Meet Your Careers Consultants: Jay Willink Wilde
Does it seem like a big decision to come and discuss your career ideas and plans (or lack of) with an anonymous careers consultant? Maybe this is something you’ve never done before?
We thought it might be helpful to know a little more about the mysterious Jay and Kathy before you book an appointment, so that when we do meet we won’t start as complete strangers to one other.
Let me introduce myself first; I’m Jay Willink Wilde. I have 20 years’ experience as a careers consultant in higher education, mostly with The Careers Group, University of London. My first career episode was a PhD and postdoctoral research in life sciences. I first looked at how different soil micro-organisms could be used as biological control agents for a specific wheat crop disease, within the broader movement to reduce global pesticide usage. This was followed by a spell at one of the Medical Research Council’s labs using molecular biology techniques to understand what can and does go wrong with the genes that regulate cell division, growth and movement.
I enjoy moving between very different careers projects. After my research work, I became a careers consultant in 1998 and enjoyed helping people grow and make fulfilling career choices. My doctoral background drew me into the then-new field of early career researcher development. I have since worked with hundreds of PhD students and postdocs at UCL, Imperial College, Goldsmiths’, Royal Holloway and SOAS. I feel really honoured to begin this new work with the technē PhD students.
I’ve always had a foot in the arts. From my PhD onwards I was singing every weekend in ensembles and, as I trained my voice, gaining as much solo experience as I could. I eventually went part-time in my careers work and successfully auditioned at Birmingham Conservatoire to study vocal performance, where I graduated with a PGDip (Distinction) in 2002. I have also always enjoyed making in textiles using techniques such as knitting, crochet, hand-sewing and macramé.
I would identify as a portfolio or ‘slash’ careerist; what the author Emilie Wapnick has called a multipotentialite. My current activities include freelance careers consultant/trainee counsellor/jewellery creator/parent.
From my conversations with technē students so far, I know that there are many other multipotentialites amongst you. I take particular pleasure in helping people navigate and earn a living through the complexities and richness of these non-linear, zig-zag careers.
Whatever your career aspirations and challenges, and whether you are laser-focused or completely lacking a firm direction, I look forward to working with you on your next professional steps.
To book an appointment with either myself or Kathy, please
contact
Suggested reading:
‘How to be everything: A guide for those who (still) don’t know what they want to be when they grow up.’ Wapnick, E. 2017. HarperOne, New York.
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