What Do You Actually Do? – Details, episodes & analysis

Kate is joined today by Faz Kazmi. Faz graduated in Economics and Finance and now works as a Vertical Launch Grants Manager at the UK Space Agency.

Listen as Faz reveals what his day to day looks like. He also talks about the breadth of roles within this sector for graduates from all degree disciplines plus his tips on how to develop your skills and gain insights to help you break into the Space sector.

Faz's Bio: 

After graduating from York, I joined Meta's risk management and intelligence team, where I analysed social media trends. Recently, I moved to the UK Space Agency, where I manage government-funded grants to facilitate rocket launches from British soil.

Useful links:

UK Space Agency:

⁠https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-space-agency⁠ 

UK Space Careers:

⁠https://spacecareers.uk/home⁠ 

European Space Agency:

⁠https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA⁠ 

Active debris removal:

⁠https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/space-sustainability⁠ 

⁠https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/Active_debris_removal⁠ 

Space Sustainability employer:

⁠https://astroscale.com/about-astroscale/about/⁠ 

Careers in finance and consultancy:

⁠https://www.york.ac.uk/students/work-volunteering-careers/ideas/sectors/finance/⁠ 

Kate chats to York graduate Cezara Jalba about her role as a Control, Electrical & Instrumentation Design Engineer at the Sellafield site, which is part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. They discuss what her role entails, key skills, how Cezara's degree helped to prepare her for this role and what she loves about her job and the bits that she doesn't love quite so much.

Cezara's Bio

I am an engineer on a mission: to solve problems and make the world a better, safer and more efficient place. I specialize in driving innovative solutions for nuclear decommissioning and remediation projects in the civil nuclear industry. My expertise lies in delivering design packages that include control systems, robotics, and instrumentation; systems engineering; site asset management; and delivering digital transformation initiatives that redefine industry standards. Passionate about leveraging technology to put more people out of harm's way and deliver the mission of cleaning up the UK's old nuclear sites faster, safer, cheaper.

Links:

Sellafield careers, grad schemes and placement year

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Environmental and Energy related careers

Engineering and manufacturing sector

Jobs and internships in Electronics, Energy, Engineering and more!

A transcript of this conversation can be found in the Resources section on Handshake

Elizabeth studied History of Art and thought she'd go into museum curation, until she discovered the amazing world of consultancy in the heritage sector! She helps museums, theatres and galleries solve problems... everything from how to boost visitor numbers to launching new learning programmes.

If you have always wanted to work in heritage and you're interested in what makes people tick, this could be the career for you.

Elizabeth's bio: I work with arts and cultural organisations helping them to understand more about the people who visit them and how to grow, engage and satisfy their audiences

Transcript and useful links on the blog.

Pretty much any student at York can do a placement year or year in industry! And right now second/middle year students can register for the programme. With that in mind, we thought it would make sense to speak to a York student just back from a year out in the world of work.

Toby studies History and spent his placement year working in recruitment for Reed. It sounded like a lot of fun. In this episode, he tells Kate what recruitment is like and why everyone, especially History students, should go for the placement year. Enjoy!

There is a full transcript and useful links on our blog.

Toby's bio:

Originally from Nottingham, I came to York to study History. I found myself unsure of what to do with my future, and figured why not apply for a placement. So I've spent the last 12 months in London, working in Recruitment, and I'm now excited to come back to university to complete my final year. While I've loved London, I've missed the greenery of the north and I'm excited to be able to go on long walks in the countryside again! London's too much of a concrete jungle for my liking!

Cass is a freelance climate communications consultant in Belgium, working with NGOs, charities and ethical organisations to help them improve their communications and translate the good work they are doing into words the public and policymakers understand.

This is a fascinating conversation for anyone interested in: freelancing, working in comms and making a career in climate activism. Cass has some super interesting things to say about following your values, final year career stress and creating the job you want.

Cass graduated from York in 2019 with a degree in English Language and Linguistics. Long time listeners might remember that we spoke to Cass back in 2019 about her student internship.

Transcript and useful links on our blog.

Lots of people want to work in the rail industry and York graduate Laura has made it happen. She is Technical Head of System Safety at Network Rail, which means it's her job to make sure the railways are safe. Get an insight into what's going on in the sector and what this kind of work is actually like.

Laura's bio:

I gained a Masters of Engineering at the University of York before starting my career in the rail industry. Over the last fifteen years I have been part of the modernisation of the industry, varying from insourcing of circa 500 staff to the safe integration of new railway stations. In my personal life I am a mother to four children and a school foundation governor.

Transcript and useful links on our blog.

For grads interested in heritage, Rebecca Thompson might just have the dream job (she describes it as 'one of the best jobs in the world'): Senior Estate Manager at English Heritage, where she cares for over 400 buildings and monuments in England.

She has lots of info to help people wanting to get into the sector, including how to network, skills shortages and the impact of climate change.

Bio: After starting in commercial construction, Rebecca followed her interest in cultural heritage and studied a Masters in Archaeology of Buildings at York. She is now Senior Estate Manager at English Heritage. She has channelled her love of historic buildings into a career making sure they are relevant and sustainable for future generations. She cares about promoting equality and diversity in the heritage sector and ensuring our craft skills are utilised so they are not lost.

Transcript and useful links on our blog.

What does an investigative journalist actually do?? Sam Bright studied History at York while running a politics blog in his spare time. He's now the UK Deputy Editor at DeSmog and has written two books. Sam tells Kate what his day looks like and shares his tips for students interested in this kind of work.

Sam's bio:

Sam Bright is a journalist and author who has written two books: Fortress London and Bullingdon Club Britain. He has worked for the BBC and has been published by the New York Times, the New Statesman, the Big Issue, VICE, the Spectator, the Yorkshire Post and others.

Transcript and useful links on our blog.

We get a lot of questions about Speech and Language Therapy careers. It's a hugely rewarding area of work where you support and care for people of all ages who have difficulties with speech, language, communication, eating, drinking and swallowing.

York graduate Jess is a Speech and Language Therapist working with adults with learning disabilities. Find out about what she does each day and how she got there.

As always, full transcript and useful links can be found on our blog.

Jess's bio:

Jess graduated as a Speech and Language Therapist in 2019 and now works as an NHS Specialist Speech and Language Therapist in an Intensive Support Team for adults with learning disabilities. Jess is also a Speech and Language Therapist for the Down Syndrome Training and Support Service.

Want to work in the television industry? Tim Dean knows how to make it happen! He graduated from York with a degree in Social Policy and now has 20 years' experience in TV. Tim and Kate talk about how he got into the industry, why you don't need a media degree and what it's actually like producing TV every day.

Transcript and useful links on the blog.

Tim's bio:

BAFTA and RTS award winning Executive Producer with over 20 years’ experience in TV. I've run a whole array of different shows from juggernaut brands like ‘Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’ and ‘Take Me Out’ through to chat shows such as 'Lateish with Mo Gilligan' and 'The Big Narstie Show' and created brand new formats from scratch like ‘In For A Penny'. I've worked with a range of talent from Simon Cowell and Harry Styles through to David Walliams and Kelly Rowland and love making noisy blockbuster TV filled with edge of your seat excitement and drama.