Episode 80 – How to get a summer internship with Change 100

January 4, 2019 Podcast

A warm welcome to the 80th episode of the Graduate Job Podcast, and the first of 2019. And to kick off the new year do I have a cracker for you today. I have Elly Turnbull joining me on the show to discuss the brilliant summer internship opportunities which are available through the Change 100 scheme which is run by the Leonard Cheshire Trust, one of the UK’s biggest disability charities. The scheme is targeted at giving talented disabled graduates the opportunities to kick-start their careers at some of the UK’s biggest companies. Now not all listeners are going to be eligible for the scheme, but don’t stop listening, as you might be surprised at the wide range of disabilities and long-term health conditions that they are looking for, and as we discuss on the show, disability is such a personal thing and often people aren’t confident about disclosing them, so stay tuned. In the episode, we discuss all aspects of the Change 100 scheme, from what it is, the eligibility criteria, how many people they are taking on and how you apply. We delve into the application process in detail, looking at how to stand out in the online application, why you need to really know and think about the 7 competencies, and why you need to be using all of the 200 words at your disposal for each question. We explore what you can expect at a Change 100 assessment centre and why it really will be the nicest assessment centre you will ever attend. We discuss the measures they will put in place to make sure you feel comfortable on the day and how you can stand out and perform. No matter if you never heard of Change 100 or don’t consider yourself disabled, this is an episode you aren’t going to want to miss. As always, everything we discuss and a full transcript which you can download in handy PDF format can be found over at the show notes at https://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/Change100.

And don’t forget to check out today’s sponsor who are our friends over at CareerGym.com. Career Gym is the number one place for you to undertake all of your psychometric tests which you will face when you apply for a graduate job. No matter what graduate job you apply for you’re going to have to face some type of verbal reasoning, situational judgment, and working style tests. You can practice these at CareerGym.com. Use code GJP to get 20% off all of their tests!

MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • What the Change 100 scheme is and how you can apply
  • The application criteria for applying to Change 100 and why it is broader than you might think
  • How to stand out from the crowd in your online application
  • The 7 competencies that you really need to understand and think about when you apply to Change 100
  • How the Change 100 assessment centre will be the friendliest and most accommodating assessment centre you will ever go to
  • Why Change 100 is about so much more than just a 3-month summer internship with a top graduate employer

SELECTED LINKS INCLUDE:

  • Assessment Day – One of the top providers of psychometric tests. Click HERE and support the show
  • Career Gym – Use code GJP to get 20% off all of their tests!
  • Job Test Prep – One of the top providers of psychometric tests. Click HERE and support the show


Transcript – Episode 80 – How to get a summer internship with Change 100

Announcer: Welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, your home for weekly information and inspiration to help you get the graduate job of your dreams.

James: Hello and welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, with your host James Curran. The Graduate Job Podcast is your home for all things related to helping you on your journey to finding that amazing job. Each episode I bring together the best minds in the industry, speaking to leading authors, entrepreneurs, coaches graduate recruiters and bloggers who bring decades of experience into a byte size weekly 30 minute-ish show. Put simply, this is the show I wish I had a decade ago when I graduated.

James Curran: And a warm welcome to the 80th episode of the Graduate Job Podcast, and the first of 2019. And to kick of the new year do I have a cracker for you today. I have Elly Turnbull joining me on the show to discuss the brilliant summer internship opportunities which are available through the Change 100 scheme which is run by the Leonard Cheshire Trust, one of the UKs biggest disability charities. The scheme is targeted at giving talented disabled graduates the opportunities to kick start their careers at some of the UKs biggest companies. Now not all listeners are going to be eligible for the scheme, but don’t stop listening, as you might be surprised at the wide range of disabilities and long term health conditions that they are looking for, and as we discuss on the show, disability is such a personal thing and often people aren’t confident about disclosing them, so stay tuned. In the episode we discuss all aspects of the Change 100 scheme, from what it is, the eligibility criteria, how many people they are taking on and how you apply. We delve into the application process in detail, looking at how to stand out in the online application, why you need to really know and think about the 7 competencies, and why you need to using all of the 200 words at your disposal for each question. We explore what you can expect at a Change 100 assessment centre and why it really will be the nicest assessment centre you will ever attend. We discuss the measures they will put in place to make sure you feel comfortable on the day and how you can stand out and perform. No matter if you never heard of Change 100 or don’t consider yourself disabled, this is an episode you aren’t going to want to miss. As always, everything we discuss and a full transcript which you can download in handy PDF format can be found over at the show notes at https://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/Change100

