My Career Ready Story: Aldred Gibson

I signed up to Career Ready because I found starting a job to be very intimidating and had no idea how anything worked, which really put me off. However, when I heard my school was part of the Career Ready programme and there was a chance to complete a 4-week internship, I thought this would be an amazing opportunity. I wanted to understand exactly what the world of work looked like compared to school and I was eager to start my career.

The mentoring has helped me realise that work isn’t as scary as I first thought. It helped me become more relaxed and boosted my confidence with finding a job in the future. Additionally, it taught me how to be a better colleague and important things like how to make powerpoint presentations, CV writing and interview skills. So now, I can use all the skills that I have learned to help me look even better to a future employer.

I loved being part of the HR team! The whole team were amazing, helping me where they could, being kind and in general very welcoming and friendly. I loved working on my project and helping where I could around the office. Every day I would learn something new and the meetings that I attended taught me how to be professional in the workplace as well as other things that I can take with me and use later in life. I also enjoyed talking to people, learning about their experiences and how they got to where there are today.

From my project, I have learned more about how physical health and mental health are linked and if one is bad, so is the other. It was great to find out about Stork’s WeCare programme, as more people are likely to confide in a fellow co-worker if they needed to talk to. I have found that Stork has an extremely detailed support system and has the information that their employees should know about how to stay active and healthy and tips to keep a good wellbeing and mindset within the workplace.

On the 11th of July, other mentees came to Stork for a demo day. Some of which, were friends of mine and we all agreed that it was fun and very interesting to learn how each of the small moving parts of the business worked together. My personal favourite was when I got to practice using the breathing apparatus. We also enjoyed the No Wrong Path game that demonstrated how people did not have a direct path to where they are now and just how different they all are.

I have learned so much during my time at Stork and I hope to use to my advantage in any future endeavours. I hope to stay in contact with the people that I have started to make connections with throughout the internship. Stork was a wonderful experience and I’m grateful to be a part of that. It has given me a massive confidence boost and skills to start into the world of work.