Stories from arts and humanities graduates

Confidence

The confidence that I gained from the University of Birmingham, from both being in the classroom and having those kind of debates and discussions, but also from the extracurricular activity that I did, all of those experiences have really shaped the person that I am today. I think the impact that the skills I learned at Birmingham has been really profound on my career and I do genuinely draw on them quite a lot. I think the most, the one that stands out the clearest to me,  is the ability not just to do research but to present it really well.

I think being able to plan out research, being able to gather lots of very messy data and pull that all together into something that is coherent, that is a nice narrative, that people can understand, whether those are kind of external audiences or internal audiences within the company, that's something that I do quite a lot now. I did a lot of drama and comedy extracurricularly. Able to pitch and speak publicly while I was here and that has absolutely set me up to be able to pitch to people and to be able to stand up in a room - to be able to manage people as well. Oftentimes you'll have lots of different personality types you need to bring together, that's the same in a study group as well, and you realise that experience of chairing a study group meeting actually does really feed into your experience in the workplace afterwards and helps you get senior quite quickly.

If you get senior quite quickly you can talk to people from lots of different backgrounds, who have lots of different ideas, lots of different working styles and bring them together under one roof. In my job I do a lot of presenting and it's really important that I’m aware of my physicality, so a lot of those lessons about being grounded, being present and in my own skin, for sure I’ve taken that with me as a piece of wisdom.

There's the verbal communication, so being able to debate and discuss. Debate and discuss in an informed way in lectures, not just willy-nilly but in a really informed way, because you know you come to lectures prepared and you've done loads of reading and research, and just being able to articulate your point confidently. Being able to really dissect an issue and see different perspectives and different viewpoints, and they’re skills which I’ve really brought forward across the entirety of my career really, so speaking to, you know, when you're pitching to different clients and negotiating with them, you have to try and see their viewpoint and find a middle point between your own perspective and their perspective.

I studied in Montpellier and also Malaga, so I split my year abroad year and did half and half.  Value of learning a language and studying a Year Abroad I learned a hell of a lot - trying to sort out your accommodation, open a bank account, even you know, sort out your mobile phone while you're out there, trying to navigate all those things in a language that isn't your first language, is incredibly difficult. I think navigating through that and doing it on  my own has, I suppose, built my resilience up. I did a year abroad and I found myself chucked myself into very new and very different situations to what I was used to, when I studied in France and Germany. So being able to kind of navigate new environments and being able to kind of think on your feet.

One of the things that I’ve really taken away from my degree is the ability to question, to not take things at face value, to challenge. My confidence and comfortability with performing has been a real asset for me. Confidence in performance leads to opportunities. What it's enabled me to do is when I get asked, “Oh, do you want to do this?” or “Hey, you know who'll be really good for this? Becky, because she's very confident”, it's given me a lot of opportunities and I’ve met a lot of people, and in the advertising and marketing landscape, a lot of it is who you also know and what you know, so the confidence I’ve had in knowing that I know how to handle myself has opened many doors for me.

Report writing

Particularly relevant for my job is writing reports - so I used to, as part of my degree, collect data on a scenario or to answer a certain question and then write a report based off what the data showed, and that is exactly what I now do in my day-to-day. The most valuable skills that I’ve gained from my degree at University of Birmingham is the communication skills. I spend all day long communicating in lots of different ways  4:10and having that acute sense of purpose  and audience, being able to work with  4:15lots of different information. So, for example,  national policy documents, medical information  4:22and committee papers and board papers, and being  able to rationalise that information, work through  4:28it, pick out what are the key points and how can  I communicate that to lots of different audiences.4:33I think that ability to craft a clear  argument and break through something  Ability to craft a clear argument4:37complex and commit that to writing, that really  came through doing a humanities and arts degree.4:43I think a degree in Theology and Religion  really gives you an appreciation of complexity  4:50of things and it doesn't matter what those things  are, but I think you come out of that degree  4:55looking and understanding that there is complexity  in how we live and what we do. But then it gives  5:02you the skills, you know, when you're writing  your essays, what you've got to try and do is say,  5:06how do I break this down and make this easy for  other people to understand. If you've come from a  Plan your own priorities and deadlines5:12school or a sixth form where you're told to be in  from nine till three when you come to university,  5:17it's a very different mindset and a different  attitude, and you're trusted to plan your own week  5:21and that's something that sort of has followed  into my job at the moment, where nobody is telling  5:26me when to get things done. I just have deadlines  and I have to arrange my time around that.Teamwork and leadership5:31A bit about teamwork for me, as well, so in in the  world of music, you're in an ensemble a lot of the  5:38time, you've got to operate well as a team. One  of the things I remember talking about in my NHS  5:45Graduate Scheme interview was about leadership  and how conducting an orchestra taught you about  5:50the various types of leadership and so you kind  of have your classic leadership through power or  5:56leadership through authority, but then there's  more of a leadership through influence as well,  6:01and I think conducting, sometimes you're  drawing on the power and authority bit,  6:06but sometimes you're influencing people, you're  inspiring them with your musical vision and,  6:12again, it's very much what you need to do  as a leader of any other sector as well.Perspective6:16One of the things that I really learned from  my History degree is perspective. Things are  6:22not always going to be the same. Things change  and even though they feel like it's impossible  6:29to change, actually there is always a point  in time when things can be different and  6:35that's really important when you're doing  transformation. You need to believe that  6:40actually a different future is possible and  you can have a role in bringing that about.