Before we start let’s have a little message from today’s sponsor who are who are our friends over at CareerGym.com. There are some things in life you can’t escape, death taxes, and psychometric tests when you apply for a graduate job. The only way to get really good at them is to practice practice practice, which is where Career Gym comes in. Career Gym is the number one place for you to undertake all of your psychometric tests which you will face when you apply for a graduate job. The bottom line is that no matter what graduate job you apply for, from the global giants to that small company around the corner from you, you’re going to have to do some type of verbal and numerical reasoning, situational judgment, and working style tests. At Career Gym.com you can practice all of these and they come with detailed explanations and you can compare yourself against your peers or do them under time pressure. And as a valued listener of the show they will give you 20% off of all of their tests if you use the code GJP. So, head over to http://www.CareerGym.com that’s CareerGym.com and use the code GJP to get 20% off all of their tests and start practicing today. Now, on with the show.

James Curran: Welcome, Elly Turnbull, to the show, youth employment officer for the brilliant Change 100 scheme run by the Leonard Cheshire Charity. Elly, welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast.

Elly Turnbull: Thank you for having me.

James: So, Elly, before we get into Change 100, do you maybe just want to give us a bit of background on the Leonard Cheshire Charity and what it is that you focus on?

Elly: Yeah, so Leonard Cheshire is one of the UK’s biggest disability charities. We work internationally as well, so we work at about 54 countries worldwide, and our mission is to support individuals to live, learn, and work as independently as they choose, whatever their ability. So, we’re led by people with experience with disability, and we’re kind of at the heart of local life, so we open doors to opportunity, and choice, and support in communities around the globe.

We operate a lot of supported living and a lot of care homes, and that’s what we’ve traditionally done in the past. That’s what we’re most known for. But then, more recently, we’ve been moving into that community side of things. So, running programs that are all to do with allowing people to live, and learn, and work as independently as they choose, and Change 100 is our flagship employment program. So, looking at the work side of things.

James: Brilliant, and today we’re going to explore Change 100 in a bit of detail and find out what it is and how people can apply for it. So, beginning then, do you want to tell us a bit more about Change 100 and what their program is?

Elly: Yeah, absolutely. So, Change 100, as I mentioned, is one of our employment programs. So, it’s all about making people get into really fantastic careers, regardless of having a disability or a long-term health condition, and we know that disabled people have been historically underrepresented in the workplace, especially for those that are, maybe, going into the workplace for the first time. Perhaps, they’re not sure of what their rights are or how to go about asking for reasonable adjustments and how to disclose their disability to an employer.

So, our program’s all about that, and we partner with top employees across the UK, so we’ve got some really big names, such as Barclays, and the BBC, and Lloyds TSB, people like that, and also some smaller ones. But, all organizations that are looking to diversify and to make sure that they’re confident in supporting people with disabilities, and we partner with them for a program of paid summer internships, and mentoring, and then a career development program as well.

So, it’s all designed to give disabled, talented graduates and students the experience and the skills, but also the networks to kickstart their career, I suppose, but also give them that disability confidence, so when they’re entering the workplace, they know what to ask for and they know what their rights are.

James: Brilliant. You mentioned that it’s over summer. When does it run over the summer?

Elly: It varies by employer, but we have an induction session in early June, and then placements will start around the 17th of June, and over for three months and until around September. As I say, they all depend on the employer that you’re based with.

James: And you talked about some of the huge employers that you’ve got there. Is there a wide geographical spread or are they mainly London-focused, or is it all over the UK?

Elly: It’s all over the UK. So, we do have a lot in London in the southeast because that’s where a lot of our employers have their head offices, which is where they like to place people sometimes. But, we have them all over the place. So, down in southwest, across to the east, we have them in Scotland, we’ve had them in Wales. We’ve also got one in Jersey this year going ahead, so you have a nice place to be in this summer.

