Pete's blog - a fair few thank yous and a final farewell!

Seven Samurai, The Secret Seven, Seven Dwarves, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Seven Deadly Sins (okay that example is perhaps not as good) – as I write my seventh blog, now seems as good a time as any to draw things to a close; and unfortunately now is also the time to bring my 9 months mentoring Harry to a close too.

However, we have both worked hard to make sure that our remaining time together has ended on a high note, with Harry gaining several more opportunities to gain experience of working life within several more different parts of Zurich (in fact I have so many amazing people to recognise that I need to make sure that the many thank yous I will have to say in this final blog doesn’t end up reading like a teary Oscars acceptance speech)

 

Firstly I want to say a huge thank you to Paul Beasley (from IT) who took time out of his busy schedule to run a 1:1 session with Harry sharing a little of the IT knowledge that he has built up over the last 25 years. Paul remarked that “if Harry went away with learning even one thing then that’s one thing more than when he first walked into the room”, which I think you’ll agree is a fantastic attitude to have, for mentoring or for life in general – and the way that Harry re-counted all he knew about Zurich’s computer networks during our catch-up afterwards (don’t worry folks – no security risk) made me feel pretty confident that it was more than one thing he had picked up about IT. (Paul also told me that I can use some pictures of them for the blog “as long as they’re flattering”, so I hope you’ll agree with my judgement here Paul!)

My next thanks goes out to Rita, Shellie and Jane, from TC1 reception desk, who have always been so kind and patient with Harry while he has been waiting at reception for me to come down and collect him (often for a bit too long on the odd occasion when I have been caught in the middle of something and lost track of time) for our sessions. They were kind enough recently to have Harry shadow them behind the desk for an afternoon, an experience which I would like to think was mutually enjoyable given how much they all seem to love Harry! I think he also got a lot out of this session given how busy he was helping Zurich’s visitors sign in (being his usual amiable self) and helped set them up on the Wi-Fi – Shellie remarked that he seemed to “know more about computers than us”, whilst she also noted that he taught them “loads about Doctor Who” so I definitely see a running trend in that respect. The ladies did find it amusing when Harry remarked that he was tired from “having to get up at 7:30”, I think the early starts that are a necessary evil of adult life are something that may still take a bit of getting used to yet (that or he just develops a chronic caffeine dependency like yours truly).

I want to also give a huge shout-out to Gareth “Oz” Osbourne, who not only spent an afternoon letting Harry shadow him around Zurich’s kitchen and restaurant, but after hearing about Harry’s dream of working in admin he was keen to arrange a second visit for Harry so he could help him with the more office-based side of his job! Oz remarked to me afterwards about how taken aback he was by how good Harry was at recalling all of the different numbers and processes involved in this side of the job. I found this especially gratifying to hear, as before I had even met Harry his application form had said that he “wanted to work in admin” and I had spent a fair chunk of time in our sessions trying to speak with him about exactly why it was that he had put this, and to try and make sure that the dream he was expressing was his own, and not a dream that he thought others wanted to hear him say – something which I think many of us, yours truly included, have been guilty of at certain points in our lives. So after everything I have witnessed over the months, to have it further confirmed by someone else that he does really seem to have a knack for this particular type of role, was incredibly satisfying for me giving me further confirmation that he is continuing down the right path for him as he continues his journey. Oz was in fact so kind and generous with his time that he asked me if there was any time to try and arrange a third work-shadowing session between the two of them; I replied that unfortunately not, although on the bright side he now probably had enough Dalek and Cybermen anecdotes to make it through the next few months.

Alas, after all of these months of working hard (both with myself and with my much more knowledgeable colleagues), the time had come for our final session. It was one of the first beautiful days of the year so we went out for burgers at a local café as we discussed his development over the last year and some of the things that I had tried to teach him (with the occasional segue into another Doctor Who discussion of course). As I have remarked on previous blogs, the step from leaving school/college into entering the “adult” world is an incredibly daunting one, and to see the change in Harry from our first session together  when he was at that daunting point himself – though handling it with more chutzpah than I remember having at the same point; to where he is now where he has continued to develop into an incredibly friendly, funny, self-assured young man, confident and aware of his capabilities and potential does bring a tear to the eye (something which I was luckily able to blame on the sunny conditions as we were out for lunch). Harry is not “there” yet (but then who is?) as he still searches for his own dream job and continues to work out his own strengths and weaknesses, but he has developed so much since last summer and it is fantastic to see how busy he is now working, volunteering and rehearsing for his play basically every day of the week, and I feel honoured to have been part of one small chapter of his story. There was then one final touching moment as we returned after lunch when I signed Harry out one last time, as all of the ladies at the front desk and Oz said goodbye to Harry and made me promise to bring him back soon. Rest assured I feel that this is more of a “see you later” than a goodbye – for one thing I am hoping to swing front row tickets for his autumn show that he has been rehearsing for all year with his Monday group!

