On Tuesday 21 July, our alumni volunteers shared their career stories with students and recent graduates. The event was part of our Bristol Connects Live series – our online series of career and professional development events. The session focused on careers in government and the third sector and our alumni experts shared their career stories and experiences to inspire students and recent graduates to help them understand more about the sector.
The event was hosted by Kim Slim (LLB 2016) who works as Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister’s Independent Grenfell Adviser and Head of Grenfell Community Support Team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Kim was joined on the panel by Annabelle Pemberton (BA 2018), Organisational Development Officer at Redearth Education and Shailini Vora (BSc 2016), Trust Fundraising Officer at St Mungo’s.
The panel noted that skills can be developed anywhere. Shailini took a job at a call centre, which ended up developing her confidence in communications, which helped her in future interviews. The panel all agreed that resilience is incredibly important, our panellists shared a range of experiences from missing out on grads schemes, starting at the bottom and even being ‘ghosted’ by employers following interviews.
Our panellists stressed the importance of having a mentor who can help you, whether you’re starting out, still finding the right fit for you or moving up the ladder. The panellists noted that Linkedin can be a great way to connect with professional who have the job you want, ask them questions about how they got there – then work backwards.
Bristol Connects is also a great way to grow and establish your network. Bristol Connects is an exclusive online platform for Bristol alumni and students. Activate your account and take advantage of the Career Expert module and make connections to alumni working in your industry.
The event recording is available here.
All alumni who helped out at the event are volunteers on our Bristol Volunteers programme. If you are experienced in speaking publicly and are willing to share your industry insights or ways of working, then we would love to welcome you as a panellist or event host.
If you’re interested in volunteering for these events or would like to find out more, please contact the Bristol Volunteers team at alumni-volunteers@bristol.ac.uk.