In this episode, Kate chats to George Young. George graduated in History and undertook the Change 100 internship programme which matches graduates with any disability or long term condition with progressive employers.

Through the programme, George secured an internship with the NHS Confederation working in the People and Culture department.

George and Kate discuss the process of applying for the programme, using transferable skills and George's thoughts on how their disabilities have impacted their career.

Useful links and transcript

Kate chats to Laura Gravini-Rodriguez who is a senior associate with DAI, a large employee owned International Development company. 

Laura gives us an insight into her role and the many routes into International Development work. She explains the personal qualities she feels are key to her work and the skills she developed as an international student in the UK.

Laura and Kate also discuss the evolving challenges facing the future of international development work

Laura's Bio

Laura is a Colombian alumni from Class 2021 of the University of York. Since graduating from university, Laura has had the opportunity to work across various teams, dimensions, and sectors in international development, including business development, project management, knowledge management, and strategy development, focused on the delivery of projects in sustainable value chain development, climate and gender finance, and financial inclusion.

Useful links and transcript

Kate is joined today by Faz Kazmi. Faz graduated in Economics and Finance and now works as a Vertical Launch Grants Manager at the UK Space Agency.

Listen as Faz reveals what his day to day looks like. He also talks about the breadth of roles within this sector for graduates from all degree disciplines plus his tips on how to develop your skills and gain insights to help you break into the Space sector.

Faz's Bio: 

After graduating from York, I joined Meta's risk management and intelligence team, where I analysed social media trends. Recently, I moved to the UK Space Agency, where I manage government-funded grants to facilitate rocket launches from British soil.

Useful links:

UK Space Agency:

⁠https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-space-agency⁠ 

UK Space Careers:

⁠https://spacecareers.uk/home⁠ 

European Space Agency:

⁠https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA⁠ 

Active debris removal:

⁠https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/space-sustainability⁠ 

⁠https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/Active_debris_removal⁠ 

Space Sustainability employer:

⁠https://astroscale.com/about-astroscale/about/⁠ 

Careers in finance and consultancy:

⁠https://www.york.ac.uk/students/work-volunteering-careers/ideas/sectors/finance/⁠ 

Kate chats to York graduate Cezara Jalba about her role as a Control, Electrical & Instrumentation Design Engineer at the Sellafield site, which is part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. They discuss what her role entails, key skills, how Cezara's degree helped to prepare her for this role and what she loves about her job and the bits that she doesn't love quite so much.

Cezara's Bio

I am an engineer on a mission: to solve problems and make the world a better, safer and more efficient place. I specialize in driving innovative solutions for nuclear decommissioning and remediation projects in the civil nuclear industry. My expertise lies in delivering design packages that include control systems, robotics, and instrumentation; systems engineering; site asset management; and delivering digital transformation initiatives that redefine industry standards. Passionate about leveraging technology to put more people out of harm's way and deliver the mission of cleaning up the UK's old nuclear sites faster, safer, cheaper.

Links:

Sellafield careers, grad schemes and placement year

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Environmental and Energy related careers

Engineering and manufacturing sector

Jobs and internships in Electronics, Energy, Engineering and more!

A transcript of this conversation can be found in the Resources section on Handshake

Listen as Kate chats to Molly Watson about her past life working as a BBC News Journalist and her recent career change. She currently works as a Media and Communications Officer focusing on the impact of food on climate change. In this conversation, they discuss the similarities and differences between journalism and a communications role, leaving your comfort zone to make a career change and also Molly's thoughts on what personal qualities are helpful for a career in journalism or communications.

Molly's Bio

I'm a media and communications officer working with Professor Sarah Bridle, communicating about the impact of food on climate change and how we can make our food system more resilient. Until a year ago I'd spent my career working in journalism, starting off in newspapers before moving to the BBC and working as a tv news producer.

James Halpin is a York graduate who is currently on the science and engineering stream of the Civil Service Fast Stream programme.

Listen as Kate gets to the bottom of what James's job looks like. They cover the variety of postings James has undertaken on the Science and Engineering Fast Stream, the transferable skills that have helped him in his role and the future challenges for the Civil Service.

James's Bio

I'm part of the UK Civil Service Fast Stream graduate programme and I'm on the Science & Engineering scheme. I'm currently working at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and my past postings include the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and a secondment at the Newton Venture Program.

I hold a first-class integrated Masters degree in Chemistry from The University of York and I spent my masters year at the University of Helsinki as a year abroad working in a research lab. After University I worked for the charity Shelter for a year before joining the Fast Stream.

Transcript and useful links

Izi's Bio

Izi's most recent piece of work was relaunching Lotto (The National Lottery flagship game). She has also worked on client accounts for Maynards Bassetts, Nationwide, British Red Cross, McLaren, Saga, Royal London, Macmillan, Avis (EMEA) and MoreThan.

Izi is deputy lead of the VCCP entry level scheme - The Table. The scheme is designed to find future leaders in the industry.

Izi is a graduate of the University of York where she studied History.

Transcript and links

Ian is an Academic Clinical Fellow and junior doctor in Obstetrics & Gynaecology. After graduating in English during the 2008 credit crunch, he pursued Graduate Entry Medicine and an MSc in Global Health Science. He divides his time between clinical work and research into complications of pregnancy.

Transcript and useful links

This is a re-released episode which was first published in March 2021

Harpal Sahota is a data scientist at MagicLab, who operate a number of dating apps, including Bumble & Lumen. He studied an MA in Computational Biology at the University of York, and went on to take a PhD in Computational Biology at University of London, before entering the job market, working for the likes of YouGov before settling at MagicLab, where he has worked since January 2020.

This is a re-released episode that was first published in May 2020

Useful links and transcript

Alyson Webb is a Director at Frankly Green + Webb, an agency specialising in human-centred design to improve digital experiences in the cultural sector.

Listen as Kate gets to the bottom of what Alyson's job looks like. They cover working in the cultural sector, digital experiences, human-centred design thinking, consultancy and more!

Alyson's bio:

Alyson has worked in the cultural sector for 30 years. As a creative director and innovation programme leader, she has helped countless museums, galleries and historic sites share their extraordinary stories with diverse audiences around the globe.

Having designed the experience and content of the world’s first-ever multimedia guide, mobile phone guide and gallery podcast, Alyson has seen first-hand how this work can change how people think, behave and see the world. Collaborating with the expertise and profound knowledge within each organisation is one of her favourite parts of every project.

Her greatest reward comes in helping teams discover new creative opportunities, express what is unique and authentic to them, and understand their audience on a new level–ultimately so everyone feels that the knowledge and beauty held in these sites is theirs to take in.

Alyson is a National Heritage Lottery Fund digital mentor.

Transcript and useful links.