Ashni Gandesha, Early Careers Manager @ Blenheim Chalcot

Hey everyone, welcome back to The Graduate Guide. Today I'm joined by Ashni. Ashni works in the Early Careers team at Blenheim Chalcott. Welcome to the show, Ashni.

Thank you so much for having me, really excited to be here.

I think the best place to start off would be telling the audience a bit more about what you do in your role.

Yeah, of course. So, um, basically I work as the Early Careers Manager in Blenheim Chalcott, and that pretty much means running end to end of the entire recruitment cycle, um, and kind of the onboarding for all of any graduates or kind of like early talent coming into Blenheim Chalcott. So yeah, that's basically it.

Nice, and what was the journey like for you going from university into this role?

Yeah, of course, so I had a little bit of a different journey kind of getting to where I am now. That's always good. Yeah, a little bit different. So I kind of graduated, uh, was it 2022 now? So, um, coming up to 2 years ago, and I pretty much came straight out of undergrad and went straight into this job. My first job though, kind of in Blenheim Chalcott, it started as like a junior talent exec, and The way that I kind of found it was, uh, I actually just got reached out to on LinkedIn, um, which is a really unique way when you are a graduate and you are so early in your career that you never really kind of have that. It's more that when you get experience, you tend to kind of get people reaching out. But, um, I was really lucky, um, and kind of got that. And then I kind of looked at the, like, message, and I was like, 'Blenheim Chalkpit, what the heck is that?' I was like, 'Never heard of that place in my entire life.' Um, kind of did a little bit more research, looked at it a little bit, and I was like, this seems super interesting. And then I kind of was like, okay, I'm really interested in hearing about it. So I spoke to my now manager about it, and she was so keen on it. She kind of talked to me a lot about it, told me a little bit about the industry, kind of explaining exactly what kind of like venture capital, venture builder is, because genuinely had no idea. So it was really unique coming into it, and then started as Junior Talent Exec, and then now as the Early Careers Manager.

Nice. And how has your role changed as you move from the Junior Talent Exec into kind of the Early Careers Manager? I imagine there's a lot more responsibility, but then How has the day-to-day changed as such?

So day-to-day, I think as a junior talent exec, I kind of came in with pretty much no understanding, very, very fresh, very green, as they like to say. And the idea there was that I kind of was just learning as I went along. I kind of started off doing a few roles here and there. So I remember starting and like my manager was like, okay, so I've got this like role, would you like to go and like take leadership of it? And I was like, a whole role by myself? What? Took it on and like I was very, very lost along the way. I was like, I don't know what to do exactly, I don't know how to kind of lead with it, but she was so supportive in that, like, she was like, it's okay, like, the idea here is that you're gonna get thrown into the deep end, but just try and see what you make of it. There was no kind of like one-size-fits-all type way with it, it was very much just like make it your own. So as I did that, I kind of learned what worked best for me, what worked best with said hiring manager, and then just built like a kind of process around that. Then kind of moved on into taking on more roles, these were kind of just ad hoc roles, these weren't necessarily focused on early careers. But when I joined, they'd actually just kind of wrapped up the first ever graduate programme at BC, and that kind of just like was a pilot, I guess. So it was like a few candidates came in, a few people were starting to get onboarded, and it was just really interesting. I mean, obviously being at that time a grad myself, I was just like, this is so relatable. I was like, oh, there's more grads coming in, like so excited. And then I was like, oh, I'm actually quite interested in the process behind it. Asked my manager kind of like informally a little bit, I was like, so like, how did you do the recruitment process? Like, what was it like, etc.? She kind of just talked to me a little bit about it, and then I was like, oh, just sounds really interesting. And then it was such a success for the first time around they did it, they said to me that like, we've got another round that we want to go live with, but I think that you should take the lead on it. And I was like, oh, crap, a program? I was like, we went from one whole role to a whole program. It was very quick, and that was genuinely within 6 months of me joining. So I was just like so overwhelmed in that, like, okay, I'm quite worried, I don't know how to do this, I don't know how to take it on. But what I did was just have tons of chats, in all honesty. Like, my best form at that point was just talking to people, understanding from the grads the process that they went through, understanding other processes that they might have been in, how they worked, what they liked better about those, what they didn't like about those, just having really kind of candid chats to them about it, and then also understanding the process that my team kind of did anyway. Then, yeah, we kind of took it and then it went live again. It was really interesting because I was like, the number of applications, like, oh my God, how the heck am I ever going to go through this by myself? And did it all, but somehow managed. And it was really exciting, and then kind of went into becoming a talent executive, so dropped the junior, promoted to a talent exec, and then as time went on, it was just meant to be a temp thing, like I was just taking on this cycle, I guess, of kind of this, but I guess I must have done something okay because it kind of stuck, and I did also really enjoy it, like it was so exciting going through the process, it was so exciting kind of seeing all these graduates, and I think it makes a world of a difference, like even just sitting there being able to say like, oh, we'd love to give you an offer, like their faces and the way that they kind excitement would kind of be shown on their face was just so rewarding for me. So I wanted to stick with it and I kind of am sticking with it, and then yeah, we've done so many kind of great successes over the time. Closed one cohort, went live again with another few months later, and yeah, now have kind of taken ownership of the whole thing. My manager kind of said to me like, would you like this to be your kind of specialty within the team? Because there was a lot of chat at the time kind of like where I see myself going, what I want to develop in, etc. And I was just like, I would really be keen. And so the way that my role now has shaped as I'm like the Early Careers Manager is that whilst I'm still running the end-to-end process, I'm actually doing more of the strategic side. So I get to kind of talk to universities a lot more and building partnerships. I'm doing a lot more outreach with universities, getting our name out there. So a huge kind of brand awareness piece that I wasn't necessarily doing before. Yeah. Which I do really enjoy. So yeah, that's kind of a little bit how the role changed.

