First Impressions Count…

“The first time I set foot in an office I was 15, spending two weeks’ work experience at a firm of solicitors called Mills & Reeve doing the sort of things you’d expect- franking letters in the mail room, photocopying and lots and lots of filing! The first day (nay week) was terrifying, stepping into such a different world, constantly worried I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Looking back I made some pretty cringe-worthy mistakes, but I also really enjoyed my time there, learned a lot and it made a huge difference to getting my first ‘real job’ years later.”

“I had a similar experience at age 16 when I spent a week at the meteorological office in Cardiff, which was great, but wasn’t quite what I expected. It was the first time I sat at a work desk plus one day I forgot my lunch so had to ask my manager to borrow money – he was not impressed. However similarly to Simon I learnt a lot and if anything my time keeping improved!

The lessons we learned from these experiences were part of the reason we volunteered to assist in running a ‘Training into Work’ session, part of a project run by the East London Business Alliance (ELBA). They rely on volunteers from the corporate world to provide training on vital workplace skills to candidates hoping to get a first job in an office environment (in roles such as receptionists, catering or security).

Following the training, the job-seekers have a two week work placement in the role they are hoping to be hired for, with a guaranteed job interview at the end giving them a real chance to gain permanent employment.

Joined by Rashmi Verma from the UK AML team, Fosua Adjepong-Amankwah from UK Corporate Audit, along with James Bowyer, Zaina Hussein and Chris Pegg from E&Y, we jointly coordinated the session starting (rather appropriately) with training on first impressions, how the trainees needed to think about how not only how they may come across to other, but also how they might consider people they meet for the first time in their placements.

The volunteers partnered with each of the trainees and asked them to try and guess things we liked, our favourite colours, hobbies and so forth, based on how we looked. Afterwards both volunteers and trainees fed back as a group, talking about what their first impressions were, and whether they were right, or not quite so spot on, in their assumptions.

In the second half we discussed ‘work behaviours’- talking about what it means to be ‘professional’ and ways of acting in the workplace environment. The trainees had to consider and discuss some typical work-place scenarios, such as getting negative feedback in a probationary review, dealing with an underperforming team member or being unfairly lumbered with the dreaded ‘tea round’.

We ended with a group discussion on the ideas the trainees came up with to manage the situations, with each volunteer contributing stories of our own past experiences and suggestions for the best ways to deal with things.

As well as being really enjoyable, the fact that this could also have made all the difference in helping them get to their first jobs made the time we spent volunteering a very rewarding experience. The trainees are now halfway through their placements, so we are waiting for news and hoping all goes well for them.