Back in February, I received an email from my university’s campaigns team. They’d heard that I’d had an “interesting career path” (History BA to Computing PhD is certainly that!), and wondered if I would be interested in talking about my experience of coming back to university for postgraduate study. I decided to challenge myself (socially anxious introvert that I am), and, slightly apprehensively, said yes.
Thus I found myself one windy morning in March, perched in the corner of a large meeting room in front of a film team and an interviewer. Bright lights shone on me from either side, and I had a little microphone attached to my front. I’d had my headshot taken in advance (observe the nervousness in my expression!) and had received the questions a few days earlier so that I’d had time to think about them. All I had to do now was talk.
It certainly wasn’t my favourite thing to do, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared it might be. The interviewer was very encouraging – smiling and nodding at what I said. I’d had some media training the year before, so I was armed with some basic tips for how to speak on camera. I knew broadly what I wanted to say, and somehow out it came (not always as eloquently as I would have liked).
Yesterday I received the finished article: a piece for a “student life” magazine. I think it turned out pretty well! I went into the interview keen to impress that people can make positive career changes and/or go back to university after a break, and I think that came across. Anyway, you can decide for yourself…
I’ve now started a career that I intend to go on in. I finally feel, after ten years of studying and working different jobs, that I’m in the place that I’m supposed to be… It might seem strange, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
Cryptic Meg 