I Got Hired: Youth Development Lead at The Princes Trust

Posted on: 2 November 2022 by Richard Finch in Graduate stories

Eleanor Fussell is a Class of 2021 graduate from Classical Studies with a Semester in China and a Semester in Industry.

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT ROLE?

I am the Youth Development Lead (Education) for Merseyside and Cheshire at The Prince’s Trust

HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE ROLE?

I found out about the opportunity directly from The Prince’s Trust website.


HOW DID YOU GET TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW?

I have volunteered from the age of 16 with various organisations that supported young people starting out as a young leader at a youth group I attended.

After my year in China I got a placement with the University of Liverpool’s Student Support Services and that really sparked my passion for supporting young people.

In my final year of university I also worked with Raleigh International supporting young people in their Youth COVID response programme supporting young people through the impact of the pandemic on their mental health. I was also part of my course’s society committee where this also featured as a part of my role as we were the first year where studies were completely online for the whole of the academic year. This made me really want to carry on this work after I graduated so I applied to all relevant jobs in the third sector until I found my perfect role!

YOUR FAVOURITE EXPERIENCE AS PART OF YOUR ROLE?

One of my favourite experiences was when I went into one of the schools I work with and ran mock interviews as part of their careers week. Seeing how motivated and passionate the young people were (even though they were all only 14/15) was incredible. They all had amazing aspirations from creating their own businesses to becoming civil engineers and designing their own video games!

THE MOST CHALLENGING PART OF YOUR GRADUATE JOURNEY?

The knock backs were difficult, having to deal with the job rejection emails was hard but I quickly learnt that I had to keep going. Every time I didn’t get the job I applied for it was a learning experience whether that was learning that my CV wasn’t up to scratch or building on my interview skills.


TOP THREE TIPS FOR OTHER STUDENTS?

1. Don’t give up - rejections are hard but you will learn from them

2. Utilise the University’s services! I didn’t do this as much as I should have and this would have really helped and saved me time.

3. Don’t feel scared about applying for jobs that are not related to your degree - I use so many skills that I developed during my degree whether that’s the knowledge of how to confidently present to large audiences due to group projects or analysing written data