I’m an accountant by profession. I’ve been making things all my life and I’ve got to the stage now where I didn’t want to do accountancy anymore as it wasn’t really fulfilling me. I found the day with Susannah absolutely brilliant. She’s been really generous to me in opening up her contacts book so that I know who to go to now for leather suppliers and materials, and she’s given me really good insight into how the mechanics of the business work. the nuts and the bolts of it, the highs, and the lows. I’d definitely recommend job shadowing!
*Update* 7 months on Mary is looking at buying a leather goods production company, which would be a faster route to market for her. Meeting Susannah helped her decision by providing invaluable insight into the industry. *Update* 1 year on Mary has taken a significant step – she has bought a leather goods production business in the West Midlands (so has moved from Ireland to England), she now employs 10 people and has big plans! The starting point was her time with Susannah – congratulations Mary we’re super excited for you and all you've achieved!
Spending a day with Ali helped me realise I would be better off using my time at University studying fashion and not going with my 'safe option' of Business Studies. Ali is a brilliant designer but her being successful is a combination of creativity with strong business skills. All her business skills she's learned are specific to her industry: a business studies degree for example wouldn't tell me how to build a following on Instagram. I realised I'll learn and develop a huge range of business skills if I go into the fashion world, so I've decided as a result to study fashion.
Meeting Jonny has been a fantastic experience. I don’t think there’s any substitute for talking to someone that's not just in the career you want to do, but being incredibly successful in that career. One of the things I was keen to ask Jonny is what were the skills he thought he had and that someone like me could learn. So, I’ve got a long list of things to do and I’ve got some equipment to buy as well. I’ve learnt a lot, had a fantastic experience and would highly recommend it.
Through Viewvo I received a valuable introduction to Ben and his team and was able to shadow what they do for a day and witness that this is not always a straightforward or easy process. In truth, one day is not a lot of time to spend in an organisation but it is enough time to gain a powerful impression of the type and focus of the work and the calibre of the team. This can be valuable in making a decision regarding career direction or learning how to be a professional consultant and my day was hugely beneficial in guiding my future career path.
*Update* - 10 months on from Felicity’s shadowing opportunity, she’s building experience to work out exactly what field within Occupational Psychology she wants to be doing. Her time with Ben was really helpful in refining focus to enable her to do this, and she secured a starter position as a Research Intern working in Learning and Development.
I found Jehane very warm and welcoming, lovely and easy to talk to. Jehane gave me feedback on areas in my portfolio which could be improved & developed. I found it useful to get Jehane’s opinion on where she thought my work would fit in the industry. She encouraged me to keep pursuing personal projects and was able to offer really constructive feedback on my portfolio which will hopefully see me improve my work and gain more freelance job opportunities in the future. I would definitely highly recommend Jehane to friends looking to publish and license their work.
I have long wanted to pursue photography as a career, but I have always stumbled when it came to the Marketing and Business aspects of it. Through ViewVo I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Annie Armitage and had a phone call with her. She was very personable and forthcoming when demystifying Networking and various methods of contacting potential clients in the various fields of photography. She was also good enough to inform me of how to organize editing and other aspects of the day to day running. With her background I can see how she has become a successful photographer. Rest assured, if you talk to Annie, you are receiving advice from one of the very best in the business.
Timothy Haigh
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