So, we’ve got them all over the UK, and then a really wide spread of employers as well, so we do have a lot of corporate partners, but then also local authorities. We have some charities that we work with. So, it’s a really wide spread and the spread of roles available is really wide too.

James: And work experience and internships that serve you so well in your CV, just building those connections with employers and just getting that work experiences is worth its weight in gold. So, it is something that’s just so valuable to do. So, in terms, then, of the eligibility criteria, who can apply for a placement on the Change 100 program?

Elly: So, it is specifically for people with a disability or a long-term health condition. But, that includes a wide range of disabilities. So, we have people on the program with physical disability, sensory disability, mental health conditions, developmental disabilities like Asperger’s, autism, and learning difficulties such as ADHD, dyspraxia, dyslexia, and then any long-term health condition as well. So, diabetes or ME, MS, things like that.

That’s the first thing that you need to be eligible. You also need to be in your penultimate or your final year of study, and that can be from any degree. So, any discipline, but also from undergraduate or post-graduate, or you can have graduated within the last two years. So, it’s kind of like a four-year pool. You also have to have a 2:1 or a first. So, it’s a talent scheme, like any others. Just because it’s for disabled people doesn’t mean that the quality’s any less.

So, you have to have a 2:1, or a first, or have mitigating circumstances, and we do take those into account. We have a lot of people that applies to, and you also have to have the right to work in the UK for the duration of the internship, so international students just need to have the right visa to allow them to do that.

James: You mentioned sort of a wide range of different disabilities. As you mentioned, some of them are more hidden than others. People can be quite reticent about putting themselves forward or seeing themselves as having a disability. What would you recommend to people who aren’t sure about whether to apply?

Elly: I would say definitely apply. So, this is what the program is all about. We know that people aren’t confident in disclosing a disability. But, not just that. Sometimes, people don’t identify as being disabled. You’re disabled at some point, and you’re not in others. And especially for people with a health condition, like a mental health condition or more of a physical health condition, sometimes they don’t feel that they fit into that bracket, and if they’re not sure, then you can always get in touch with them with the Change 100 team, and we can discuss whether you would be eligible, but it really is all dependent on you.

We don’t ask for any medical evidence of these things. We do just trust that people have the condition or the disability that they’re speaking to us about. So, it’s really dependent on how they feel and what they would get out of the scheme. But, as I said, you can always get in touch with one of the team to talk about it in more detail.

James: And how much choice do applicants have in terms of the type of company they’re applying for and the role they’re going to be doing?

Elly: That’s a really good question because sometimes people do get a bit confused about this. So, when you apply, you apply to Change 100 because it’s a program. An internship is just half of that, I suppose, as well as the internship, you have the mentoring and the career development side. So, that’s the other half.

So, you apply to Change 100, and then if you’re successful, you go into what’s called the matching process, and then at this point, we take all of our job descriptions from our organizations that we’ve partnered with, and we take profiles from our successful applicants, and we talk about what skills you already have, and more importantly, what skills you want to gain, and you can talk about what sectors you’d like to go in, what roles you’d like to explore, and then if you have any restrictions on locations, if you can’t travel too far, or you can only be based in London or something like that.

And then the team sits down all together for about a month and matches everybody up to make sure that everybody has something that’s going to work for them. So, you can guide where you’re going to be, but you don’t get to choose the employer yourself. Of course, you get a final say on whether you’d like to go into that particular internship we’ve put forward to you. But, when you apply, you’re just applying to Change 100.

James: And you mentioned the mentoring and career development aspects of the scheme as well. Do they kick in before you actually do the work experience or is it afterwards that they come into their own?

Elly: It’s both. So, the first experience of it will be the induction session. So, this is in June, so before applicants start their internship. And at that, we talk about how to hit the ground running, really, I suppose, so how to impress when you first get there and talking about the kind of support that you might want to seek out, and how to go about those initial conversations with your mentor, but then also the first stages of it and to manage your disability in the workplace too.