I mean, it's an amazing journey for starters, but one thing that I really take away from that, which I think is an important lesson for the listeners, is that as a younger person with a lack of experience, you always need to take every opportunity that comes to you. That was a— it comes from a LinkedIn message, but you've then been able to craft a career for yourself within that company. And if you hadn't looked to take that opportunity, you may not be in the same position now.

No, 100%, I couldn't agree more. I think, um, the way that I kind of ended up here was so unique. Like I said, like, I don't necessarily hear of this thing happening. Like, graduates don't— at that level in early careers, you don't tend to get people reaching out to you on LinkedIn because you're so fresh and as a grad, you tend to get just naturally loads of applications for early careers roles or kind of like, like entry-level roles. There tends to be loads of kind of applications, so you don't actually have to do much outreach. But I guess the reason why this message came to me in the first place was when I was studying, I actually did an internship, yeah, so I did a placement year, and that kind of, I guess, in some way set me apart a little bit. And I was able to do a 1-year kind of talent acquisition internship at the Disney company, so like Walt Disney, and it was so interesting kind of being there and learning about the foundations, but Everything I learned at Disney was the complete opposite of what I'm doing now. Going from a big corporate to a startup environment, it's— you think it's going to be transferable, but it's not. It's really, really not. I think you probably as well understand, like, in the startup environment, it's so fast-paced, like, everything changes every single second. You have no idea what your day is going to look like when you walk in in the morning. So being in this, it's just exciting. So that being part of that is definitely like owning opportunities. Just because you may not think you know what you're doing, and granted I still don't think I know what I'm doing, I'm very much just taking it day by day, seeing what I can make of it, seeing how I can shape the role. And the exciting part there is really the making it your own part. I think it doesn't— you don't have to try and make it the way that someone else did it or the way that you might have seen someone else do it. It's very much just like taking little parts from so many different places and making it your own is exactly what I'm trying to do. Granted, no idea if I'm doing okay, but like I'm doing it at the same time.

I completely agree. I think the biggest realization I had in my career was that no one, even the people at the very top, actually know completely what they're doing. They're all still learning on the job, and so you shouldn't— yeah, you shouldn't feel bad about that by any means. But I guess, I guess along the journey there must have been a lot of setbacks, a lot of challenges. What would you say were the most pivotal, and then what did you learn from those?

