Employability Benefits

Volunteering for the Students' Union was a privilege that has helped map my career path. It's always felt special to be able to represent people and fight for change. From keeping BLDC and Nightline alive through the pandemic, to taking on national policy as President; the Students' Union gave me the confidence to speak up for underrepresented communities, and the practical opportunity to do something about it. Those opportunities don't come about very often, which is why I can't recommend Surrey Decides enough.

Every one of us has something that we're passionate about. Getting involved is your chance to get an elected mandate and make a difference, all whilst standing alongside industry leaders and policymakers. Having the opportunity to lead our student community was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I can't recommend it enough!

One of the proudest moments in my role as VP Support was creating my campaign series “Let’s Talk” where I spoke about topics I believed students needed to hear about. With this, I largely used the power of video and in-person events to make these topics heard. Going through this process made me fall in love with presenting, scripting and having a say over how my videos were filmed, edited and put out for people to engage with and share! 

 If we fast forward to now and how that has formed my career path – I would be lying if it wasn’t being VP Support that truly allowed me to explore that passion of video, something I now use daily.

Being a Union officer gave me so many skills that influence what I do now. As an officer, you learn how to work with senior stakeholders as well as learning the complexities of large organisations – all crucial for everything I do. Being VP and President also gave me the opportunity to manage and support people in delivering their best work – something I have to ensure happens so we go above and beyond for our clients.  

I would encourage anyone and everyone to run in the elections – it’s an incredibly, fulfilling experience that is genuinely like no other role you’ll ever do!

Being a VP and then becoming President really helped me in being able to connect with people and understand how to help them with their needs. This helps me connect with clients at work today when conducting audits. It also helps me to run my business and teach other people how to have a mindset for success.

The Surrey Decides process was the first time I was really pushed out of my comfort zone, but from that I saw growth and achieved what I set out to do. If anything, one of the biggest lessons I learned that sticks with me today is that stepping out of your comfort zone allows you to grow and also achieve amazing things. The transferable skills from being a sabbatical officer such as leadership, teamwork, innovation etc. are second to none and I’m always grateful for my time as an officer at Surrey as it’s been the foundation to how I successfully do what I do today as an auditor and as a business leader.

To this day, my role as President of the Students’ Union is what I would describe as my best ever job. Being an elected full-time officer is a once-in-a-lifetime gig, and for me it was life changing. It’s difficult to ‘get’ exactly what it entails until you’re in it. At such a young age you find yourself in the position of lead representative of the student body; you support an entire organisation of full-time employees; you are responsible for and line manage a team; you hold several positions at senior university management committees; you are the Chair of the Board of Trustees; you’re the point of contact for the local council. 

My advice is that if you are even a teeny tiny bit thinking about it: do it. Your university years don’t come around again, and you don’t want to look back, or even during the election itself, thinking “I wish I gave that a go".

Spending my final year as a part time officer in the Students’ Union (Communications Officer) was one of my favourite university experiences. I didn’t really have any communications experience, but loved writing and had a taste of marketing and promotion through my degree and volunteering. By the end of my year in office, I had met so many professionals who all encouraged me to take what I had learnt and consider a career in the field because they could see I had the right passion and skills. 10 years later and I am a decade into a career in marketing and communications, and now using my skills to support our whole student community through their university experience through communications. Without my time in the Students’ Union, I don’t think I ever would have considered going into this line of work…but now I wouldn’t change a thing!