketing, with organisations such as Nestle and Weetabix. Subsequently John held leadership positions in both large corporations and start-up businesses. 

John is a passionate and genuine believer in the need for real change in the way business contributes to society and the wider world. He works tirelessly to share Cafédirect’s unique approach.

Ben graduated from York with a degree in Philosophy and after a few years found himself working in the financial services sector for Deloitte. It wasn't something he planned. In the episode Ben explains how his first impressions of the sector were wrong, how you don't need a 'big summer internship' to get into finance and how he's found a job that's a perfect fit for his strengths and skills. His job title is Associate Director - Global Mobility (Tax).

Ben's bio: I'm a Philosophy graduate who has quite accidentally ended up working in Financial Services. It's an industry I didn't expect to enjoy working in - I couldn't be happier to have been wrong about that. In my role, I help people making international moves (and their employers) understand the tax implications of doing so.

Find useful links and a full transcript on our blog.

This episode is for anyone interested in international development or the humanitarian sector. Rob Simmons works in Somalia for Committed to Good and was speaking to Kate from a shipping container at the airport in Mogadishu. Rob tells us what you need to get into this kind of work, the best bits and the worst bits. He also shares his advice on how students can approach people working in the sector.

There's a full transcript and useful links on our blog.

Rob's bio:

Rob completed a master's degree in Post-war Recovery Studies at York and now works in Somalia as the Deputy Country Manager for Committed to Good, providing services to the United Nations to help them deliver their projects in high-risk areas. Before that he worked in Mine Action in Sri Lanka and Cambodia. Before studying at York, Rob spent 12 years in the British Army.

Did you know that each summer loads of York students do an internship through the Student Internship Bureau (SIB)? SIB advertises paid, project-based internships in and around York that are exclusively for York students.

In this episode Kate talks to Ashley, an Interactive Media student who recently completed an internship as a graphic designer at Experience Heritage. She talks about what it's like being an intern and the skills she learned. If you're an international student you'll be especially interested to hear Ashley's advice.

Interested in doing your own internship this summer? Vacancies are live right now! Find out more and browse the internships on our SIB webpage.

Ashley's bio: Ashley is an international student from Singapore with a deep passion for digital art and design, currently taking York's Interactive Media degree. She enjoys getting involved in the creative scene, be it through internships, York Creatives' events or being part of the HARD Magazine Committee.

There's a full transcript and useful links on our blog.

The worst of the pandemic might (hopefully) be behind us but the world of work has permanently changed because of Covid-19.

Remote working is here to stay for many people and some sectors hit hard by the pandemic are still to properly recover. For our students, you may have had fewer chances to build up work experience. What does all this mean for your graduate job search?

In this episode we hear Kate and Enrico Reuter, lecturer in public and social policy, reflect on this and answer questions from York students. They also listen back to highlights from past podcast episodes.

We released Part 1 of this podcast back in summer 2020.

Full transcript and useful links on our blog.

In this episode you hear clips from:

A career in corporate social responsibility, with Daniel Arda

Working in heritage, with Paul Backhouse

From TV to tech, with Vivien Chung

Talking census: a career in genealogy, with Christina Copland

Changing fast: working in agile project management, with Alison Critchley

Starting a Startup, with Phil Daneshyar

Running an advertising firm, with Luke D’Arcy

Placement year in a political think tank, with Andrew Gloag

Marketing in the museum, with Tasha McNaught

Making a splash, with Tom Pagett

How to make a portfolio career work, with Dan Rutstein

Flirting with Algorithms, with Harpal Sahota

Training to be a lawyer, with Alex Stewart-Moreno

Changing careers: switching heritage for accounting, with Alice Yevko

Kadi is an environmental consultant who coordinates and project manages the environmental inputs for big infrastructure projects. She's also a York Environmental Science graduate. In this episode Kadi and Kate talk about what she does each day, the parts of the job she likes the most, and what York students interested in environmental consulting can do right now to prepare for their future careers.

Find a full transcript and useful links on our blog.

Kadi's bio:

Kadi is an Environmental Consultant at Jacobs with three years' experience in coordinating environmental inputs for infrastructure projects. She has worked on road, rail, waste water and flood alleviation projects for private and public sector clients. In addition to technical environmental elements from air quality to land contamination, her role includes project management such as managing budgets, programme, resources and risks. She is passionate about connecting people through employee networks, STEM and a book club. Kadi graduated from York in 2018 with a MEnv in Environmental Science with a Year in Industry.

Interested in a non-academic job in higher education? In this episode Kate talks to Victoria Brooks about her job as Widening Participation and Outreach Project Officer at the University of Liverpool. This is a really interesting area of higher education work. Read the blog for a transcript and some useful links.

Victoria's bio:

Victoria is currently working at a Russell Group University in Widening Participation, where she supports groups of young people from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds into higher education. She has experience in research and evaluation around the topic as well as planning and delivering large scale events for a wide range of stakeholders.

Neil studied Physics with Philosophy at York and has been working at the European Space Agency since 2002. His full job title is Parabolic Flight and Drop Tower Coordinator and Payload Systems Engineer. Listen to the episode to find out more about exactly what he does, how he managed to get the job and his advice for students wanting a similar career. The transcript and useful links are on our blog.

Want some help researching this career area? Come see us in the Careers and Placements building on Campus West or book an appointment.

Neil's bio:

After graduating with an MPhys in 2002 I joined ESA as a trainee in their Education Office. I learnt Systems Engineering and Team Management via a series of intense, hands-on projects.  Head-hunted for a staff post in the Human and Robotic Exploration Directorate in 2008, I now develop payloads for various missions (including the International Space Station), and run ESA's Parabolic Flight Programme.