Introduction
Hi, my name is Sarah and I’m currently an intern & business partner at PSP investments in London. I have just graduated last month from University College London with a masters degree in Industrial/Organisational & Business Psychology. Earlier to my masters, I have worked for 4 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Dubai as a senior associate in their Graduate Recruiting & Talent department. I have always had a flare for the business aspect of psychology and aim to progress my career within this field.
Mentoring experience
This year I have been mentoring two students - a first year Psychology student who was interested in learning more about the business psychology field, and a final year student who was particularly keen on getting into business psychology. We met once or twice a month for the 6 month duration of the scheme, usually on Zoom. We spent our first few meetings getting to know one another and planning how we were going to make the most of our mentoring meetings and how I was going to be able to help. Our first few sessions mainly involved understanding their expectations and how I would be able to provide value to their experience. During our time together we really focused on securing more work experience for my mentee so spent time searching for opportunities and then preparing for the application process - through LinkedIn. We touched on various aspects of a recruitment cycle - I personally helped them improve their CV, conducted mock interviews with them and showed them examples of behavioural interview questions so they are better equipped in the future.
For my mentee, Alina, specifically - we were able to target various competencies and how she could improve on her confidence and public speaking skills. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to share my insights and advice with my mentee and I was delighted she was able to gain more confidence through these mock interviews; she also successfully managed to get some work experience within the HR field for the summer period, this year.
How can you support students and graduates through the mentoring scheme?
I can support you through the Careers Networking Mentoring Scheme by giving you an insight into careers in business psychology as well as supporting you with applying to organisations, given my background in Graduate Recruitment. I didn’t have the opportunity to have a mentor whilst I was studying but I certainly think I would have benefitted from simply talking through my plans with someone who was separate from my family and friends and working within the sector. Overall, this has been an amazing experience as I was able to give back to my university in a small but meaningful way.