So, that’s the first instance of the career development program, and then those carry on once a month until December, and the mentoring takes place over six months too. So, you’ll get your mentor as soon as you’re placed in your organization as soon as the internship starts, and you’ll have set times to meet with your mentor and talk about their career goals and talk about your mentor’s journey as well. So, they’ve got some top tips and hearing about how they got to be where they are, that usually somebody either in a similar role to what you want to go into or somebody a bit senior. And that carries on for the three months after the internship’s finished, so up until December. But, then there’s no reason why that can’t carry on past that date as well, but that’s up to the intern and the mentor to keep that going.

James: Brilliant, and mentoring’s such a powerful thing if you can just pick the brains of someone doing what you want to do and just learn from their mistakes and get their advice. It’s such a really, really beneficial thing to help your career as you progress.

Elly: Yeah, definitely.

James: Do you have any stats on how many people who go through this scheme go on to work at the companies that they have the internships with?

Elly: So, we don’t actually measure this as one of our statistics that we use to measure the success. Because it is for penultimate and final year students, a lot of people are always going to go back into university, and a lot of people do stay on at their organization or move on to another organization, maybe, in a similar area because they’ve seen that experience that they’ve gained, and that’s made them a really attractive applicant to somebody similar. But, we can’t really tell if that’s because of Change 100 or not. So, we don’t measure it strictly, but we do have a lot of anecdotal evidence of people carrying on.

So, we had an intern this year who worked at the BBC who did her internship. And although she hasn’t gone back to her team that she did her internship in, she has secured a role in another team, and that’s definitely off the work that she did there and how she impressed people there.

And we have lots of other people that do carry on on their placements maybe for a further three months or a further six months. They do the placement for a year, or they move them to a different team. So, there’s no reason why people shouldn’t be looking to impress and to try and carry on there. Some of our employers work with us to feed graduate schemes or because they have a role in mind for interns to go onto once their three months is over.

But, some of them do really just offer the three-month internship as part of the way that they operate, and those ones will always — those will end after the three months. But, as they say, there’s no reason why they can’t use that experience to go into another organization in a similar field or a similar industry.

James: Okay, excellent. One of the big issues here in the UK is just around paid internships. So, what sort of pay can people expect on the Change 100 scheme?

Elly: We’re very, very strict in that our interns must be paid the living wage. So, not the minimum wage, but the recommended living wage as recognized by the Living Wage Foundation, which is 9 pounds across the country, and then 10.55 pounds in London. So, it’s recently just gone up. So, all our interns can expect to be paid that in an hour. Some of them are a little bit more, some of them are a lot more, but it really just depends on the organization that you’re placed in, but you can definitely expect to be paid that.

James: That’s good to know. So, everyone’s going to be listening and thinking, “This sounds like such a great scheme. How do I apply?” So, let’s move across to the application process. So, when do the applications open?

Elly: So, they’re already open. They opened on the 24th of September, but they don’t close until the 16th of January. So, we have quite a wide window for people to apply in because we want them to really take their time over their application, and go in, register, look at the questions, and then work with their careers advisors if they’d like to, or just get friends and family to look over their applications, make sure it’s a real true reflection of what they’d get out of the program.

So, even if you apply now, you’d have the same chance of getting onto somebody on the 16th of January. We just ask that people don’t leave it right until the last minute. I mean, it’s just technical issues, but really you have until the 16th to apply, and you have as much chance of getting on then as now.

James: Yeah, and listeners, as Elly said, get the application in as soon as you can. So, it opens, and if you can’t get the January deadline this year, it’ll open again in September, so you’ve got time to make sure that your application is really — or you’ve been thinking about the application in the meantime, so it’s good to go in September.

And do you get people in for interviewing across if they apply early in September? Is the interview process between September and January, or do you wait until the very end and get all the applications and then start filtering them through?

Elly: We wait until the end, yeah. So, in January, we will be marking all of the applications. Well, we’re marking them as they go along, but in January, everybody will hear, whether they’ve been invited to the next stage, which is an assessment center, and we hold those across the UK as well. And it’s about one in five people go from the initial stage, so the application form, onto the internship, but just under 50% of people will be invited to an assessment center, and they’ll be held in February and March. So, you’ll find out, by the end of January, whether you’ve been invited to that stage.