Yeah, great question. Do you know what, this makes me feel like I'm doing my grad interviews asked the exact same question. I think my probably biggest challenge along the way, and something that I'm saying I'm probably still navigating a little bit, is the fast-paced environment. I think, like, going through university, it actually is quite slow when you're studying and stuff. It's like you have so much free time and you don't realize, like, how much free time you actually have. Like, when you're really actually thinking about it, you're in a lecture for, what, an hour a day maximum? So it's a lot slower, and then going straight into a startup environment where, as mentioned before, like, things are changing by the second, again, you don't know what you're coming into, and I think priorities can change, and that meaning that where you think you're going to allocate needs, or where you think there's kind of resourcing needs, the next day it could be completely different. So having to adapt to that, and perhaps like you might have done a ton of planning for one role, and then it's like, oh no, that's not going to happen anymore, we need to switch to this one. That's just the environment, and that's just something that is exciting because it means that so many awesome things are coming out, but it means that you have to constantly be ready to adapt, and that can be something that I find quite challenging along the way and still am learning, I guess.

So yeah, have you learned any kind of strategies to deal with that and to deal with kind of everything changing? Because I think now the world has come to a place where everything is changing a lot quicker, so I think it's a useful skill to have for students listening.

Yeah, definitely. I honestly think that like While I can sit here and probably tell you like my strategy is, it's again going back to what I said, like I'm such a firm believer now on like there's no one-size-fits-all, right? So my best way of going about it was genuinely just shifting my own mindset. I think I came in being so like anxious and being so worried and being like, 'Oh damn it, I spent so much time on this,' or 'I put so much energy into this one project and now it's just kind of changed,' or, um, or there's something brand new that I've never done before and I'm like, 'I don't know how to do this,' like, 'What am I supposed to do?' And there's a really quick turnaround. But rather now I kind of go into it and obviously it's quite natural to sit there and still think like that, but I try to overcome it as quickly as possible. And so by doing that, I kind of straight away try to gather all the information I possibly can to be as informed as possible to go ahead and do it. So it could be like I could have one slight conversation with Manager and she'd be like, so this now needs to be the focus, and then you could walk away and then that's when you can become quite overwhelmed and you could quite sit back and then be like, I don't know what to do, I don't know how to do this. But in that moment I just try to say, okay, like, what's everything that you know about this that I can take away? And then that gives me everything that I need and I know that I'm going to be just as informed as everyone else and then I can try and go ahead. I do the standard making lists, never follow them because everything changes, but I do try to make as, like, lists as possible. And then, yeah, I just try to make sure that I'm just trying to keep the best mindset possible, I guess.

Yeah, no, I love that. I think mindset is always, always super important. So I guess moving a bit on from your personal journey, something that I know a lot of listeners will be wondering is What entry-level opportunities does Blenheim Chalcott offer?

Yeah, of course. I think the biggest focus kind of, and the best thing that we offer really, is our graduate program. We have a really, really awesome program that is pretty much open all year round now. So it's live at the moment, and I'm sure it will still be live when this goes live, so please feel free to apply. And I think it's a really awesome program because the idea is, is as Blenheim Chalcott, what we are is a venture builder, and that means that we aren't your typical venture capitalist firm where we don't just kind of put money into businesses and then letting them go off and do their own thing. It's we put money into them, but we also put our people. So that means we're actually building them from the ground up with them. So we're actually being kind of like this patient investor looking to actually make these businesses succeed. And that's what makes it really exciting because they then are always so tight-knit. And by doing so, it means that they all come kind of are like falling under Blenheim Chalcott and we are all in the same building. So we are all based in our headquarters in White City, where all the ventures are pretty much door-to-door with each other. It's a really kind of exciting, innovative space. And as a graduate, you can basically go into any one of our businesses and actually help build a startup. And that's something so unheard of. And I think it's like, you get people saying, oh, build a startup, but what do you mean? Like, you could be doing, like, you could be the first product person in that team. You could be the first marketing person in that team. And that means, like, there's a huge, like, opportunity there. There's an immense amount of responsibility, but it also goes back to what I said before of, like, you can make that your own. You could build the product function exactly how you see fit, and you're probably thinking as well, like, how as a graduate am I supposed to do product? How am I supposed to do marketing? That's also so fine. Like, we have people that come in with genuinely, like, pretty much no experience, of just fresh out of university. But the idea there is that you learn as you go along, and as I mentioned before, just talking to people is the best way. My new favourite line that I've been saying at work quite a lot is, you're not working if you're not networking.

