Learn Lounge – Week Four | Recap

 

Dan Doherty

Attraction & Recruitment Manager, Early Careers at Capgemini

What’s your personal brand? How are you positively promoting that brand, and being known for the things you want to be known for? These are important questions in an increasingly digital world and some that many young people grapple with. In his exceptionally informative talk, Dan talks to use about exactly what these concepts mean and how you can get started today on answering them. 

Dan helps us understand the difference between differentiating and aligning your brand to who you want to be known for, and gives some fantastic insights into the who, why, and how of recruitment and headhunting. He also shares his top five principles for developing your personal brand: be connected, be knowledgeable, be approachable, be active, and be yourself. A talk not to be missed for any fresh graduate, or anyone wanting to build a professional identity.

“Ask yourself what you want to be known for and how you can be found. If you’re not sure of where you want to go, you can start inspiring yourself now with these questions.”

Dan Doherty

Watch Dan’s talk here: Personal Branding For Students

Mr. Beezy

International Motivational Speaker

In his hugely entertaining, motivational, and inspiring talk, Mr. Beezy drops more than a few empowering truth bombs on us. Through a series of personal anecdotes and hard-hitting quotes, he teaches us the importance of setting a daily routine, the power of our habits for achieving results, and how we each have more control than we think when it comes to reaching our goals. 

A fantastic reminder that we have the power to shape our paths, and that while it’s okay to get side-tracked sometimes, like any good sat-nav, as long as we have a strong destination in mind, we’ll always get back to where to need to be. Definitely don’t miss this talk, not least for Mr. Beezy’s highly infectious & joyful laugh!

“Don’t count the days, make the days count.”

Mr. Beezy

Watch Mr. Beezy’s talk here: Light In The Darkness: How To Transform Your Life

Martyn Sibley

Inclusion Captain, Author, Speaker, Disability Horizons

Inspirational to say the least, Martyn’s journey will not only change the way you think about disability within our communities but will leave you questioning what you can do today to live the life you really want. His resilience and determination to shake up the way the world views disability  – especially in the travel space! – is truly amazing. Martyn advises that travel is one of the most crucial ways to shake-up your world-view, as well as helping you to broaden your horizons when it comes to ideas for your career. A true positive spokesperson and all-round motivational human being, make sure you give his talk a listen.

“We really are all different across the world in many ways, but equally we’re all joined by the fact that we’re human beings and underneath, we’re not all that different.” 

Martyn Sibley

Watch Martyn’s talk here: How To Change The World

Abbie Scargill

Employer Masterclass with Nestle

Candidate Support Specialist – Nestle Academy Team

You’ve probably heard of Nestle already (they make all those yummy chocolate bars!) but did you know they’re the world’s largest food and beverage company? Employing over 8000 staff across 13 factories, 5 offices, and 2 distribution centres in the UK and Ireland. Globally, Nestle has over 2000 products across food, beverage, confectionery, pet care, baby food, and cereal categories.

In this insightful and highly informative talk, we hear from Abbie alongside Freya, a current Chartered Manager Degree Apprentice in her second year with Nestle. Between them, they give some hot tips and insights into the Nestle Academy but also cover some amazing guidance on applying for work, apprenticeships, and opportunities in general. You’ll want to make sure you’ve got a pen and notebook handy as they go in-depth describing what exactly Strength-Based Interviews and Strength-Based Recruitment is and how to be successful! They also share their wisdom on what you can be doing right now to prepare yourself for future opportunities including: Be proactive, Be Inquisitive, Know Yourself, and prepare. Whether you’re applying for your first job or apprenticeship or seeking a new opportunity, the advice from Abbie and Freya is not to be missed.

“Make sure you look at all the possibilities. There is no one direct career path. It’s all about personal preference and discovery works best for you.”

Abbie Scargill

Watch Abbie’s talk here: Realising Your Individual Strengths & Top Tips For A Virtual Assessment Centre

Safwan Chowdhury

Assistant Manager, Corporate Finance, Grant Thornton LLP UK

For anyone sitting at home trying desperately to weigh up the tricky decision of apprenticeship or degree for their next step, this is the talk for you! Safwan gives us some fantastic insights into how he weighed up the decision for himself, and how the apprenticeship route led him down the path of success. He gives his top reasons why this was the best option for him, how apprenticeships are a more viable option these days, how he managed setbacks and his best tips on nailing the application process. 

Safwan offers a really balanced perspective too, with honesty around some of the things he missed out on by not choosing university. Alongside a great overview of the accountancy field (it’s not all sitting at a desk with a calculator!), this is a really motivating talk for anyone facing those tough next step decisions.

Watch Safwan’s talk here: Apprentice Success: From School To Experienced Finance Professional

Verity Park

Talent Manager, Gleam Futures

Verity takes us on a deep-dive into the emerging and incredibly dynamic industry of talent management. In her extremely varied role, Verity discusses how she works with high-value brand partnerships, connects with influencers, manages the strategy and personal brand of her talent partners, and gets the opportunity to work with a wide cross-section of super talented and interesting people. 

Alongside tips and advice on what talent managers generally seek in potential new talent partners, this talk is a great introduction to this industry! As well as how she got into the role herself, Verity discusses how the key thing for most industries is to gain experience and the importance of all work experience for helping you to develop and understand your own ideas for the career you want to build.

“A passion for the industry and understanding for the industry you want to work in can be far more beneficial than having studied the ‘right’ subjects.”

Verity Park

 

Watch Verity’s talk here: Finding Talent: Everything You Wanted To Know About Being A Talent Manager

Ben Duffy

Commercial Sports Photographer

Sports and football fans in particular, as well as budding photographers, will not want to miss Ben’s talk as he shares his full career journey. From a young novice, winning national competitions (even if, as he says, he was one of four people that entered!) to exclusive portrait photograph with some of the biggest names in sport (Wayne Rooney!). Ben shares his knowledge of how the industry has changed over the years and provides some brilliant advice on how to get started, as well as some great insight on what it takes to build a freelance portfolio that is applicable across many industries.

Watch Ben’s talk here: Tales and lessons from the life of a Commercial Sports Photographer

What’s Coming Up Next?

 

Week five is already shaping up to be just as exciting as we continue you bring you talks from some of the very best across a wide range of industries.

If you can’t either, make sure you’ve signed up to get notified of upcoming talks and when they’ll be going live (which is the best way to get your burning questions answered!). 

You can sign up here.

Thanks again to everyone who tuned in this week, asked a question, and shared #LearnLounge across social media! And as always, all our talks are ready and waiting for you in our On Demand Library if you missed any.