Face-to-face career events have made a welcome return to Eton College this term.
On 2 November 2021, 16 current and former Army officers mustered in Upper School for the first face-to-face career networking event for boys in nearly two years. 23 boys across all year groups were able to have one-to-one conversations with a stellar troop comprising officers of a range of seniorities. The array of guests featured one General and four Colonels, as well as a number of young officers, for the boys to meet.
Major Jeremy Osborne, who organised the networking event and is the commanding officer of Eton College’s Combined Cadet Force, said, “The event was an invaluable opportunity for boys interested in joining the Army to meet serving and former Army officers from so many regiments and to get a sense of how a career in the Armed Forces can lead to a range of interesting second careers.”
Boys learned about a plethora of regiments including The Rifles, The Royal Gurkha Rifles, The Parachute Regiment, The Grenadier Guards, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, The Irish Guards, The Welsh Guards, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, The Royal Welsh, The Royal Lancers, The Royal Dragoon Guards, The Royal Tank Regiment, The Black Watch and The Royal Military Police. Boys welcomed the return to face-to-face networking events with genuine enthusiasm and made the most of their golden opportunity to find out more about Army careers.
In what has been a busy time for Eton’s career education department, VocSoc also came together with the sports society for an evening of talks exploring careers in sports management, which was enjoyed by an audience of over 70 boys and staff. These included a representative from The English FA, Milo Mackean (DMG 10) who is the UK-based Marketing and Digital Manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL, and Elliott Charles (JMN, TEWH 12) who is a consultant with Two Circles, a sports marketing agency that uses data to grow direct relationships between sports and fans to improve the fan experience and drive revenues.
Our speakers explained what their jobs entailed, each giving a short presentation that set the context and described the competitive nature of job-hunting and the non-linear nature of modern career tracks. They took Eton boys and staff through the work experience and internships they have each used to establish a portfolio and gain initial insight into the world of sports, emphasising that any experience, even in sports that didn’t have immediate personal appeal, could be of great value in the long run. The message to take career opportunities when they present themselves, however small or fleeting they may appear, and ‘to get your foot in the door’ came across loud and clear. The audience also heard that the ability to speak a second language can be a really useful part of a portfolio and could really contribute to employability.
The presentations were followed by a very healthy Q&A session, which was ample testament to the quality of the talks. We would like to extend our thanks to all the speakers and networking participants for taking the time to share their experiences and insights.
