Alumni Back on Campus
The first job is rarely the one a person has five years later
Students often treat the first placement as a decision for life. Alumni who are a few years further on know better: roles change, companies change, sometimes the field changes. An alumnus describes what moved over those years, what turned out to matter, and what they would tell a student who is worried about getting the first step right.
Explore this page6 sections
Students decide the first step as if it were the only step.
The final year puts a great deal of weight on one decision. A student who believes that the first job fixes the rest of their life will be anxious, and anxious people decide badly. Alumni who have changed role, team or company in the years since can say honestly how much the first decision mattered.
It did matter, in some ways. It shaped the first skills, the first contacts and the first sense of what work is. But it was usually a start, and the paths that followed were often not the ones imagined.
This session does not say that choices do not matter, and it does not say that change is easy. It describes one person's years, including the parts that were uncomfortable.
What the speaker is briefed to cover
28 topics across 7 areas. Seven things that tend to change over a few years of work.
Role and ResponsibilityWhat the work became.4
- How the role changed from the first job to now
- When they began to be given more responsibility, and why
- What they do today that they could not have done at graduation
- Whether they manage people, and what that was like
Changes of DirectionCompany, team, function or field.4
- How many times they changed role or employer, and why
- How a change was decided, and how it was made
- What they would tell a student who thinks a change means failure
- What a change cost, and what it gave
Some speakers will have stayed in one place. That is also a path, and they are encouraged to say why.
Skills That Grew in ValueWhat turned out to matter over time.4
- Skills from college they still use
- Skills they picked up on the job that now matter most
- Skills that became less important
- How they decide what to learn next
What Stopped MatteringThings students worry about that faded.4
The speaker describes their own experience and does not make general claims about how employers treat grades or institutions.
- Worries about the first offer, and whether they were justified
- Comparisons with batchmates, and how they changed
- Things from college that nobody asked about again
- What they were anxious about that turned out not to be important
Money and Life Outside WorkSaid in general terms.4
- How their priorities changed as earnings and responsibilities grew
- How they balance work with family and other commitments
- Whether they would have done anything differently with the early years
- What they wish they had understood about saving and planning
No figures are asked for and no products are recommended.
Mistakes and DetoursThe part that makes the account believable.4
- A decision they got wrong
- A time they stayed too long or left too early
- What they learned and how they recovered
- What they would say to someone in the middle of a detour
Looking Back at CampusFrom a distance of several years.4
- What they remember most clearly about college
- Who from that time is still part of their working life
- Whether they have stayed in touch with the institution
- What they would tell their final-year self
What the alumnus prepares
- A simple timeline of roles or changes since graduating
- One change they chose and one that was forced on them
- What grew in value and what did not
- What they would tell a student worried about the first step
What students can ask
- How different is your work now from your first job?
- Did you ever want to start over?
- What was the best change you made?
- What do you wish you had worried about less?
- What are you learning now?
How the session runs
The alumnus describes their years since graduating as a timeline in about fifteen minutes and then takes questions. We suggest inviting someone who graduated a few years ago rather than a very senior person, because students find it easier to picture themselves in that position. A GullyFuture facilitator moderates, and the speaker is briefed on the usual rules: no pitching an employer or business, no private contact details, and one path presented as one path. A staff member from the college remains in the room.
What your students leave with
- A view of how careers develop beyond the first job
- Less pressure to treat the first offer as permanent
- An idea of which skills grew in value as the years passed
- An honest account of detours and how they were handled
- A sense of how priorities change with experience
- Questions to ask about the next step, not just the first
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Help students see past the first job.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.