Rachel J.
About me
| Rachel J. | |
| Management | |
| Business Management | |
| Undergraduate | |
| 2013 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Employer Liaison | |
| University of York | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Education | |
| 2014 | |
| 2015 |
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A day in the life of a Employer Liaison in the United Kingdom
My career history
Whilst at University I worked part-time for the fashion retailer New Look and volunteered for York St John's Careers Service.
Where I hope to be in 5 years
Whilst I don't know specifically what I would like to do for my future career, my role in the Employer Liaison Team has helped me to identified my enjoyment of project management and working as a team. I would particularly like to take these elements forward in my future career and push myself further by taking on more responsibilities.
My advice to students considering work
Involve yourself in as much work experience as possible. This will provide you with examples of how you have developed the skills you possess and not just a list of skills with no evidence. Without being biased I would also say make use of Careers (my University's Service helped me immensely). The staff can provide you with so much help and guidance and even increase the opportunities you have to network with useful contacts. The more people you know, the better.
What I do
As part of the Employer Liaison Team I work with Careers to help students achieve employment following graduation and leave University with more than just a degree. My role entails working alongside employers to arrange their involvement with York students, whether that is through presentations, large networking events, competitions, hosting a stand on campus etc. My day involves dealing with queries from employers, working with colleagues to organise events and also monitoring our online vacancies system to ensure the opportunities are meet legislation and the University's policies.
Skills I use and how I developed them
Extracurricular skills:
Use of my customer service skills that I developed when working in retail has been really valuable when engaging with employers and students. Having experienced situations where customers have been dissatisfied and learnt how to best deal with those situations has been really useful when managing expectations. For example, if there has been low turnout to an employer event, by having a friendly professional manner it has assisted me with making the employer feel valued and that there are other options to engage with students. This links to my communication skills of listening to what others needs and being able to respond to them. I was able to develop these when working with peers on group projects during my degree. With members varying opinions and other commitments it meant listening was key to be able to delegate work and have equal input. This has been extremely useful when establishing what employers needs are and how we can fit those into an alignment with student needs and Careers' ability to meet those.
What I like most
I specifically enjoy the events organising side of my job and the challenge of balancing multiple demands at one time. It's always great to see the outcome of a project you have put so much time and effort into and have positive feedback form students and employers.
I also like being able to have an insight into the graduate market and what employers are looking for. Its really useful being a recent graduate myself. Finally, the working culture at Careers is a really friendly flexible environment which makes my job all the more enjoyable.
What I like least
Whilst my work is always very varied the majority of it is desk based, which at times makes it difficult to motivate myself due to my focus having to be through a screen. However, attending events that I have assisted in organising around campus is always a rewarding element of my job.