It’s the start of a new year and you may be thinking about your 2024 goals. If one of those is to get a better idea of your career interests, then your Thrive mentoring scheme can help.
What is Thrive?
Thrive is exclusively for second and final year undergraduates, and taught postgraduates here at UoR. In short, we provide you with a wide variety of mentors to choose from, and you choose a mentor you feel will help you meet your goals. Helping with CVs, applications, mock interviews, industry insights, building confidence and your network. Thrive is something you can add to your CV too, showcasing your proactive nature and insights into that certain industry. Don’t just take it from me, read Vanessa’s story here.
Vanessa’s Thrive mentoring experience
Overall, through the Thrive mentoring programme, I have successfully secured a Summer Vacation Scheme at a law firm – Shoosmiths LLP. I chose a mentor who is a solicitor at Pinsent Masons, and was a Reading University alumnus.
Firstly, Thrive mentoring increased the clarity of my career direction. As I come from a BAME background, I was not familiar with the UK legal system at first and I received valuable information about the UK qualification process. In particular, my mentor explained the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities of a lawyer and different practice areas to me during the initial video call, which has enhanced my understanding of the UK legal practice and strengthened my career aspirations.
My Thrive mentor also provided useful application guidance and I gained transferrable skills through this. He guided me through the whole application process. We had multiple emails back and forth regarding my online application form and my mentor gave me constructive feedback to optimise my application form. We also had frequent online Teams calls for mock interviews and preparations for assessment centres, which refined my communication and organisation skills. Although the application for the initial one was not successful, I have learnt transferable application skills which led me to secure a summer placement offer from another law firm – Shoosmiths LLP.
The Thrive Mentoring Scheme has not only helped me to obtain a summer internship, but it has also prepared me for a long-term career in law.
If you like the sound of speaking to one of our mentors, you can find out more about Thrive online, and register your interest. You can contact the team on mentoring@reading.ac.uk.
Vanessa Chan, Law student