Yeah.

And so it's, like, genuinely the biggest power that I think Blenheim Chalcott has is the network and the connections, and that's when kind of graduates see the best opportunity because you get to learn from pretty much everyone that's in a founder space, someone that's tried to build a business, someone that's so entrepreneurial that you never would have encountered before. So you tend to learn a lot just from a 5-minute coffee chat.

Yeah, I honestly couldn't agree more. We spoke a bit before, before this conversation about how amazing startups can be as a graduate role because you're able to learn so much so fast, and it's amazing there's yeah, there's a space out there, an organisation like yourself who are actually helping students get that experience. Are there also internships, placements, any other opportunities, or is it just all focused on the graduate scheme?

At the moment, all focused on the grad scheme. I think internships and, I guess, work experience, apprenticeships, all that sort of stuff, we don't yet do. And I think that's just granted because we are still a startup. We're trying to focus on building one product— program, sorry— before we kind of expand and try to do more. So yeah, very much kind of all hands, all focus on grad Nice, nice.

And in terms of, I think you've already alluded to it a lot there about kind of the network, the experience, is there any other reasons why students should choose Blenheim Chalcott over other opportunities that they're considering?

I genuinely think, yeah, kind of tying with everything else I said, I think the, just the opportunity itself to actually be in a startup. I think like we said, we spoke about it a little bit before, it's like we're in a university, you never are taught about a startup, you're never taught about any other kind of untraditional society, like, um, society, but also industry, and I think that's what's so unique about it is you're kind of taught of your typical kind of finance sector, you talk about thinking about being a lawyer, all of these kind of traditional areas, and I think the opportunity to do something so different, and the idea is, is that you're coming in not knowing what you want to do. I think if you don't know what you want to do in your career and if you're sitting there thinking, I have no idea where I want to go, Blenheim Chalcott genuinely is the best place because you could come and you could do absolutely anything, and you have the opportunity to also move around, so just because you might start in one venture, you could do like a project there, you have the opportunity to go to a different one, which means you're also getting different industry exposure because we have so many businesses in so many different industries that you become industry agnostic. So you're not narrowing yourself in any way, you're not like tunneling yourself. Just because you've gone into venture capital doesn't mean that makes you a finance person at all. Yeah, it means it makes you a generalist. And then on your CV, when you've said you've done marketing, you've done product, you've done strategy, you might have done sales, you've done a bit of everything, that means you can literally go into anything as well. Yeah, so yeah, that's probably our biggest USP.

How often would you say students, when they join the graduate program, switch between different projects, different ventures?

Quite often, in all honesty, I think we've had people like— pretty much most grads, I think honestly like 80%, move around. Um, but there's also the option, like the other 20%, the reason they don't move around is because they really like where they are. So if you want to make that venture your permanent home, and if you are so embedded and you love it so much, then that's also so fine. Um, and so we— there's kind of the really flexible kind of, um, program here where you can become so embedded into one, and that could be your function. Let's say you are the first product person, that means you're very very quickly becoming the most senior product person in the business. And then let's say you do want different exposure, so you've done a product role but then you may be wanting to go into strategy, then you can move around and go into a different business, or you can even join the central team and be one of the people that work across multiple businesses. So yeah, the variety is definitely there and it's, it's pretty often that you get moved around.

No, I honestly love that. It sounds like such an amazing opportunity. In terms of, I think a very common debate that's out there now is that a lot of younger people, especially after COVID, are now starting to prioritise time and flexibility over money. Where does Bunnings Chalcott stand on that? Do you offer that kind of flexibility, the ability to remote work? Yeah, what is kind of the stance on that?

So in all honesty, like, um, I think I used to be that person as well. Like, I came out of university, like, um, I went through COVID, so I was like, I'm okay being at home, like, I'm okay staying at home, I'm saving money, I'm, I'm very comfortable in my own space, like, I don't need to do anything, like, I'm okay being remote. So I went into kind of looking for jobs and being going into the environment thinking, okay, yeah, I also want a hybrid role at east, or at least maybe a remote one either. But Blenheim Chalcott, the way we stand is we are an office-first mentality.

