Looking back at the Careers Service in 2000
By: Alumni Team
It’s National Careers Week and we thought we’d look back on what UEA’s Careers Service was like in the early 2000s. We spoke to one of our Careers Advisers, Rachael Breed, who has worked in UEA’s Careers Service since the year 2000. Rachael was the first person to do the AGCAS (Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services) qualification in 2006, receiving the John Roberts Memorial Prize.
What was UEA’s Career Service like back in the year 2000?
The department was a lot smaller. When I first joined, there were staff that had worked at UEA’s careers service since its early days and for many years. I’m still in touch with one of them, John Thurman, today.
On my first day, we moved into a new building, currently the Student Appointment Centre, which was converted from an old squash court into the new Careers Service building. It won a prize. It was the first time the Careers Service had its own designated space on campus, so it was very exciting.
Since then, we’ve also been based on the Street, where the Student Information Zone (SIZ) is now, and in the Library, where we are based now.
What was your role when you first started?
It was a new job – Employer Liaison Officer/Skills Development Adviser. I coordinated careers events and employer contacts and worked closely with the Students’ Union. We ran a ‘job shop’ called ‘Employability’ together (where part of Unio is now) and one of the main things I did was promote student employment to UEA departments and a wide range of employers and organisations.
When I first started, it was a paper-based system. The process was that a job would come through, and we’d advertise it on a paper-based noticeboard. One of the first things I did was transform this into an online service!
What inspired you to become a Careers Adviser?
I actually had a mock interview on the PGCE course here with John Thurman, who I ended up working with when I joined. I wasn’t really sure what to do and he really put me at ease, having so much empathy as I was trying to figure it out. That made such a big impact on me. I got the sense that he was a side-by-side, professional friend, promoting a safe space to try stuff out. I thought this is something I’d like to do in future.
There’s a programme on Radio 4, where listeners share stories, thanking people that have helped them in the past. Once, someone mentioned one of the original founding Careers Advisers here at UEA – about how they’d helped them think about what to do in life and how much support they offered. I think it’s wonderful you can have such an impact in this role and really help people’s futures in this way.
Would you say the ethos of the service has stayed the same throughout the years?
Fundamentally, yes. Strategies around the service and our offer to students has developed but with one-to-one appointments, it’s still all about non-judgement and non-directive support. Careers Advisers were and are still here to support you with working it out and getting clarity so you feel like you can do it. We want to help people widen their perspectives, explore and research their options, as well as develop their self-awareness. Most of all, we want people to feel like they can be themselves and that we care about supporting you on your individual journey. It was the same back then and it’s the same now.
What inspires you most about the students you’ve worked with over the years?
Being a Careers Adviser is a real privilege, and you have so much empathy for the different places that people are at when they are working out their career journey. What inspires me is when I see people taking their first brave steps and developing their confidence. The courage that people have to try things out and go for interviews, make changes and work towards their dreams – it’s a privilege that people are happy to open up about their thoughts on this kind of thing to you and that, as an Adviser, you can help with those possibilities.
What’s the one thing you’d like to say now to all those students you’ve seen in the past?
I hope they feel that they work in careers, jobs or areas that touch upon the things that are important to them.
If you’re a recent graduate and would like careers advice, guidance or support, you still have access to all of our services via Grad Central.
We’re also looking to expand our pool of alumni mentors, particularly those who work in psychology and mental health roles, or in roles related to international development. If you’d like to help a current student become more career confident and share your insights about working in your field, find out more about becoming a mentor.