We welcomed Alison Robb (MSJ 2010) to discuss her career to date in 'Pudding Club'; this is an exciting lecture to inspire our sixth form, helping them get an insight into different career paths they can follow and give them advice for how to reach their goals all whilst enjoying a piece of cake. Our OGA Prefect Phoebe gives a brief summary of the talk and how it has inspired her.

Alison Robb presented a talk about her career during 'Pudding Club' on 13 January 2023. It was important as it gave insights into the possible opportunities we will have in the future. The key messages Alison was expressing were the importance of making contacts, being passionate and persevering.

To start, Alison talked about her time at Malvern St James and how she was still in close contact with her school friends, meeting up with them regularly for days out and dinners. It was fantastic to see a great example of MSJ friendship and how it can last through so many stages of people's lives. 

After finishing school, Alison went to Durham University to read Law. However, she wasn't sure Law was the profession for her, so decided to look for internships in companies where she could gain a broader experience. In the mean time, she also decided to take time out to travel South America and gain invaluable life experience. Upon her return, she applied and succesfully got an internship at Coutts and found she loved working there so much that she joined the company on a permanent basis as an Executive Assistant to the CEO. This meant she worked closely with the Senior Leadership Team providing great contacts for her later career development.

After this role, Alison became a member of the Strategy Team looking at processes and procedures. She noticed there was a gap in the company when it came to policies on sustainability. Upon raising this issue, Alison was given the opportunity to become Head of Sustainabiltiy and, despite this being a completly different role to what she was used to, she was hugely sucessful in driving the companies sustainabiltiy mission and earned Coutts a sustainability award.

After being in that role for around three years, Alison decided it was time to go back to a customer facing part of the business, and she now works as a Wealth Manager and is thoroughly enjoying it.

It was inpirational to hear how well Alison has done to progress professionally. She is passionate, willing to seek opportunities, and persevere. In addition, she reminded us that it is also important to have fun and make the most of having time off as she demonstrated by taking time to travel South America after her degree. Alison's talk concluded with a lot of questions about internships, gap years, and interviews, which Alison gave great advice on. It was a fascinating talk, and it gave me many tips about expanding my career in the future.

- Written by Phoebe, OGA Prefect (Year 12)