
Event review – Lower Sixth Careers Fair
More pick-n-mix buffet than the regular timetabled Fair, this year’s event offered pupils the chance to cook up their very own feast from a most sophisticated carte of Zoom offerings.
Virtually released from any constraints of physical rooms, everyone was free to sample any four of the 16 different professions the group had voted to invite; one sequence of courses might have included a Digital Enterprise amuse-bouche followed by a Green Energy hors d’œuvre, then a main of noble Pharmaceutical Work topped off with a dessert lashing from the Business of Fun.
Four seminars ran simultaneously over the afternoon, and recording made unnecessary any difficult choices between delicious options, as later sampling is always possible. Take-away ideas were plentiful – for example Investment Banker Nick Byfield and Engineer Richard Threlfall (TU 1984-89) both heartened the timid by stressing how failures lead to success, and Barrister Matthew Reeve argued that the secret to career happiness is a role where you feel really alive ‘as if performing at 120%’. Ovations for those who served up the afternoon’s treats may have been on mute, but the high-flying OM and parent professionals should not underestimate our huge appreciation for their generous helpings.
Guy Nobes
Head of Guidance
Our thanks to the following for giving up their time and offering such useful advice:
Peter Bell – Investment Banking
Valerie Besancon – Investment Banking
Nick Byfield – Corporate Finance
James Hervey-Bathurst – Private Estate Management/Hospitality
Ali Joy – Medicine
David Keown (LI 1984-89) – Pharmaceuticals
Miriam Manook (EL 1997-99) – Medicine
Rahul Munjal – Renewable Energy
Jane Nicholson – Human Resources
Alex Northcott (B1 1982-87) – Digital Enterprise
Tessa Packard (TU 2001-03) – Design
Matthew Reeve – Law
Sue Saville – Journalism
Holly Scott-Donaldson (MO 1989-91) – Sales & Marketing
James Sellar – Real Estate
Richard Simon (LI 2009-14) – Low Carbon Energy (Consultancy)
Richard Threlfall (TU 1984-89) – Engineering