Esther McVey Quotes

From a young age I had a real sense of the world of work. This is what vocational education gives you.

It is such a tricky transition between education and work.

Something I can't stress enough is the massive importance of work experience. It's the only way to find out what work is really like when you're figuring out what path to take and to get an understanding of what it takes to achieve your career ambitions.

I got the first job and kept going. Once I got a job, I very much wanted to keep getting jobs, basically. I did try to learn what I could in those first couple of decades.

The mission for the day is to encourage students to think beyond traditional career opportunities, prepare for future careers and entrance into the workplace.

Don't think of your courses as providing all you need for your career.

Interning is so important.

Sometimes people come out of school right now and they immediately want a job doing something. And there's nothing wrong with just listening and learning and watching.

When I first started working, I was very aware of the fact that I'd been to university and studied Russian and French and not acting. So when I started working, I'd started working quite young, I felt like it was important to treat myself kind of like an apprentice and do as many different types of things as I could.

In school, you get a limited view of the world. Start working. Find your passion. Take your time doing that. Once you've found what you're passionate about, then lock down. Even if you want to start a business, it's helpful to work, see how other businesses are run.

I have now spent over a year trying to figure where in the workplace I belong.

When I got tired of going to school, I was kind of overqualified for a lot of jobs. Kind of underqualified for a lot of others.

Broaden your work experience - either within your company or through your job progression in other companies.

College is something I've always said I wanted to do, but you're going there to get a piece of paper that says you can get a job, but if I'm already working steadily and doing good work, it makes you question your priorities. Right now, I'm in my own film college: filming a TV show.

For many young people on-the-job training and hands-on experience is the real route to employability, not a university education.

After I finished university and started going to auditions again, and I also did a bunch of other jobs. I worked in the insurance industry, the digital media industry; I worked in a financial services company for three years.

Work experience for many is their first taste of work and an essential first step into the jobs market.

I'm seeing too many smart kind of socially awkward kids, a lot milder than I was, not getting employment because they're not learning job skills.

Prepare yourself to be employable.

I started out as a lawyer and came in laterally to Goldman Sachs. So I learned myself that life is unpredictable. That you really should, in terms of your career, try to be excellent at what you're doing. I think if you focus on your job, and you focus on being broad in the context of your job, the next jobs follow from that.

We're not a vocational school. If someone wants to get a high-paying job, I would hope that there are easier ways to do it than working through a formal computer science curriculum.

When you first start working, you take whatever job is offered, because you have to build your resume. But you don't think about what you're building.

I have been constantly shaping and reshaping my career. I laid a foundation by doing respectful work in all media. And I am happy with what I have done.

These days kids get paid enough that they probably don't need to work too much. The problem is when the person is old enough that they need to work to make a living, and the only thing that they know how to do is what they are already washed up in.

Students today need experience to get a job, and they need a job to get experience. The Chegg Champion program provides students with a real-world working experience that actually offers financial rewards.