The Mount’s Excellent Careers Week in Our 240th Anniversary Year
Our popular, annual Careers’ Week at The Mount saw four talented old scholars come in to school to share their wisdom, advice and journey from their school days to the workplace.
Pupils benefitted from past pupils’ trials and errors, and it was refreshing to hear that mistakes are just part of the journey and nothing is insurmountable with The Mount’s values to ‘think and live adventurously’.
Dr Rachael Chrystal
Monday saw old scholar, Dr Rachael Chrystal join us online. A women’s health specialist and GP, Dr Rachael gave a fascinating talk on her interesting role.
What stood out was her unconventional entry into Medicine after her A Levels were actually in English and languages.
Rachael then decided to take a Gap Year, volunteering in South America and enjoyed learning Spanish. She decided then that she didn’t want to work in an office and that Medicine might be the route for her.
Knowing that her qualifications weren’t what is usually required, she headed back to the UK and volunteered and worked in nursing homes, York Hospital, retail and as a healthcare assistant. At the same time as she was accruing this invaluable experience, she also applied to four universities for an extended medical course (with one extra year). Her work experience meant she had plenty to talk about at interview and her unconventional route in to the competitive world of medicine was not a problem but actually a strength.
It is twenty years since Dr Rachael left The Mount and she has fond memories of ‘biscuits with friends, especially the pink wafer one’.
She shared a great deal of helpful advice including, “The Mount is fantastic and offers multiple opportunities to work as a team and to build many skills and strengths. Go for it,” “if you don’t fit the mould, don’t let that put you off”, and “you don’t need to know exactly what you want to do; it might evolve along the way and that’s ok.”
Ella Safri
Tuesday saw Ella Safri – who worked in Chemical Engineering and now works in Finance – give an informative talk on both these areas.
Ella studied Chemistry, Physics, Maths and Spanish at The Mount, before going on to complete a Chemical Engineering degree and Masters in Engineering with Finance.
She entered the world of Petroleum Engineering and was based on oil rigs and engaged in drill planning in the oil industry.
Winning a place on a highly competitive graduate programme for Shell Oil, she tried several roles there over seven years.
One day Ella realised that she couldn’t see herself doing Chemical Engineering for another thirty years and made some brave changes.
Pivoting from her set path she decided Finance would be the sector for her and went about researching what daily tasks certain jobs in Finance actually involve. She realised she would need to start from the bottom, and went about doing just that. Knowing she needed to take six exams quickly, she took a Gap Year and passed three of them before starting work and completing the others whilst working. She is currently a PAraplanner in Finance plus a Finance influencer and content creator, and has some excellent advice for Mount pupils and for all of us, including:
“Always save 15% of your salary for a rainy day. Always have at least £1000 to hand for an emergency,” and “research what you might want to do by contacting people already doing it and asking them for details. Get an internship in a company you admire to see if you will want to do that every day for many years.”
Ella also reminded us that everybody has transferable skills so no direction you ever go in is wasted if you change direction.
Elizabeth Dalby
On Thursday, Elizabeth Dalby popped in to talk to both Senior and Junior schools about her Law degree then current biodiversity work as a Land Manager at Environment Bank.
Elizabeth remembers The Mount fondly and said she loved school and respected her teachers. She also revealed that her A Levels hadn’t fully gone to plan because she hadn’t chosen areas she loved. She has since realised you should “pick what you love so your natural interest will encourage hard work. But if things don’t go to the plan, it’s not the end of the world. I now do work I genuinely care about.”
As a Land Manager, Elizabeth works to ‘bring back sites as natural habitats or corridors for nature to move within.’ She is currently working on a fascinating project at Castle Howard to reintroduce beavers which create natural dams. Beavers are controversial but this is an interesting issue in the field of ‘Natural Capital’. She is in the office for two days and visiting projects outdoors for three days which suits her personality.
Elizabeth’s mum was also a Mount scholar. They can both spot areas of the school which haven’t changed and have very fond memories. Elizabeth was taught by both Mrs Cook and Miss Milton who have worked at the Mount for many years now between them.
Georgia Morgan
Georgia only left The Mount four years ago and is remembered for her enthusiasm by current staff and pupils.
Georgia took an interesting route by applying for a series of degree apprenticeships while completing her A Levels and eventually being employed in the food industry.
She recommended this route to Mount pupils because, “you are paid to do a degree and work full time, you don’t amass debt and can actually save, and you get to try many roles within one company to find out what you enjoy most.” Another advantage she outlined is that she has also completed three years of management training three years ahead of most of her peers who start it after their degree has ended.
Georgia tried various roles including sales and analytics but settled on shopper marketing as her favourite role in the industry. At only 22 years old she is already secure in the sector she loves and has saved a deposit for a house and taken three months off to go solo travelling, all paid for herself.
Georgia recommends anyone interested in a degree apprenticeship should write down a list of companies they admire and research their websites and social media platforms to see if they offer such opportunities and then start the hard slog of applying, which will be worth it in the end.
She also said that pupils should pick any company placements while at school carefully but if they enjoy it, they can work towards it, or if they find it dull, can at least rule it out.
Thank you to all our visitors last week who gave such valuable insights into the world of further studies and work as well as travelling and saving!
Thank you to Naomi Kelly, who organised this week in her role as Foundation & Alumnae Officer.
She said, “Thank you to our old scholars and to pupils for attending. These interactive talks were all so enriching, widening knowledge of careers whether or not our pupils are interested in that particular area or not. Another great year of diverse and fascinating speakers giving Mount pupils invaluable insights.”
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