Another quick word of thanks before I bring things to a complete close, as well as all of the legends who have directly helped myself and Harry all year, I also want to give a massive shout-out to everyone at Zurich’s amazing Disability Inclusion Group and our incomparable Zurich Community Trust for making this whole endeavour possible in the first place, as well as all of the other mentors dotted around our other offices quietly doing brilliant jobs too. And it would be remiss if I didn’t recognise the amazing comms guys for taking my disjointed, spelling-mistake riddled ramblings each month and turning them into something approaching a coherent piece of writing, and then promoting them so people get a chance to read them!

And now just to quickly mention something I’ve avoided talking about much in these musings – myself. I had never done anything like mentoring before, and although it has certainly taken me out of my comfort zone at times I can honestly say I have relished every minute of it. At the start it felt like a huge amount of pressure having someone at a vulnerable stage in their life look up to you for some guidance and support, but making your best effort to try to rise and meet those expectations has been so rewarding. What is more, teaching Harry about some of the skills required to be successful in the workplace has ended up helping myself in my own career too, consciously expressing a lot of skills and habits that I had inadvertently picked up throughout the years. (I had also never blogged before or been exposed to the joy that is writer’s block and can now fully empathise with the famous Dorothy Parker quote “I hate writing, I love having written.”) For anyone out there who has never considering mentoring (or any similar endeavour) I would strongly urge they take a second to reconsider that notion – I will personally guarantee (no refunds) that however much you think you don’t, you have so much to teach someone else out there to help them on their own development journey, as I’m sure others have helped you in the past get to where you are today (The Circle of Life and all that). And for anyone that has considered mentoring but is still on the fence all I would say is take the leap and go for it! At times it may be challenging and stressful, but the rewards involved in helping someone else will dwarf any of the extra work or stress involved.

Finally, the diligent readers out there may have remembered that I promised in the last blog we would hear from Harry himself in this final blog, and I couldn’t think of a more appropriate person to have the final word:

until the next time...

 

Pete.

 

#MyMenteeAndMe      #LoveVolunteering     #LoveZCT     #LifeatZurich

Mail room, Alex Manners and a message from Harry's Mum!

“And now, the end is near…”

It is crazy to think that it has been more than half a year since I first met Harry back in the summer: we had collectively just survived both a non-embarrassing World Cup and a month of the average temperature being roughly “hotter than the sun”; but I will try not to get too overly sentimental in my penultimate (Dun Dun!) blog as I start to reflect back on the entirety of the scheme with Harry. (Can’t promise that the ultimate blog won’t be completely devoid of sentiment however – hankies at the ready for that one)

One really nice problem that we have been having recently when scheduling our sessions is that Harry is much more busy now than he used to be which is making scheduling sessions that much more difficult! He is now working in a Charity Shop every Wednesday, going on outings with his Youth Group every Friday and on Mondays he has started rehearsals for a musical he is going to be playing piano for and performing in in the autumn (fingers crossed for a free ticket here). 

As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog, I am not going to deign to take any credit for work and classes that he is doing off his own back with no help from me, however I like to think that perhaps some of the soft skills and self-confidence that we have worked on developing during our sessions together this last half-year has helped him to perform these tasks even better than if he had never met me. As we catch-up in general in our sessions it has just been really nice to hear about him keeping gradually more busy and getting out there making his dent in the world, especially when compared with when we first met, Harry having just finished college, and our sessions were one of the few things he was getting up to. I’ve experienced the school to real-world transition myself (some many years ago now) and know that it isn’t easy.

As well as having a few more catch-up sessions where we have spent more time working through scenarios and “disaster planning” to try and build some adversity, Harry has also started doing his work-shadowing placements here at Zurich. Most recently Harry spent a session with the team in the post-room, learning a little about what they do and then helping them do their rounds of the offices (I’m sure Harry was also relieved to see some fresh faces after so many hours spent in the office with just me for company!). I took Harry down to the post room to meet Clive and the post team, and made sure both him and the post room team had my number if they needed me to come down for whatever reason, however having seen him cope with every obstacle I have thrown his way to date I was not at all surprised that this was not needed. I came back a few hours later to Harry still enthusiastically gabbing away to the team, as Clive informed me that he “had never learnt so much about Harry Potter before” (I guess I was only slightly surprised that Harry hadn’t yet moved on to discussions of the latest Doctor Who episode). More words from Clive below:

“I would like to say that Harry was an absolute pleasure to have for the short time he was with us. This is one of those things that I personally get as much from as Harry did, I probably learnt more from Harry than he did from me.”