Yeah.

So we are all in 5 days a week, but the reason behind that, and something that I've very quickly become an advocate for in all honesty, is because of the connection part that I was mentioning. You are in the presence of 26 different startups, you work with them on a day-to-day basis. The way that we work at Blenheim Chalcott as a venture builder means we have to be hands-on, which means that a lot of the work that we do comes through collaborating with our startups shops, and that's so hard to do when you are virtual, in all honesty. So being able to kind of just quickly go up to one of them on the desk— and it's a, it's a big culture at BC where you just walk up to people at their desk and everyone's so willing to talk to you. I mean, I do it all the time. But like, going up to them and literally just being like, can I grab you for 5 minutes? And that is probably the most— 5 minutes— like, that's probably the most productive of your whole day because you're making so much progress there. You're getting answers so quickly, you're making very quick progress on a startup. And I think it's a known thing, right? Like, any conversation in a startup means of decisions being made.

Yeah.

And that makes the progress of the business a lot quicker as well, otherwise you can become quite stagnant, I mean, you could become quite disconnected and I think that's what makes it really hard. And I've spoken to so many of our grads and granted obviously like at the beginning it might be tough to adapt to the 5 days, like I definitely found it tough, but I really do value it now because the relationships I've built with all the businesses, the relationships I've built with friends, like I've made friends for life that I would never thought I would have made, is just incredible and I think I think if you are at home, yes, it may be possible, but I don't think it's one, as quick, and two, as valuable. So yeah, we as BC stand on an office-first mentality.

To be honest, I think the great thing about that is it shows how bought-in people are to that culture, how much people must love it to be so willing to come into the office every day anyway. And you did mention a bit about the culture there, being able to talk to anyone, everyone being open. What else is the culture like at BC?

I think it ties in with pretty much everything I've touched on. I think there's the collaborative side, which means you can literally just talk to people at any point. The culture is, is that you could walk into the office and you could be sitting next to a CEO in one of the businesses, and that is just incredible. Like, when do you ever get that in any of the businesses, that you are that close in proximity to a CEO? And it doesn't even have to be on a work capacity, it's just like you have a very informal relationship, and I do with so many of our hiring managers and so many of the C-suite members in all of our businesses. But the biggest part of the culture, I think, is the emphasis we place on taking responsibility, and that kind of ties in what I said about me kind of being given the, like, early careers function 6 months into my job, is definitely the part there. It's like you are given so much responsibility so quickly, and that can mean that you're thrown in the deep end, but the nice thing there is that you have support. You have a network of people around you that you can really rely on, and there's people that you can really ask any questions to. And the great thing about Blenheim Chalcott and having so many different businesses is that you pretty much have everyone in every department and every kind of function, So if you, for example, sit there, you're like— so recently, this is my thing, it's like I heard of the first term revenue operations, and I was like, what on earth is revenue operations? And then I managed to kind of just from my own connections realize that there are at least 4 people that do that already in their businesses. So I was able to go up to them and understand what actually the role entails, and that in itself just helps a lot. So yeah, culture really just ties into responsibility, ownership, no matter what level you are, you're getting that. But then again, also the learning and development. We place a big emphasis on L&D, and it's something that ties into something that we do every single day. So as a business, we are very kind of focused on technology. So we are a digital tech business, which means we basically build tech businesses for like real-world solutions that could be B2C or B2B. And what we do, part of that is we're now doing a big thing on generative AI, which is kind of the hot topic right now, right? So it means that everyone in the business had no idea what GenAI was. I could not tell you what it was 6 6 months ago, but now we do so much learning and development where we have so many courses on generative AI, and that is something that is like kind of encouraged across the whole portfolio, that you, you need to learn what it is because we're a tech business, like you kind of need to get it. And that's what's quite exciting, is that you're constantly upskilling yourself in areas that you never thought you would as well, whether it's relatable to your role or not. So yeah, all those things.