James: Okay, it’s not too long to wait, which is good. And how many positions do you have to fill this year?

Elly: We never really know how many we have until around March because a lot of employers are still thinking about how many interns they want to take on, because they do tend to grow each year. But, we’re expecting about 1,000 applicants, and we’re expecting to have about 170 placements. And last year, we had 827 people apply, and we had 140 placements go ahead.

James: That’s not too bad odds if you put the work in and you’ve got an application in. So, you mentioned the initial online application, and you’ve got through to an assessment center. How can people stand out in the initial online application?

Elly: So, the initial application form is obviously asking about motivations for joining the scheme, and then it’s a series of competency questions. So, in order to stand out at this stage, we really want people to just be thinking about the best way to answer those competency-based questions and making sure that they’re using a structure that is going to pick up as many points as possible.

So, we always recommend the STARE model, so situation, task, action, result, but then more importantly, evaluation. To really stand out, we want everybody to be really self-reflective thinking about what they learned about themselves in a situation, or what they learned about teamwork, or about customer focus, or something like that, and then thinking about what they would take forward.

So, some of our applications have amazing things on them: people climbing mountains and people raising thousands of pounds for charity. But, some of them, they’re really normal tasks in situations that you come across, but they’ve reflected on it so well, and they’ve learned so much about themselves, and have taken things forward and to other experiences that those stand out just as much as those ones that have really fantastic examples.

James: That’s a really good point, and with the clients I coached to help with their applications, as often as you said, if they don’t have experiences of themselves climbing mountains, they think they haven’t got a good example, but as you mentioned, it could be something a lot smaller or working at the local cornershop or whatever it is. But, if you’ve got a good example and you craft it well, then you don’t have to be travelling around the world to come up with good examples for these competency questions.

Elly: Yeah, absolutely and a lot of people have no work experience. Some people that take part in a scheme are career-changers, so they do. But, some people really just talk about their academic skills or situations that have happened in their personal life, and they’re just as good. And we also want people to be really personal.

So, thinking about not why Change 100 is a good program, but why they would make the most of it, why they think they deserve a place on there and what they would do with the outcomes of Change 100. And just to make sure that they’ve done their homework about the scheme, because it isn’t just the internship. We want people to really know what they’re getting themselves in for, and those that have reflected on that, and how they’d make the most out of the different elements they’ll be standing out to.

James: Are there any particular competencies that you’re looking for people to bring to the fore?

Elly: Yes. So, we have seven competencies that will be assessed at application stage, and then also at the assessment centers, and those are initiative, problem-solving, customer focus, communication, teamwork, resilience, and time management. So, all the competencies that you can build up throughout school, university, in your personal life. Customer focus, sometimes, puts people off a bit. We’re not looking for people with customer experience. We’re just looking for an understanding of what good customer focus looks like.

James: And on that application, where do people tend to let themselves down?

Elly: The ones that don’t get invited to an assessment stage are those that really haven’t given us enough information to say whether that’s a good example or not. We have a 200-word count for each of the questions, and those that fall significantly short of the 200 words usually haven’t given us enough information to decide on whether they’re picking up the criteria.

And also, those that don’t really treat the first questions, so when we’re asking about their motivations and what they would get out of the program, those that treat that as more of an intro rather than a question in itself will lose a lot of points. It’s a 200-word count across the questions, and they’re all equally important.

James: And on the basics, make sure you’ve spell-checked it properly and got someone to read it through, and there’s no howlers in there.

Elly: Yeah, absolutely. So, we want people to be working with their careers advisors and their friends and family to look at things like spelling, punctuation, and grammar because they do have to be perfect, but also to check that you’re using an appropriate amount of detail. I know it’s really difficult when you’ve been reflecting on a situation so much to be able to put it down in just 200 words.

So, we think that by getting somebody to check over it that doesn’t really know much about that situation or that experience that you’ve had, they’ll be able to kind of give a third-party view of whether you’re presenting it in the right way and in enough detail.

James: Yeah, so if you’re one of the lucky 50% of people to make it through to the assessment center, what can you expect from the assessment center?