Off the back of this blog I was recently asked to introduce a talk being given by Alex Manners in Zurich’s London Office for a Disability Inclusion Group Network Event. Alex is an absolutely charming young man with Asperger’s who is making a living detailing his experiences, with a long-term aim of one-day becoming a TV Presenter - which I fully expect this to happen by the way, at which point I will sell attached the photo of him and myself for millions (read more about him here: <thealexmanners.com>). 

Given that both young men have been diagnosed as being at certain points on the autistic spectrum, I would imagine that there are certain similarities in conditions, symptoms and shared experiences that they would both have, however one thing that I have always emphasised on this blog is that no one is defined by any condition or disability that they may have – we all have different areas where we may need more help than others. After spending the day with Alex I still stand by that completely, and in my introduction where I reflected on my experiences with Harry, I talked about the main similarity I saw between the two men being the inner resilience they both possessed – perhaps developed from having more hurdles in life to overcome than many.

And finally to finish off this month’s blog I will engage in a small piece of (relatively) shameless self-promotion. Harry’s mum was recently asked her thoughts on how she feels that Harry has found the mentoring so far and emailed this back to us:

“Harry seems more confident, especially with meeting new people and in travelling independently now… Today he was confident enough to take a packed lunch and spend 1 1/2 hours on his own in town waiting for his appointment with Pete today at 2.30pm - something which he wouldn't have done before the program began… I think Harry is more confident and especially now within a bigger office work environment. I want to personally thank you for accepting Harry onto the programme and also Pete for the positive help, support and kindness he has shown Harry… I would highly recommend this scheme to other young people and also encourage other mentors to get involved, as I think they would benefit from the experience too and gain insight into the difficulties young people with special needs have in gaining suitable employment.”

Full saccharine disclosure ahead: I very rarely get the opportunity to share feedback from work with my own mum, but the above comments were a rare occasion where I was thrilled Mum

“…And so I face, the final curtain”

#MyMenteeAndMe           #LoveVolunteering          #InspiringOthers          #LifeatZurich

Part 5: Team work on spaghetti tower!

I have had two more sessions with Harry since I last wrote – apologies for the delay since my last blog, life seems to have gotten in the way over the last couple of months! Reviewing the progress we have made so far (another benefit of the blogs is being able to actually reread what we have done instead of having to rely on a capricious memory – I am starting to understand why diaries are so popular!), it was great to review the goals we set back in our very first session to see what we have already achieved so far. 

Looking at what we achieved with Goal #1 (“CV Writing & Presentation”), Harry now has (in my humble opinion) a very solid CV as he looks for jobs going forward, whilst I would also like to think that the work we did there really helped instil the idea of “selling oneself”. We will go back to review Goal #2 (“Improve Interview Skills”) in a future sessions (so watch this space!), however I would like to think that Harry already learned a lot in the practice interview we did in our last session – that as well as the required skills that any specific job may need, the interview is also an important opportunity to show your potential future boss that you are the sort of character they wouldn’t mind spending 40+ hours a week locked in a room with.

So with Harry’s first two Goals “done”; moving down the list I started to plan for how we could start to work on his next goals. Goal #3 was “Improve Team-Working”, which I thought sounded like a fantastic opportunity to link up with some of the other mentees! I reached out to Jo Barry from Compliance, who is also Swindon-based and like myself has also been mentoring a young man on the scheme – John – since the summer. We agreed that this could be a fantastic opportunity for Harry and John to work on their team-working skills; so we arranged a joint session. The focus here wasn’t on the task, but on how our respective mentees could work together to complete an unusual activity under time pressure; so we decided to task them with constructing the tallest spaghetti tower they could in 20 minutes. (This blog feels like as good an opportunity as any to thank Jo for very kindly provided some strawberry laces, (dry) spaghetti, and Haribo instead of marshmallows due to a shortage – which it turns out isn’t as effective for constructing spaghetti towers, an important learning point to take forward in my career).