I honestly love it. I think if I was a grad, if I was a student listening, I would be applying right now. So I guess for anyone out there that is thinking about applying, what What would you recommend to students about how they can make their application stand out? I'm sure you've looked at a lot of different applications. What are the things that really make an application stand out?

Yeah, of course. I think it's a, it's always a really interesting question because I think at an early career stage it's like, what can you even put on your CV, right? Like, what do you say? You like, do you say I like what shows I like to watch on Netflix? Like, what's the most relevant part? Um, but the idea there is like, I think the thing that I really pay attention to in all honesty is is formatting. I think the way that you kind of present your CV says a lot about you as a person. Like, for example, so like, it's so simple, just checking spelling, checking punctuation. You'd be so surprised how many people perhaps maybe miss something, and granted you might, but there's so many kind of like platforms out there now like that you can put it through and it could just check it for you. That's one thing that I would say is like a basic thing to just start with, but then on your CV, anything that you might have done different, like whether you've spent a day volunteering whether you might have done, just participated in something with someone else, or anything at all, put it on your CV. It's genuinely your time to shine. It's like what we see at face value to really understand what you are as a person, and that ties quite nicely in the hobbies and interests section. So what are your hobbies? What are your interests? What do you find interesting right now? Like, it could be a book that you're reading, something that's just showing what you're doing outside of your academics is what I like to see. I like to see that people are being proactive, that they're just doing something to learn something else that isn't part of their degree. I think that's the most important part there, um, is just being— showing me that you are a proactive and curious person is what I would really say.

Nice. I think there's something really interesting there because I remember being a student and thinking that for an experience to qualify, yeah, to go onto my CV, it had to be actual professional experience, whether that be an internship or a spring week or a placement. But you mentioned there about even like one day volunteering, so it doesn't have to be kind of this structured scheme or anything like that. It can just be experience you get outside of that.

Yeah, 100%. Like, the volunteering part, the reason I said that is because, like, at Blenheim Chalcott, we do a lot of CSR. We have about 3 charities that we kind of take a lot of participation in, and it's not just something where companies just say, oh yeah, we donate every month to them. It's we've actually built these charities alongside of them, one of them being Onside, which is one that builds, like, youth zones across England and stuff like that, where it's just a centre for children to really go and kind of to just spend time there. In all honesty, they get tons of kind of activities, and it's not just a typical youth centre where you just go and kind of hang out with friends. It's actual structured kind of learning. There's mentoring sessions, there's activities, and these are all facilitated by people, volunteers. And then we also have Baby Zone, which is the exact same thing but tailored for those that are like quite young, so from 0 to 3, I think it is, or something like that, so early. And what we do is that we put such an emphasis on it where all of us in Blenheim Chalcott are encouraged to go and volunteer with them. So if you've done any volunteering or if you've just done anything genuinely at all, put it on there. It doesn't have to be any kind of professional experience. I mean, it can even be something like you shadowed someone for a day that wasn't like— it was in a charity and you could shadow someone, or you maybe even went and attended an event. Events are also another great thing, like you could have attended a conference, whether that be in person or virtual, that's also fine. Just anything at all that you've done, put it on there. It does not have to be in anywhere, like you said, like professional experience, I guess.

Yeah, I think it's really important for students to hear that because I think often students in their first or second year will be stressing about not getting internships, not getting spring weeks, when in reality, yes, it may be, it may feel like a disaster at the time, but they still have a way to get experience that can then help you get that graduate role, right?

Yeah, definitely. I think there's, like I mentioned, there's just so much out there. I mean, I did it, I, when I was kind of looking for jobs, I put everything under the sun on my CV and it could have been so irrelevant But I was like, and in times I honestly just was saying a lot of stuff that doesn't need to be on there as well, and I think that's what's an important part on there is put anything on there but make it so clear and concise, and I think that's what really kind of allows us to develop into it as well. So yeah, there's tons to do.

No, I love that. And then obviously once you've submitted a great application, you then have the assessment centres, you then have interviews. Would you have any advice for students listening about how they can perform well in those, how they can give themselves a better shot actually landing the graduate role?