Elly: Our assessment centers are really, really nice. So, they’re really inclusive and they’re really accessible. We take into consideration everybody’s reasonable adjustments that we ask or that they ask us for, and we take those very seriously. So, this is like a really good practice of an assessment center where you can be absolutely sure that you could ask for extra time answering questions, you could ask for somebody to show you around the venue when you get there so that there aren’t going to be any surprises: you know where the loos are, you know where the exits are, things like that.

And applicants can just be sure that all those adjustments are going to be taken into consideration. But, apart from that, it’s like any other assessment center in that there are different tasks of equal weighting. So, there will be an individual task and there’ll be a couple of group tasks as well, but they’re just really supportive. So, we have members of the Change 100 team assessing, but we also have past Change 100 alumni assessing, and our employers as well.

A lot of our people who have been through the assessment center say that they kind of forgot halfway through, which sounds crazy because assessment centers are so tough. But, we really want people to know that we’re not trying to trip them up and that it isn’t really, really like you up against the next person. Everybody has one person assessing them, so you don’t have to be scrapping for the attention. You know, they are really looking at how you perform rather than comparing you against somebody else at the assessment center.

James: Yeah, that’s one of the most common misconceptions I find is people think it is a competition, whereas if you all do well, then you’ll all get an offer. It’s not trying to make yourself look better than the person next to you. It’s how can you help the person next to you look better, making yourself look better in the process? I think the Apprentice has a lot to answer for when it comes to that. So, is there any pre-work that needs to be done in terms of case studies or presentations, or is it all given to the applicant on the day?

Elly: We also know that a really anxiety-inducing part of assessment centers is not knowing what happens. So, if somebody is successful and invited to an assessment center, we’ll tell them as much as we can in advance that they feel comfortable turning up, but also that it’s still going to push them. So, you will have a task to prepare for, and that will be given in quite a lot of detail.

So, that first one, at least you know what you’re talking about, you’ve been able to practice, and then you’ll be told what the second task is not in as much detail, but you’ll know what to expect, and then the interview will be a surprise, I suppose, but with the interview, we’d make that really inclusive to you so people can bring in notes.

As I said, people can ask for us to reword or repeat questions as much as they like without that going against their score. People can sit there for a couple of minutes thinking of an answer. We really want people to be able to get themselves across and be able to explain their situations and the skills that they have without thinking that we’re going to be marking them down for all these little things.

James: And would the interview be with one of the prospective employers or is it just with the Leonard Cheshire team, or a mix of both?

Elly: It will be a mixture of both, yeah. So, it might not be the employer that they actually get placed with, but it’s just a really good way to meet them and to see the employers that we work with and be really supportive of them as well, and they want them to do well. They’re also not going to be trying to trip them up. All our employers work with us because they want to learn about how to create really inclusive and accessible recruitment practices and to ensure diversity, and that people with disabilities are supported.

So, that’s why they’re there, and also just to get involved. They really like their side of the program as well and want to be as involved as heavily as possible. But again, it won’t be loads of people interviewing one person. We make sure that it’s reflective of the task and it’s an appropriate amount of people.

James: Any requests you’d like to ask from the candidates so they can stand out and perform well?

Elly: Yeah, so I think the biggest thing of the assessment center, as I mentioned, we do ask people in advance if they have any reasonable adjustments for the assessment centers, and I think the most important thing is to just not be shy with that, to know that if any time, this is the time to be exploring those.

So, if you want people to take anything into consideration, whether it is extra time or whether you want someone to meet you and guide you to the assessment venue, or whether you need something printed out in a larger print, or you want the questions on the table rather than just be told verbally, all of those things, now is the time to explore them. So, even in another interview, whether you’d feel a bit nervous about doing it, which obviously loads of people do, you can know that Change 100 is going to be 100% supportive of those things.

So, just really reflect on what you might need, think about what you have at university, or what you’ve had in different maybe kind of part-time job or anything that you do in your personal life that makes you feel more comfortable in your day than to just go with it and to let us know these things. But, also not to be too nervous.

So, the things that let people down at the assessment center stage is nerves, which is obviously understandable. They are really nerve-racking days. When you hear “assessment center” I think, “Oh my goodness, what’s going to happen there?” but we can’t stress enough that it is really, really supportive and that although the task will be very similar, it shouldn’t feel like an assessment center that you imagine.

