My career started off after I finished my degree when I was working for BT as what they call a User Support Manager. And then I had a mad change of career into catering and actually was a Restaurant Manager for country house hotels which brought me down here when I worked for one of the colleges – one of the Oxford colleges – and somehow managed to get an admin job, or a course admin job, for Oxford University.

Video Transcript

Qualities for a careers counsellor are many. Everything from being organised to being able to plan, and plan ahead, to being able to research and keep up to date with what’s happening in the employment sector, to listening, to being objective and impartial, and also to be friendly and welcoming. And I think probably the crucial thing is to be able to identify a need. Sometimes they’ve had a bad experience or they may be unhappy, and they offload a whole load of information It’s [a case of] picking your way through that to try and figure out what exactly is it that student needs

I’ve been doing a bit more work with international students over the last 12 months and that’s something I’d like to develop more of. Generally the plans of international students are to continue their studies and maybe do postgraduate courses, some will want to work, and some go directly home. If they want to work, then we will try to help them find employment or advise them on the best way to find employment here in the UK. What makes it fulfilling is that you don’t always get lots of feedback but when you do get the feedback you just think yeah, I’ve helped them, I’ve helped the student get a job. They’ve got the first rung, the first start on the career ladder, and they’ll fly from now. I think the most satisfying is when people say, “Without you, I wouldn’t’ve got the job.”