Role? Yeah, definitely. I think if I'm keeping it relevant to Blenheim Chalcott, I think the best kind of way to go about it and your best chance of success there is just research, because we are, uh, it's not as easy kind of just looking on it being like, oh, you're in the finance sector, that's fine, I can understand that, I can make some stuff up. It's actually that we are a venture builder. Tell me, what do you know about a venture builder? What have you learned from our website of what that means? For example, um, are you able to kind of explain to me what our model might be? Um, or just a basic understanding. And even if you don't understand what the model is, ask me, but that shows you're being proactive.

Yeah.

And then there's also other parts on there is like, we have over 26 different businesses at the moment, can you name me one of them? I think that's a big part on there is like, have you done further research into our portfolio? Because they're just as part of us as BC is, like we wouldn't be BC without them, so we need to understand that you understand what they are as well. And that doesn't just kind of mean like naming the industries, but rather telling me like, what, what's the name of them, what can you tell me they might do? And that That's, that's the thing that really sets you apart, I think, um, at the very beginning stages anyway, and definitely throughout the process.

I think to be honest, that's consistent across any company, that the people hiring want to see that you actually care about that company. Obviously, I appreciate that there will be a lot of people out there who, who are struggling to get roles and will apply to hundreds of different ones, but at the end of the day, if a company is going to hire you and commit to you, they want to know that actually this is one of your first choices. It's a company you really are passionate about working for. So I weakness. Yeah, great advice.

Yeah, definitely. I think, um, just even— it's the most basic piece of advice, in all honesty.

I think, but sometimes the most basic piece of advice is the most important.

100%. I think that's probably the best tip I can give you because honestly it's the thing that really sets apart most candidates, um, is that have you done your research? Um, and then yeah, it's just being that kind of super, I guess, proactive person in your research because that shows the type of person you'll come in being as well. You'll do someone that will you'll do your due diligence basically, you'll look at the work that you need to do, you'll do your background information, you'll come in being informed as opposed to doing it half-heartedly, and I think that's what we like is we want to see the enthusiasm that you might have because we definitely have it. 100%.

And I guess to wrap up then, what would be your final number one piece of advice to students listening?

Oh, that's a really tough question, I think I've just mentioned it throughout the thing. I think my best piece of advice right now for anyone kind of like looking for graduate positions or looking for understanding what their career is going to be is genuinely just don't worry. I think the opportunity is out there. I think what I would say is don't look in your traditional environments, don't necessarily look at your traditional paths unless you're set on it obviously, but do some, do thorough research. I mean, go on LinkedIn, there are tons and tons of roles out there, and it is so hard and it is so competitive, so I completely get but your best piece of advice at this stage is honestly building your brand on LinkedIn. LinkedIn will become your best friend, at least it has become mine quite quickly, where you honestly just build your connections. I think what's really great about LinkedIn is that you don't have to know a person like, like at all really, or in any way. You don't have to have had a mutual friend, you don't have to be connected to them in any way, you can literally just send an invite and that means that you are already building a connection there. That means that that person is one step closer to seeing your brand. How you present yourself on LinkedIn is so important. Building your connections in businesses that you're interested in joining, following career pages, following business pages, interacting with their posts, commenting on their posts, and puts your face out there, puts you on the kind of the map basically. Because I'll go on to there and if I see on Blenheim Charcoal that there's kind of like a few graduates that have commented, I'll look at them and be like, oh, they look really interesting and stuff. Stuff, and then I might connect with you myself if you haven't connected with me.

Yeah.

And that in itself is like building your own brand, you're building your own network without even being in a business yet. You don't have to be in a business to build a network, you start that right from day one. So my best piece of advice would be going out onto LinkedIn, starting your brand, having a professional photo, having a one-liner that really attracts people into what you're looking for, um, and yeah, connecting with anyone.

Nice, no, I think that's a great piece of advice. And then obviously for students that are interested, where can they find out more about the opportunities?

Is it your website?

Yeah, mchalcott.com.

There on there, there's a careers page, and there's also our Venture careers pages. So there's any roles that we necessarily aren't recruiting for directly in BC, they have their own that they do as well. So I definitely say have a look on there. And then there's also a whole page about all of our learning and development opportunities called Red Team, and there you can find like all the awesome stuff that you could potentially learn at BC as well.

Amazing. Check it out, guys. Thank you again for coming on.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.