James: Yeah, I mean, I’ve spoken to a lot of graduate recruiters and I’ve spoken to them about their different graduate schemes, and this Change 100, you’ve said several times throughout, is just the supportive nature. It is just completely different in terms of your approach, and how open, and welcoming, and just aware of the different things that different applicants are going to be concerned about and worried about just to put them at ease that this is completely different to the other graduate schemes that I’ve spoken to.

So, one final question then before we move on to our weekly quick-fire round. What would happen then once you’ve gotten the scheme? So, you’re one of the lucky applicants to get through. What training or advice would you get, then, before the placement starts?

Elly: Again, similar to the assessment centers, but I would get people to really reflect on the kind of things that are going to make them feel supported, and make them feel comfortable and able to really show themselves off to be their best in the workplace and just to keep in contact with the Change 100 team beforehand so that we can be exploring those things.

So, the work experience placements are really great ways to be exploring all of those different things that they might need due to their disability or their long-term health condition. So, just reflecting on those different things that they might want to explore rather than have to do for the whole time and to speak with us if they need any advice on that. But then, also, just trying to get to know people.

So, they will be in the induction session, as I mentioned, so I think a really good way to use those is to try and meet other people in the program. Because, one of the great things about it is that you’re part of a peer network of people that are in a similar boat to you, and they might be in a similar area as well when the internships take place. So, just meeting up with them as well as the Change 100 team. You kind of have a wider network of support and it’s a great way to just meet people and make friends as well.

We have people from this scheme three, four, five years ago who are still really good friends that come out of it. So, making sure you’re just getting there early with those things that you feel like you do have as much support as you had the whole way through.

James: You mentioned Elly, before we started chatting or before we started recording that you’ve been visiting different universities. Are you going to be continuing your tour around the different universities around the UK?

Elly: Not this time. So, we’ll start again later in the summer time for the next recruitment cycle. Our university visits have finished now. They’ve been going on since October, but we do have a couple of webinars which are on our website at the moment. So, if you go on the Change 100 page of the Leonard Cheshire website, you’ll be able to see links to those, and it’s the same presentation that we’ve done in other universities, but it will just be over the web rather than in person.

James: And listeners, our full transcript of today’s episode and all the links to everything that Elly and I have discussed can be found over in the show notes at GraduateJobPodcast.com/Change100. So Elly, moving on to the quick-fire questions. First off, what one book would you recommend that listeners should read?

Elly: I was thinking about this one. I think the book that I would recommend to listeners, because I’ve recommended it to everyone in my team, and it seems everybody’s read it at one point or another over the last few months is “Notes on a Nervous Planet”. Have you read that?

James: No, I’ve not heard of that one. Who’s that one by?

Elly: So, it’s by Matt Haig, who is an author who writes a lot about depression and other mental health conditions, and this is his most recent book, and it’s all about just the way society is going, really. It’s all about how to handle life in this crazy modern age with constant distraction, and constant access to the internet, and everything speeding up so much, like how you can remain calm and how you can handle life now that it’s speeding up so much.

And I think it’s really great for people that do have a mental health condition, especially anxiety. That’s what it’s all about. But, just for anybody really, I think life these days can be a bit anxiety-inducing, and it’s just a really nice book to read and just know that you’re not alone and feeling that way.

James: Yeah, definitely and links to that one will be in the show notes. Good recommendation, one I’ll put on my Christmas list. Next question, Elly. What internet resource would you point listeners to?

Elly: So, this one, it’s a bit of a plug, a bit obvious, but I would point people to the Change 100 website, because obviously you have the information about the Change 100 program, and links to the application, but we also have this really fantastic resource on that called “This is Your Future”, which is written by our first cohort of Change 100 interns, and it’s all about exploring and managing disability in the workplace. So, disclosing a disability, asking for reasonable adjustments.

