| Personal details |
|---|
| Degree: | Social Anthropology and IR |
|
| School(s): | School of International Relations, School of Philosophy, Anthropology & Film Studies |
| Year of Graduation: | Jun-2007 |
| LinkedIn: | |
| National of: | United Kingdom |
| Employment details |
|---|
| Organisation: | Survival International |
| Job title: | Campaigner |
| Occupational Sector: | International Development/ Organisations |
| What has been your route to getting your current position? |
|---|
After graduating, I stuck around in St Andrews for a while working in
Aikman’s pub and applying for loads of jobs. I applied for a paid
internship with Survival International – after two very intimidating
interviews they gave me the internship. It was supposed to be for 11
months, but after about three they offered me a ‘proper’ job, and that’s
what I’ve been doing ever since.
|
| What does your job involve ? |
|---|
All sorts of things! The unseen work involves researching issues and
keeping up to date with international and domestic developments likely
to impact upon indigenous peoples’ rights. I spend a lot of time
building and maintaining strong links with various indigenous
communities. I also write a lot; letters, articles, press releases,
briefing sheets and other stuff too. The trick is to distill vast
amounts of detailed information into short, simple text that anyone can
understand in a hurry. The most visible part of the job is dealing with
the media; calling journalists who might be interested in Survival’s
work, answering their queries, and giving interviews. There’s also
plenty of photocopying and envelope stuffing to be done.
|
| What are the best bits of your job ? |
|---|
The most exciting part of the job is probably the field trips – to be
flung to the other side of the world, on your own, to stay with a small
community and try to figure out what on earth is going on is a pretty
invigorating challenge. But on a more day to day level, it’s just
brilliant to be able to speak passionately about people and issues so
important to me. And sometimes – more often than you might think – I get
to see the tangible, positive results of a hard fought campaign. That’s
job satisfaction like you wouldn’t believe.
|
| Why were you successful? |
|---|
I was incredibly lucky to get a paid internship – a lot of people
have to volunteer for a long time before breaking in to the
not-for-profit sector, and who can afford to live in London without an
income? Throughout my time at St Andrews, I was heavily involved in
campaigning groups and was involved with the student union for a while
too. I think this helped in the interviews.
|
| What skills/ knowledge from your degree have you found particularly helpful in this role? |
|---|
| The obvious ones – analytic skills, time management skills and so on,
have been really useful. Having a degree in anthropology probably didn’t
actually help me get the job, but I think it did inform my perspective
on the world and the people in it, which in turn led me to want to work
for Survival. |
| What advice would you give to students wishing to follow the same path? |
|---|
| Don’t expect to get paid much and don’t expect to escape the tedium of
an office job – no matter how interesting the subject matter, there will
be days when staring at a computer screen for eight hours will make you
want to run screaming back to the safe fold of studenthood. |