“Nervous” is too strong a word, however I was a little apprehensive beforehand as to see how Harry would react to a stressful situation where he had to work together with a complete stranger to complete a time-constrained task, however like Jack Bauer deactivating a nuclear warhead before the next ad break both guys remained calm and composed throughout. Aided by a mutual distaste for the giant spiders in the most recent episode of Doctor Who, they seemed to develop a good rapport quickly, where one of the main pieces of feedback that myself and Jo gave them afterwards was to make sure that they kept focusing on the task at hand and didn’t get too distracted by other things. Unfortunately their actual spaghetti tower could not be built too high (see pictures), and did fall short (pun intended) of their aim beforehand of “reaching the ceiling”; however it would be unfair to pin this on them as when I lent a hand I also found it very difficult to stick the spaghetti into the Haribo! When we evaluated the task with them afterwards, one of the main things we agreed on was that they could have benefited from developing more of a plan of action (and maybe even schematics) before they jumped right in on trying to attach pieces together – something I’m sure any good architect would agree with. Afterwards when it was just the two of us, Harry and I spoke about how if he had a good idea he shouldn’t be afraid to chime in with his own ideas, even if it went contrary to what the rest of the team was suggesting. I found out from Jo that John really enjoyed the activity as well, so we have agreed to do another team session in the New Year to apply some of the learning points here – watch this space!

My next session with Harry was slightly different format from the norm, as the fine people from ZCT had recently got in touch with me that as part of an initiative to encourage volunteering, they wanted to include myself and Harry as part of their 2019 video. I made sure to shower that morning (though I forgot to shave), and prior to Harry’s arrival some professional video guys interviewed me about my experience on the scheme so far; and then when Harry arrived they interviewed him – who I have to note was far more natural than myself on camera and even got to exhibit some of his trademark confidence to the film crew when
his answer to the question “Was there anything you were struggling with prior to taking part on this scheme?” was “No”. 

After the interviews the film crew then captured some footage of the two of us starting work on Goal #4 – “Dealing with setbacks” – where Harry and myself talked through a list of hypothetical workplace scenarios and what Harry’s response would be. I was very impressed by his sensible responses to most of these, and the main theme to the scenarios we had to discuss further were that your boss isn’t always going to be around, so escalating an issue isn’t always an option. I would like to think that the film crew caught some great footage of Harry here to help all of you see in action what I have been describing in all of my musings, so will let you know when this video is live in 2019 – hopefully the film crew were also kind enough to edit out all of the times I inadvertently broke the fourth wall!

Pete

#MyMenteeAndMe         #MentoringMatters         #LoveVolunteering        #LifeAtZurich

Harry takes to the interview floor!

To start off our most recent session we finished off the good start we had made on redoing the CV! Again I didn’t like calling it “homework”, but after our last session I had asked Harry to have a go at filling in the skills and abilities section by himself just so it would be a little more organic, as I wanted to make sure that although I was helping with the overall editing, that it was still Harry’s original words. After playing around with the wording on this section, we then reread through the whole thing until we were both pretty happy with the final product. Please see a picture of the new-look CV, I’d like to think that compared to his old one (pictured in the last blog) it still paints an honest picture of Harry while portraying him as a very employable young man with a lot to offer any company.With the CV on the back burner for now, it was time to focus on Harry’s second goal of the programme, “Improve my Interview Skills”. After some discussions in previous sessions it turns out that Harry had only done one interview before (for this programme), and that had been with his mum present, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to dip our toes out of the comfort zone waters (mixing up my metaphors there I think) and get some practice in!

For this practice I had enlisted one of the interns on my team (thanks again Ben! For payment feel free to use one of the photos of you looking professional here to update your LinkedIn) to be a quasi “interviewer”, while I sat in the corner and took some notes (given I am currently employed, by definition I must have passed at least one interview in my life and am therefore an expert). To simulate an interview environment more, we had him already sat down in another booth until he called Harry (and myself in), whilst since Harry had already talked in the past of his desires to potentially work in admin in the future, I had sent Ben over a list of job interview questions which were mainly office/admin-related.


As I have mentioned before, one thing that has always impressed me about Harry is his confidence, as he didn’t come across at all nervous for what must have been a very novel experience when meeting Ben. In fact this confidence maybe came across a little too strong at one point, on being asked the standard interview question “Do you have any weaknesses?”, Harry answered with a flat “No.” leaving poor Ben awkwardly having to move on to the next question whilst I stymied some giggles.


They interviewed together for a good 10 minutes before I decided to draw thing to a close, and give Harry some feedback on some points for improvement (there is also a photo of these notes here, for those brave/foolish enough to try and read through my scribbles). My first bit of feedback was the importance of body language, to really try and “fill the room” as you enter (apologies for the corporate jargon) by introducing yourself, giving some eye contact (but not too much that it gets creepy – this interview was on Halloween) and a firm handshake – for those wondering, in one of the photos of my giving feedback to Harry that is me gesturing a nice firm handshake! 

