What has been your pathway to being Head of Careers at St Columba’s?
I first received high calibre careers advice when I was 40 and it was life changing. Previously, I had enjoyed some great jobs – being an editorial assistant at Macmillan (now Springer), being promoted to an executive producer at The Guardian, working on change management projects, leading on an employee engagement survey for Camden Council and later teaching English and Horticultural while running enrichment in a Sixth Form. However with every great project, something felt like it was missing. Discovering my motivators through careers advice was a game changer. I realised the power of decent careers guidance and noticed I had actually been giving people tips for years.
Mrs Griffiths Plunkett (left), recently attending a Careers Event
If you knew then what you know now, what is the best piece of advice you would give yourself?
There is no such thing as a bad decision when it comes to careers. Discovering you don’t like a careers pathway you have chosen and making a change that is better for you is powerful. I love learning, went to a prestigious university but discovered I really did not enjoy the history course in the 1990s. (It was the first year of including women’s history on the modern history degree and I only realised that once I arrived there…as I had no careers advice when I was at school and we only had paper prospectuses.) It took me years to realise what a helpful experience dropping out of university had been for me. I went and spent months temping for all manner of organisations: the Welsh Rugby Union, Eversheds and in a university’s academic registry. Then I completed voluntary work abroad in the summer that I funded from my saved up salary. My confidence soared and I went to study English literature at another university, where I thrived academically, was elected Women’s Officer for the Students’ Union and was lucky enough to spend a year abroad completing my degree at University of California, Berkeley. That all has helped make me a better careers advisor.
If you could do any job in the world, what would it be and why?
The one I have now! I find it fascinating and enjoy supporting students to make the right choices for them.
What advice would you give to someone who doesn’t know they want to do yet?
Lots of people never work out exactly what they want to do and that is okay. Do what you enjoy and what you are good at. Be open to opportunities (research suggests lucky people actually make the most of chances they have). Try to treat everyone well in an organisation.
What are the key skills employers and universities are looking for today?
The skills an employer most desires will be based on the organisation’s culture so it is always worth checking out the values. Do you fit with them? Most want collaboration, teamwork, communication and so on. However, adaptability is the most important due to the rate of change and that’s not just because of AI, which will change roles rather than leave us with none. Sustainability, inclusion and flexible working are also still hugely impacting organisations hence the need to be able to cope with change as it will keep coming. For me, the key skills I use are lateral thinking, collaboration and kindness.
Can you tell us about an exciting Alumni success story?
Our Alumni are brilliantly helpful when it comes to our students. Annually, they come back to school to give career talks and every time it changes the directions of a number of students. It’s also exciting watching our young people edge closer to becoming alumni, be it through obtaining sports scholarships to US universities, having successes applying for degrees or receiving multiple apprenticeship offers. I watch the UCAS dashboard for university offers closely for a few months each year and feel delighted each time a student has an offer.
What trends in higher education or the workplace should our pupils be aware of?
University has changed from when parents went. 68% of students now have a part time job so some student unions are not as lively in the daytime as they used to be. Lectures are often online so less attend in person. 13,000 redundancies are taking place so courses will be withdrawn and the experience may change. With the workplace, it has to be that it will keep changing and also the change to apprenticeship funding (more for younger people) is one to watch. Also, universities are moving away from discrete employability courses and trying to marble it into their curriculum. New apprenticeships are emerging although at the same time they are becoming increasingly competitive.
What do you enjoy most about working with our young people?
Every day, our students teach me new things, from the terminology to use in a cricket match to an academic theory and even how a construction site works. I find it fascinating and our community is full of brilliantly ambitious people.
