ALUMNI VOICES

As a careers consultant with nearly 20 years of experience working with the University of London (UoL), I know that as well as valuing the insights and expertise that myself and my colleagues can provide, many of our current students also want to hear from University of London alumni in regards to their career development. The voice of someone who has graduated from the programme that they are currently studying really matters to our current students, and rightly so.

Whilst careers consultants, such as myself, can share the latest labour market intelligence and ideas on how to craft their CV and interview technique, what we cannot do is share our lived experience of the very programmes in which our current students are engaged. 

Only a graduate from the same programme can provide a narrative on what it is like to take that qualification into the workplace from a first-person perspective. Only they can speak directly about how they have translated their academic experience into professional practice, in labour markets across the world, which is why their viewpoints are so highly valued by our current student body. 

Differing career stages 

The diversity of the University of London student body, not only in terms of location, is a particular feature of our distance and flexible learning programmes. Whilst some of our current students are what we might describe as ‘career starters’, in the early stages of their career development, others are ‘career developers’, potentially using their University of London qualification to enhance their existing role and move into management, for example. Equally, we also have students we describe as ‘career changers’, often with several years of experience in a field, who are looking to change their career direction.

Given this diversity, it is always helpful for us to engage with alumni who are themselves at different stages of their own career development. Whether you graduated two or 20 years ago, your insight into how you have used your UoL qualification in the world of work is incredibly valuable for our students. This is also true whether your career journey has been reasonably linear, or whether you have ended up working in a sphere very different to the one you imagined when you first graduated.

Once such example was the Alumni Voice International Development and Humanitarian Aid Event, which was held virtually on 20 July 2021. The first careers Alumni Voice event of its kind offered to University of London distance and flexible learners, the event featured three alumni speakers from three different continents who work in the international development and humanitarian aid sectors. 

We were delighted to be joined by Abdiweli Osman Mohamed, Zara Qaiser and Adi Walker, who each spoke about their professional journey since graduating from University of London and then took questions from the more than 50 students who attended the virtual event. In their spare time, Zara, Adi and Abdiweli also volunteer through the University’s Alumni Ambassador programme, providing advice to current and prospective students. 

You can read more about the panellists on the website:
bit.ly/alumni-voice-july-2021

Mutual benefits

Not only was the event a great opportunity for our current students to hear first-hand from experienced professionals, but it was also a chance for them to identify useful steps they could take in their own career development. Student satisfaction after the event was very high, with 88.8 per cent agreeing or strongly agreeing that they had learned something that will help them manage their career more effectively in the future. 

Equally, the speakers themselves found the event beneficial. Zara said:

So successful was this event that we are now hoping to roll out a series of Alumni Voice events, which explore a diversity of careers areas: from technology and law to finance and public health. The next of these took place on 9 November 2021, on the topic of Careers in Technology. 

The University is always keen to hear more about your work and experiences since graduation. 

We are incredibly grateful for the time and expertise our alumni volunteers give in support of the University. To find out more about alumni volunteering opportunities, please visit: london.ac.uk/alumni/volunteering
or email: alumni@london.ac.uk

Laura Brammar is a Senior Careers Consultant for The Careers Group at the University of London.