It’s been a busy week for the Careers Department this week with a range of careers activities to help our students prepare, including much involvement from the Reigatian Community.  We are very grateful to all the RGS parents and former pupils who gave up their time to come back to school.  If you would like to offer to help, please do get in touch.  Here is the lowdown on what has been going on:

Accounting and Finance Evening:
Monday evening and was attended by over a hundred students and parents, all there to help our students to understand more about careers in accounting and finance.  Darren Harding (‘92), Blaize Harris (‘09), Chris Allen (‘82), Ian Magness (RGS parent), Jamie Mehmood (RGS parent), Andrew Prosser (RGS parent), Alex Forsyth (‘05), Ross Watson (‘09), Kathryn Hundleby (former RGS parent), Maggie Stillwell (RGS parent), Ian MacTavish (RGS parent), Alex Smirnoff-North (’07) and Mrs. Anderson (RGS staff).  Thanks also to representatives from Hiscox, AIG and EY who came to offer their advice.

The evening began with a presentation from Maggie Stilwell (RGS parent) along with Jade Garner, who joined EY straight form school. It was particularly useful for students to see the opportunities that are out there, whether they go to university or choose not to, and to gain an idea of how to get there. After this, Alex Smirnoff-North (‘07) from Emso Asset Management Ltd gave a typically charismatic presentation, during which he succeeded in breaking down his banking role to enable the students to gain a clear picture of what was involved.  After a break to allow students to talk to all of the delegates and get a feel for a really wide range of career areas, Ian MacTavish gave us a highly entertaining presentation on the role of finance in a variety of industries, as well as offering clear advice to our students about the decisions ahead. This was a really useful, well attended evening. Thank you to all who offered their help and to Mr. Nicholson for organising it.

MMI practice:
On Tuesday, our prospective medics, dentists and vets were put through their paces by members of staff on our inaugural MMI (multiple mini interview) evening.  Many interviews for these subjects are no longer a typical interview, but they involve the students going to a number of stations one after another to undertake short tasks or interviews. Many of the tasks/questions are not really medical or science related, but require the student to demonstrate empathy, honesty, decision-making ability or the skills required to break bad news.  My thanks to all of the members of staff and support staff, who gave up their time to allow the students to get a feel for this kind of process before they go to interview.

Medics talk:
On Wednesday, Laura Ingenhaag (’07) gave a close up ‘warts and all’ talk on studying and training as a medic to our medicine hopefuls.  There were top tips about the medical schools’ interviews process as Laura has sat on interview panels at both Manchester and Barts’ Hospital, about the nitty-gritty detail of what it is like to be a junior doctor and how to build resilience.  This was followed by an incredibly interesting discussion on a huge variety of ethics scenarios they may face.  Laura really put our students through their paces listening to their answers and feeding back what interviewers what to hear, leaving them with a lot to think about and masses of material to help them prepare for their interviews.  Thank you Laura.

Get involved:
It isn’t just medics that need help, but all fields of future work.  If you would be willing to offer your time to come and talk to students, please do get in touch with the Foundation Office foundation@www.rgs.foundation or the Careers Department directly.