Our guest Elmira typifies how far enthusiasm and hard work can take you and the opportunities it opens up. She explains what it's like to work for Metro Bank, how she's benefitted from being part of a young and forward thinking company and integrating into a fantastic workplace culture.

Press play on this episode of the podcast and maybe you'll be taken aback by the one thing you thought you'd need for a career in banking, but don't!

Dale Willis has such an impressive back story and track record around the mentoring and coaching of young people; they want to start off their career as strongly as possible and he provides the essential elements that make it happen.

We were fascinated to hear his advice around the type of question a candidate needs to ask in the job interview; personal branding and the use of social media.

This is the episode for you if you're out of practice when it comes to putting your CV together and getting yourself "in the room".

The way we acquire knowledge and skills through study and tuition has undergone such a transformation in recent times and this episode holds a mirror up to one of the jobs crucial to that.

Kayleigh's story and experience show just how there isn't only one path. Starting out as a physiotherapist and then moving into what she does now, you'll discover what it takes to make that kind of switch and how working collaboratively pays off.

Listen this episode and get yourself up to speed with how you get to be an e-learning designer and developer and what it's actually like to do the job.

Lauren works in a lab in Yorkshire as a post doctoral researcher. She's investigated novel therapies for cardiovascular disease and continues to work with colleagues at the vanguard of a really important #stem subject area.

Her story is one that may well resonate with you. At school, she didn't know that this is what she wanted to do. So where do we pick up our careers cues from and how do we set goals and work on the passions we have to get to the place that's right for us ?

Nick Howes from LMI UK and John Rose, freelance podcast and video producer assess and break down the steps Lauren took and how that can work for your own personal career path.

Marie who works at Poppy Design Studio in Northamptonshire tells her own inspirational story of how you can take up a career that you never thought possible. Following a diagnosis of epilepsy, no one would give Marie a job. What happened next is pure determination, grit and goal-setting. It's in this podcast that she tells how you can achieve your ambition with a hugely rewarding career.

As ever, Nick and John look at the lessons you can draw from this story and the place that the Making of a Champion programme can play in giving you direction in the quest for a career. It asks these 3 vital questions :

A V Dawson are a family business with a unique and much prized set of values. Running the Port of Middlesborough, they provide full freight logistics across a number of sectors including energy and renewables, construction, agriculture, automative and waste.

Mark Wells is their Head of Engineering and his account of growing up around heavy industry and then studying to do the job he does, is such a compelling and inspiring one.

We're very grateful to the company for letting Mark tell us his story and to Charlie Nettle for explaining why the area means so much to them all and what the business does to bring positivity to schools, colleges and other organisations there.

Josh Young owns and runs Fetcham Construction who are based in Surrey. Josh tells the Careers Podcast all about his story, from realising at school that he wanted to learn practical skills right to employing 8 people and building whole houses !

You'll hear of his firm belief in apprenticeships, mentoring people and picking up the leadership skills needed to establish and grow a business. 

As ever, Nick and John talk through the way these qualities are identified and enhanced through LMI's Making Of A Champion programme.

We're so pleased that James Bowen is our guest.  James followed his passion for education and became a teacher in a primary school and later a Headteacher.

He gives some really superb pointers around the kinds of qualities that help to make a teacher and how you can apply it to your career path.

It's so true that everyone remembers a great teacher; maybe it's the career for you.

Shaun Bowman is a car assembly technician for Williams F1 and much of what he knows came from an apprenticeship at Silverstone College.

Hear of life at the cutting edge of this exhilarating motorsport and pit stops that don't even last 2 seconds ! 

YOU could do that job.

As ever, we've the best inside info and some cracking pointers from Nick Howes from LMI UK on the habits that will help you progress.

Nick mentions the Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education; their website is here.

* Disclaimer * The Murray Walker impressions may not be entirely accurate.

Jo Gilbert works for GSMA and has a career that's so interesting and rewarding. Here, she talks about the way in to this kind of work and the kinds of qualities you'll need. She's worked on some fascinating projects with leading technical architects and gets to see what goes on "under the bonnet" of a product.

Nick and John pick over the Making of a Champion programme and hear another really inventive bit of a goal setting. You'll also get pointers on what really gets you prepared for a job interview in the only careers podcast of its kind.