"It's a privilege to bridge the gap between academics and the world"

Tell us why you chose to study at Birkbeck, University of London.

I started my career in social sciences and I moved to the UK to work as a social worker, then became a manager in a domestic and sexual violence charity.  I was really career-driven and I wanted to progress but I felt a bit stuck.

I came across the MSc in Human Resource Development and Consultancy at Birkbeck. I continued to work full-time to pay for the MSc which fitted around my schedule.

I used the degree to progress and it helped me to make a career change and transition into recruitment and HR business partnering, initially for a private sector company.

The course set me up for what I am doing now - it increased my credibility in career coaching, particularly regarding developing leaders.

What made you want to join the Mentoring Pathways programme?

I was already very interested in mentoring and coaching, so joining the programme in 2014 was a no-brainer. It gave me an opportunity to mentor in a formalised way. I put myself forward and was delighted to be matched with Karoline Hellmold. She was doing an MSc in Occupational Psychology and wanted, if I recall correctly, to progress into business partnering.

We worked on themes relating to networking and transitioning. There was a lot of sharing my own experiences - how I’ve been down a non-traditional career path and how to navigate it.

Since 2014, I’ve mentored five students as there was a gap during COVID.

What does being a mentor to final-year Birkbeck students mean to you?

I find it incredibly fulfilling. It stretches me as well. Over the years I have been matched with students doing different courses than what I studied and all of them want to do things that I didn’t even know about. The diversity of students, not just in terms of what they study but also countries where they come from, is something that I really value. I have never worked with a student from the same country twice - they were originally from Germany, England, India, Slovakia and Japan. 

As a mentor, there’s so much you can offer students using your own skills and life experiences. It’s such a nice way for me to stay in touch with life and work in the UK. I like that sense of connection to Birkbeck.

It’s something that’s worth doing because you learn so much. It’s so important to be a sounding board for students as somebody that is independent. It’s a privilege to find yourself in that position, to be that bridge between academics and the world out there.

Nerice’s first mentee, Karoline Hellmold (MSc Occupational Psychology, 2015) now works as a senior requirements engineer at Groundhog. She recalled her time in the mentoring programme:

At the time, there were no mentors with experience in that field and Nerice was doing HR. She wasn’t a complete match for the industry I wanted to get into but she was great at giving me advice on my potential options. We were thinking through what I could do from here and how to build my own network. She drew upon her expertise and advice from her situation at the time.

I knew I wanted to take part in the mentoring programme because it’s a very small field of companies who do consultancy in occupational psychology. It’s hard for a newbie – I didn’t have lots of experience. I did get to work in the field after my MSc for ETS plc and Nerice’s support was helpful for getting me on the career ladder. I was doing both consultancy and project management. I was interested in the development side so I switched into being a business analyst.

Since leaving Birkbeck, Nerice and I have also stayed in touch and we met up a couple of years ago in Barcelona to catch up about our lives. It was nice to connect in person as we had a close relationship. 

Birkbeck’s Mentoring Pathways programme connects final-year students with alumni and corporate volunteers for guidance, advice and support to navigate the steps into their future careers and professional development goals.