The next step...

May 7th 2015

On Wednesday 29 April, Pipers Corner held their very first Careers Fair, an event which allowed girls in Year 9 to Upper Sixth find out more about the career options available to them when they leave education.

Exhibitors ranged from law firms to educational institutions, media companies to nursing and healthcare. A vast amount of the exhibitors were also former pupils of Pipers Corner providing valuable advice to girls about what happens after they leave school.

During the evening girls also had the opportunity to hear from some of the exhibitors in a series of spot talks. First to speak was Victoria Williams-Grey, who left Pipers in 2010 and now works as a Client Relationship Manager in the finance industry. She talked about going to university to study a subject you are passionate about and the importance of work experience in securing a job. She went onto talk about what her job entails and how there are lots of different career paths out there for anyone, all you need is a passion to succeed.

Next up was Sophie Smith, who left Pipers in 2007 and now works as a corporate lawyer for a New York based law firm. She explained that she was always interested in doing something quite technical and thought Law would be an interesting degree to take. She went on to explain that it is difficult to get into this sector but if you follow your passion you can achieve anything.

Sarah McKelvey (2008 leaver) was next, speaking about her role as Business Executive for ITV. She studied PR at university and always found the advertising world interesting. Once again she mentioned the importance of work experience and having a drive to do something you love.

The final talk was from Adam Spearing, a Pipers Corner parent and Vice President at software company Salesforce. He talked to the girls about careers in technology and how he got to where he is today. He went on to say there are many jobs in this sector and you can do any degree to get you there, all you need is a passion and to keep an eye on the different areas of the sector.

The theme for the evening was, find an area you are passionate about and work hard to reach your goals.

Careers Co-ordinator, Ms Cookson said “Our first Careers Fair went amazingly well and I am so pleased the girls had the opportunity to ask questions about careers and how they should go about securing their ideal job. Having former pupils come back to Pipers to share their experiences was also really useful for our current girls as they have already gone through the process of transitioning from School to university and beyond. It was also wonderful to see how well our alumnae have done in their particular fields.”