But then, there’s also things in there about how to make your CV stand out and how to approach interviews really confidently. So, looking at other experiences you can do to supplement their scheme or to supplement your part-time job or your studies. And as well as that, we also have a lot of case studies on the website. So, if you’re still thinking now, “I’m not sure if this is for me,” or what would it actually look like day-to-day, we’ve got loads of case studies on there of people that have gone on to do great things, and it’s just a really good resource, as well, to hear about what our employers say.

People sometimes think the employers are doing it just to be nice, and that really isn’t the case at all. Our employers do it because we give them the best students and graduates, and you can learn more about what they think about the program on the website too.

James: Brilliant. And finally, Elly, what one tip would you give listeners to help them on their job search today?

Elly: I would say to engage with like the online community as much as possible. Obviously, to find jobs, but then just to find other people in the same position. I think finding a job can be a really lonely experience and can really knock your confidence, and you need a bit of a boost of your self-esteem and to know that there’s loads of other people in the same boat that are also facing rejections or just not hearing back from people.

I know when I was looking for a job, I saw an infographic on LinkedIn that showed the amount of jobs that somebody had applied for, and then taking it down to how many they’d actually heard back from, and then how many interviews they’d have, and then the one job that they actually got interesting that I thought, “Oh wow, that’s happening to everybody. It isn’t just that I’m not hearing back.”

James: Yeah, it is true. It is, to a certain extent, a numbers game. But, you know, you’ve got to be in it to win it. I think one of the problems is people listen and think, “Oh well, you know you had 800 applicants for 140 places. The odds are really high.” But, then when you factor in those 800 people, the number that fall because they’ve got basic spelling mistakes, and then you take out that junk, and then you whittle it down and whittle it down, the odds, if you put in the work and put in the effort, then you stand a really good chance of getting an internship or a job. You’ve just got to put the effort in at the front-end.

Elly: Definitely, and we do have a top tips document that goes out with our emails too those registered candidates that goes into this in more detail, and those webinars that I mentioned go into it in a lot more detail. So, anybody that really definitely wants to get on to the program, I’d say definitely give that a listen because we’ll be giving some very in-depth top tips.

James: Brilliant, and again, I will link to that in the show notes at GraduateJobPodcast.com/Change100. Elly, thank you so much for appearing on the show. What’s the best way that people can get in touch with Change 100 and the work that you do?

Elly: So, the email address, if they have any specific questions or just want to have a chat with a member of the team is Change100Applications@LeonardCheshire.org. But, if you go on the Change 100 website, there’ll be a link to that email address too. But, you can also follow their Leonard Cheshire Facebook and Twitter accounts. We don’t have a Change 100 ones ourselves, but there will be things to do with Change 100 coming out of the Leonard Cheshire pages.

James: Elly, thank you so much for appearing on the Graduate Job Podcast.

Elly: Thank you for having me. It’s been great.

James: Many thanks to again to Elly, doesn’t that sound like a cracking opportunity. 3 month summer internship with some of the countries biggest employers and mentoring and career development opportunities thrown in to boot, what is not to like. As Elly mentioned, they are open to a wide range of disabilities, and long term health conditions, so don’t be shy in applying or getting in touch with a member of the Change 100 team to understand if you are eligible. You’ve got to be in it to win it, so give them a call. Applications are open for another couple of weeks from when this episode goes live, so don’t hang about. But if you miss them this year, they will be back open again in September which will come round again nice and quick. So there you go with episode 80. Just 20 to go to the big 100. Before we go finish let’s have a quick Itunes review which this week was left by Cody in the US. ‘Love the show, packed full of advice which is helping me as I apply for some jobs. The show has a UK focus but don’t let that put you off’ haha, thanks Cody for that one. If you’ve been enjoying the show then one way you can say thanks is to leave me a review and rating on Itunes, as it helps us stay high in the rankings so that more people can find the show. It doesn’t have to be iTunes, anywhere you listen will have a ratings function so get stuck in and give me 5 stars. I’ll link to our page in iTunes over in the show notes so head on over to https://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/Change100 where you can find links to everything we discussed today and how to leave me a review. So, all that remains is to say join me next week when we will have the brilliant Scott Barlow on the show from the Happen to Your Career podcast, it’s a goodie. I hope you enjoyed the show today, but more importantly I hope you use it, and apply it. See you next week.