By Seyran Khalili, Postgraduate Student in Psychosis Studies, and Marketing Assistant at King’s Careers & Employability.
Beka Kimberley is a Careers Consultant at King’s Careers and Employability. She was previously an early years specialist teacher for 14 years, before changing her career path to study a postgraduate degree in Children’s Literature. We met to speak about what her experiences of being a recent graduate were (having only finished her degree last year) and what her take home message is to other student graduates.
As Beka shares in her interview, she felt that as a vocational profession, teaching defines your identity, and it was her encounters with people she met and spoke with that prompted her to choose the career and sector she has today. When Beka met with people at different networking events, she would ask them “What do you do and do you like your job?” I asked her to tell me more about how she took actions from these replies and how she chose the sector and workplace as a result. She immediately told me the following story, which quickly made me think about how important it is to choose a job that aligns with who you are and the type of working environment you want to have.
The first steps after graduation…
I only graduated in October, and this time last year I was writing my dissertation. Like quite a lot of people, I had this idea that I would contact the Careers Service while I was at University and I would get that all sorted – by the end of my degree I’d be ready, and I thought studying would help me to change career.
One of the things I was thinking about was publishing. I looked at what Literature graduates did and there were a lot working in publishing. Initially I was thinking it made perfect sense and would be a great role, as I love books, and I know a lot about children’s books in particular. But after doing some research and hearing people talking about their roles I decided that it probably wasn’t for me.
It was mainly finding out what the job actually involved; the combination of sales, editing and marketing. I realised that actually it’s not what I want to do”. It’s quite a commercial and sales driven industry and that didn’t really align with my values very well, or get me excited about the prospect of getting up for work. That’s a really useful indicator!
Whereas when I started reading about being a Careers Consultant, I realised it’s all about helping people to achieve the things they want. It seems like it’s nothing to do with Children’s Literature, but it is about developing people and moving forward, and that’s the aspect of reading that appeals to me – the journeys that characters make and how they grow. So it is actually a much better fit for my values than publishing.
How can you use networks to help?
I started just asking almost anyone I met, whether it was socially or professionally “What do you do, and do you like your job? I am looking to change career, would you recommend it?“
That was a really interesting conversation to have with people, even though it’s not the most structured form of networking. I really remember how many people would respond “No it’s boring” when I asked whether they’d recommend doing what they do – I was surprised by quite how common that was. But the few people who said “Yes I love my job, its brilliant” really stuck in my mind.
What would you say to current graduates about their future career?
What only really became apparent for me as I was searching jobs was how many skills I have that I really took for granted, because I’ve been surrounded by teachers.
For example, with teaching because your workload is so high everyone has to be good at time management and be well organised. It was only when I started to look at other jobs that I understood that not everyone has those skills.
I hadn’t recognised that they were skills I‘d gained because it felt quite normal to me, so it was quite nice to meet others who didn’t have that skill, and realise it was a strength I had over them. So, I suppose the advice would be – think about what you can offer, don’t just assume everyone can do the things that come naturally to you or that you find easy – those are your strengths!
Envisioning your workplace – A careers planning exercise
I suppose being a graduate creates a bit of a self-imposed time limit and you end up setting a deadline by which point you should’ve achieved something. I remember thinking when I’d graduated, “I was supposed to have this sorted by now, why is it still not sorted and I still don’t have the answer?“
I think it was really challenging because I had a bit of a misconception about what I wanted my new career to look like, and I still hadn’t sorted that out. I started to make a list of things I wanted from a job. There was a careers planning exercise I did online that imagined your day at work and asked questions like “where are you? how do you get to work? where do you have lunch? what are you wearing? what’s the working environment like?” This was useful, as I hadn’t really thought about a job like that before. After learning about this concept I started to think a lot more about envisioning my workplace.
You often think that you’re on a pathway and can feel limited in the choices you can make as a result. One of the challenges is that you do have to take a step back if you are retraining, or choose an entry-level job that will be a step to lead you further, and those things needs consideration. But I think people often feel the barriers are bigger than they are. It’s often fear that stops us wanting to make the change.
We hope you enjoyed our interview with Beka! To learn more about how to envision your workplace and planning, book a Careers Guidance appointment with us here at King’s Careers & Employability. You can also read more about the first steps of Melissa and Crystal to find some more inspiration for YOUR next steps!