As we launch into our new academic year, we’ll be posting more about all the careers and networking events that we run in the School of Humanities as part our Employing Humanities program. We wanted to start by looking back at our Careers and Connect Day that took place in May. This report was written by Keller Valentino, an alumna of our BA in French and International Business (Hons).
This past Friday I attended the annual careers conference for graduands, 2021 and 2022 graduates, kindly organised by the School of Humanities Director of Employability, Dr. Saskia Huc-Hepher. The event started with a very empowering presentation given by Jay Harris, the founder, and CEO of Disrupted Talent. He touched on primary key topics for self-reflection to guide our journey to figure out the next pathway in our lives.
We then had a panel discussion with employees from Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS) and the Local Government Association’s National Graduate Development Programme (NGDP). We got the opportunity to ask real-world questions to those actually working in the industry which is such a unique opportunity to have!
Following that, we had a fabulous lunch provided by the University and the chance to individually speak to the people who generously participated on the panel, and, to further network, additionally with them and our other peers. I personally really enjoyed this part of the day as I got the opportunity to have some free LinkedIn photos taken by professional photographer and former Westminster student Claudia Cantarini; furthermore, I gained some valuable insights from the AMS team regarding my future career, and made some great connections with potential employers and other peers.
The rest of the afternoon was filled with informative presentations (and funny stories) given by AMS about Psychometric tests, programmatic hiring, graduate schemes, a current skills bootcamp, and very helpful interview tips! In addition, NGDP enlightened us on their recruitment programme and what their job entails.
We then had a tea break (very important), where we had the opportunity to do some more networking and to take LinkedIn photos if you did not have time during lunch. After the tea break, we had a CV workshop and the final session which included actual alumni from the university and their career stories working in companies such as Penguin Random House UK, Ubiqus, and Women Enabled International Inc. It was so inspiring to hear about each of their journeys and the hard work that they each put in to get where they are now.
Finally, the day finished with free goodbye bubbles and Pimm’s! It was great to have the opportunity to celebrate both with our peers and certain professors. I certainly gained some very valuable insight throughout the day from numerous people in different industries and expanded my network.
