INTO Careers Boost

We recently ran a four-day pilot scheme with INTO and Queen’s University Belfast, designed to help students create the foundations they need to launch into careers post-university. 

Although we pride ourselves on being a friendly bunch at Pillar, we make sure to never patronise young people; we don’t sugarcoat things. Finding a graduate job in the UK is harder than ever, with an abundance of applicants for each available job opening, employers looking for more than just an academic record when choosing hires, and graduates often lacking the more particular skills for specific roles. The time after university can be confusing and daunting, and leave graduates feeling directionless. With ‘Careers Boost’, we worked to equip participants with the tools and methods they will need to land that first graduate job and ease their transition into the working world. 

Right off the bat, we asked participants to think big: sketching out their wildest career dreams, with nothing off limits – we had people wanting to do all sorts of things, ranging from becoming Prime Minister to heading up board game companies, and we encouraged them to share and discuss these ambitions with each other. A key part of all of our programs is fostering a community feel, and creating connections between like-minded participants. To close out the first day, we took the students to an escape room and split them into groups: what better (and more fun) way could there be to cultivate communication and teamwork?

PwC are one of the largest graduate employers in the country, and it was great to be able to introduce our participants to the company at their offices, where a panel of associates spoke with students about their professional career journeys and the roles available to graduates, as well as taking the time to answer any questions they had. 

As well as PwC, we also partnered with Deliveroo to deliver (pun very much intended) the ‘employer project’. This was an activity we ran in which students broke into teams to assess the viability of a business proposal that involved running a promotion through Deliveroo. 

After a talk and Q&A from Deliveroo’s Product Director, we gave the students real-life data points that they used to decide whether or not the promotion would be worth pursuing, weighing up the costs and potential rewards, both financial and in terms of exposure and marketability. 

After three days of employer Q&As, a whole host of 1-on-1 CV coaching sessions, talks on pitching and interview skills, workshops on public speaking, networking and more, the final day saw the student groups present their findings on the employer project.

The twenty minute presentations were met with feedback, praise, and questions from the room. Ultimately, the expert panel chose a winning group and awards were presented, before an employability talk from the university’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor. 

To close out Careers Boost, we had each student stand up and talk about one thing they’d learnt from the experience, after which we awarded them a certificate and a book. International students from twelve different countries took part in the program, and we received great feedback from all of the participants.

We hope to launch this scheme in other universities across the UK in the near future.