What Do You Actually Do?

The Aldi grad scheme has a reputation for being challenging, giving its grads a lot of responsibility and having great benefits. After 15 weeks on the scheme you'll be put in charge of a store and after a year you'll be an Area Manager. In this episode Heather Wilkinson tells us about how she got on the scheme and what it's actually like. Heather spent five years as an Area Manager with Aldi after...

The Civil Service Fast Stream is one of the most popular grad schemes in the country and the Times Top 100 number 1 graduate employer. In this episode, Kate talks to Will Simpson, a current Fast Streamer, about what he actually does all day, the best and worst bits, and his advice for students applying to the scheme. Will graduated from York in 2020 with a BA in Politics and is currently on the Ci...

To celebrate graduation week here in York we have a special episode covering the key things you need to know about graduating in 2021 in the middle of a global pandemic. We cover how to start a new job from home, what to do if Covid stopped you from getting work experience, how to future-proof your career, and more! We listen back to podcast highlights from our year of lockdown episodes and Kate c...

Thanks for listening this term. We'll be back later in the summer with a special graduation episode for those of you leaving York this year. In the meantime, follow us/subscribe on your chosen podcast platform so you don't miss it. You can listen back to the rest of our episodes and find more resources to help your career planning on the Careers and Placements website including our support for stu...

Alex graduated from York a couple of years ago. He studied Law and is now a trainee at Norton Rose Fulbright. He tells us about the reality of being a trainee, the best and worse bits, and what it’s like doing your training from home during a pandemic. He has some good tips for future trainees. Alex is a trainee solicitor in the Project Finance Team of Norton Rose Fulbright's Banking Department. H...

Our guest today is Dan Rutstein, whose career history is proof that you definitely don’t have to pick one job and stick to it. Dan graduated from York and his career (so far) has included journalism, diplomacy, consultancy and podcasting. Kate and Dan talk about taking opportunities, transferable skills, the importance of networking and how to make a ‘portfolio career’ work. Dan's first career was...

When you’re looking for your first job after graduation it can sometimes feel like you’re picking a career for life, but that’s far from true. In this episode we chat to York grad Alice who started working in the heritage sector before switching to accounting. Alice is a year 1 trainee chartered accountant at Godfrey Wilson Limited, a small, charity-specialist practice. Her day-to-day brings her i...

We’re back for a new season! In this episode Kate talks to Paul Backhouse, Head of the Historic England Archive. They cover tech skills in the heritage sector, imposter syndrome, the pandemic and a lot more. Paul is an archaeologist at heart, whose accidental career has spanned roles in graphics, publications, survey, archive, IT and telecoms. His projects include the complete 3D laser-scan survey...

After graduating from York in 2011, Alison started her working life in account management before taking a short career break to figure out what she actually wanted to do. She now works for the Co-op's start up Health business in Manchester as a Technology Delivery Manager but has done a variety of roles in 5 years with Co-op. She is also a Big Sister for the Girls Out Loud mentoring programme. Ali...

Ian is an Academic Clinical Fellow and junior doctor in Obstetrics & Gynaecology. After graduating in English during the 2008 credit crunch, he pursued Graduate Entry Medicine and an MSc in Global Health Science. He divides his time between clinical work and research into complications of pregnancy. Find a full transcript and the links mentioned in this episode on our blog .

Luke is President at Momentum Worldwide, the most awarded global experiential agency in the world. With offices in over 30 countries the agency works for clients such as Samsung, Verizon, American Express, Microsoft, Coca Cola and Nike. He is a Harvard Business School alumni and has previously worked across numerous global marketing networks as well as client side for Richard Branson leading the l...

John is a clinical scientist at Congenica, a digital health company specialising in genomic medicine. Before that he worked in the genomics service in the NHS and completed the NHS Scientist Training Programme. He graduated from York in 2012. In this episode, John and Kate talk about the opportunities in clinical sciences, his tips for current students, and how the pandemic has changed his working...

Christina works for the family history company Ancestry, where she researches client families in the U.S, Canada, U.K, Ireland and the Caribbean. She gained a PhD in History from the University of Southern California in 2018, and before that an MA in Modern History from the University of York. Her research focused on the relationship between capitalism, education and fundamentalist Christianity in...

Alex is the Innovation Manager at Norton Rose Fulbright’s Newcastle Hub, where he works at the forefront of technological innovation in the legal sector.  He graduated with a PhD in Philosophy, with overlapping interests in linguistics, cognitive science and economics. In this episode, Alex and Kate talk about what exactly he does each day, how he got the job and how his PhD helped him. Find...

Tom has worked at the Environment Agency for the last 10 years, in a range of roles from planning to environmental regulation, flood risk, and biodiversity. He is currently managing the largest river restoration project in the North, creating new habitat and re-naturalising the River Derwent, one of the most important lowland rivers in Europe. Find the links mentioned in this episode and a full tr...

Vivien graduated from York with a degree in English and Education, and spent three years working in the TV industry at institutions like the BBC before deciding she wanted a career change. Four years later, she now works in the business technology industry, managing complex systems implementations for companies in the retail, manufacturing and service sectors to enable them to refine and better th...

Bethany graduated from York three years ago with a degree in Social Work. She now works in the fostering team in a local authority, and previously worked in child protection. In this episode Bethany and Kate talk about what the job is like, the key skills you need and tips for getting into the sector. Find the links mentioned in this episode and a full transcript on our blog .

Daniel is Sustainability Assistant Manager at Grant Thornton UK LLP. During six years in professional services, he has inspired colleagues to get involved with initiatives aligned around education, employability and enterprise as well as the environment, mental health and microfinance. Prior to that he spent seven years in the charity sector, primarily in internal communications. Daniel graduated...

Today's episode of What Do You Actually Do!? is a bit different.  Recorded during the lockdown, Kate and Tom, Director of Employability and Careers at the University of York, chat about what it's going to be like for graduates going into the job market in the middle of a global pandemic. They look at how the job market was hit in previous recessions and what might be different this time. Find...

Tom works as a process development chemist at the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. He is part of the Chemical Development department, which is responsible for developing efficient and robust manufacturing processes for active pharmaceutical ingredients. He holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of York.

Harpal Sahota is a data scientist at MagicLab, who operate a number of dating apps, including Bumble & Lumen. He studied an MA in Computational Biology at the University of York, and went on to take a PhD in Computational Biology at University of London, before entering the job market, working for the likes of YouGov before settling at MagicLab, where he has worked since January 2020.

Phil Daneshyar is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Kanda (formerly TradeSmart), which is a payment system for tradespeople.  He appeared on Dragons' Den in 2017, with his idea 'Thirsti.' Phil studied PPE at the University of York.

Charlie Jeffery is Vice Chancellor and President of the University of York. He is a political scientist whose main work in the last years has been constitutional politics in the UK. He joined York from the University of Edinburgh where he had been Senior Vice-Principal since 2014. Prior to that, he was Vice-Principal (Public Policy) having been Professor of Politics at Edinburgh since 2004.

After getting a BA in English Lit at the University of Colorado, Lewis initially worked at a proofreader at the University of Arizona Press in Tucson, then spent about six months teaching English in Barcelona. After that, he earned an MA in teaching English to speakers of other languages, then taught at a US university and then a manufacturing company in Japan. In 1995, Lewis took an editorial job...

Aiden is a PhD candidate in atmospheric chemistry at the University of York, currently researching indoor air pollutants and, more widely, characterising indoor environments. He holds a BSc and MSc in environmental science and is a keen science communicator, covering a range of interdisciplinary topics pertinent to his research area.