Life Before RHS – Jess E
Mr Gurur – Assistant Head of Sixth Form & Head of Media Studies
Back with the weekly feature of Life Before RHS, what’s in store for readers this week? A member of staff climbed the career ladder and swore to never enter the world of teaching. Read below to find out more!
What Was Your School Career Like?
‘I studied BA Linguistics at the University of Newcastle – however, I was accepted to university to study BSc Physics! I changed course half-way through Michaelmas because I had only ever had limited love for Pure Maths and six weeks of slogging through arcane sums exhausted that reserve. Although I continue to enjoy exploring astronomy, engineering, and theoretical physics (largely as a corollary of my love of Asimov, Sagan, and Clarke), I love developing my understanding of social structures, semiotics, and communication technology: elements that have linked my somewhat wide-ranging career! The dissertation for my BA explored how the move to digitally encoding text might impact our personal freedoms in the UK.’
What about your careers before RHS?
‘After university I worked in a department of DEFRA where I helped landowners access EU subsidies for rural management, after a year there I was responsible for advising on a swathe of Crown estate in the North East. I enjoyed the people I worked with, I enjoyed meeting with clients, and I did genuinely enjoy reading through the endlessly updating policies detailing Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. I left this role when I had saved enough money to facilitate studying my MA Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies – all of my optional units focused on Middle Eastern politics, specifically the social structures and politics of Egypt, Israel, and Palestine. My dissertation explored how reported news in the US and UK affects the news cycles in Palestinian and Israeli media.
‘After graduating I worked for an occupational health consultancy on Harley Street that advised on installations in Scotland, the Nigerian delta, and Jordan – I climbed a ladder and eventually became Business Development Manager, where I essentially quantified qualitative data. However, similar to my earlier revelation re: BSc Physics vs BA Linguistics, I eventually realised that I enjoyed pitching decks far more than assembling reports and worked to build a portfolio of presentations, concepts, and ideas that I then shared with creative agencies. After a looooong time sharing my nascent body of work with all and sundry, I eventually established myself as a copywriter, working in house for charities and businesses, and agency side for PR firms and creative labs – I mainly wrote short copy in London, Sydney (Australia) and remotely (South East Asia) for over ten years.’
Did You Always Want to Work in Education?
‘I eventually moved away from corporate work because I decided I’d quite like to pursue a PhD.’
‘I never intended to become a teacher, I entered teaching to learn how to deliver lectures (rather than pitches) and lead seminars (rather than stand ups), but I’ve stayed in teaching as I have found working with young people to be the most life-affirming and fulfilling chapter in my story so far.’
Fun (Known) Fact:
‘In two years, I believe teaching will be my longest career to date.’
That’s it for this week on ‘Life Before RHS’ if you want to know more secret insights into the life of your teachers before they became a part of RHS, come back next week for an insight into another member of staff!
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