Harry had also been subconsciously fiddling with his lanyard for much of the interview, as one of the world’s worst fiddlers (just ask any of my primary school teachers) this is definitely something I could relate to, but I tried to explain to him that if he does need to do something with his hands to try and keep it below the eye-line of the table so as not to cause too much of a distraction to others in the room. (Though one huge advantage for us fidgets in this increasingly globalised/technologised world is that the increasing prevalence of Skype interviews means we can sit on our hands without it looking weird.)

Another takeaway was the importance of examples, as with the weaknesses question I explained that it is extremely rare that interviewers will be looking for a one word answer; but here I think that this is naturally something that will become easier for Harry the more he has interviews and starts experiencing the same questions again and again. And with this, I also emphasised that it is important that each example is relevant to the job being interviewed for and will make you come across more employable. For example on getting a more abstract question on what his favourite biscuit is, Harry started talking about how he always helps his mum with the shopping to get his favourite chocolate biscuits, this was all great to show he has a personality but probably wasn’t too relevant to the question at hand. 

The final takeaway (similar to another one we covered when working on the CV) was to always sell yourself! For example when being asked about his hobbies Harry mentioned he likes playing the piano in passing, but neglecting to mention how regularly he practises and that he performs sometimes – skills I wish I could add to my CV. He mentioned his punctuality but said he was on time for our meeting today because his bus is never late – both underplaying the input needed from him needed to get to the bus stop before this and the nerve needed to put ones faith in the reliability of British public transport. As with the CV work, Harry has a lot to offer any potential employer so it is just important that we help them see that. But overall I was extremely impressed, he was calm and confident throughout and you never could have told this was his first ever solo interview. We are going to do another practice interview a few sessions from now to measure how he has progressed in his interview skills, I hope you’re excited as I am to see the improvements.

Pete

#MyMenteeAndMe  #MentoringMatters  #LoveVolunteering #LifeAtZurich 

Harry hits the CV high notes!

Let’s kick things off from the last blog’s cliff-hanger ending (up there with Empire Strikes Back) – the CV! 

Back when he was in college Harry had worked on a rudimentary CV as part of a job skills module. Although it had a good skeleton and covered some of the basics, it wasn’t doing a good enough job of selling him. I explained to Harry that some employers may be looking through hundreds of CVs, and even something as simple as adding a splash of (Zurich) blue to the trim and making the prose run a little better can really help it to stand out. For those with good enough eyesight to read my handwriting, you will see my comments to “Embellish!” and “Sell Yourself!” in certain parts. Some of it was simple formatting, of which I would like to think I am somewhat of an expert after submitting hundreds of CVs of myself, each one slightly tinkered, when applying for graduate jobs.

I would probably class myself as the sort of person who can be a little cynical when browsing LinkedIn for the way some tasks have been seriously “embroidered”; however I would argue that this is not the case here at all. Harry had got some great experience when working in his college’s library, organising all of the book shelves and helping with any ad-hoc admin tasks – so it was simply a case of making this apparent and showing what a crucial role he played in these tasks.

Moving on to the “About Me” section, and while Harry was listing some of his skills, there were a few more that I had picked up on even after just a few hours with him: he is very punctual and has a very good attention to detail; while his memory is also excellent, remembering aspects of our first coffee together that had slipped my mind! His current CV mentions that he plays the piano, though upon asking him a little more about it, it turned out that he has been playing diligently for years and even performs sometimes – I am sure I don’t need to elaborate on the countless great soft skills that this requires. Another trait that he has is both very employable, and great to see from my perspective, is that he has great self-confidence.

Before our first session together he had to complete a “Mentee Survey”, which asked him about things such as his confidence and self-esteem, and how he felt about his future; he will fill this in at the end of the mentoring programme where hopefully we can observe some improvements. There are still areas he can score better on of course (as I’m sure there are for all of us), but one thing that is great to observe right off the bat is that he is already scoring himself highly on how he rates his natural skills and attributes right now. It is always great to see for an employer (and a mentor) someone that backs their own abilities, so this should serve him in great stead no matter what happens after this scheme.

As a final touch on the CV, we had his Skills and Abilities section. I don’t really like using the term “homework” here, but I also wanted this to be something that he went away and thought about himself (obviously welcome to discuss more with his parents), without me putting words in his mouth too much. So for this last section I have asked him to go away and have a best stab at completing it himself, and then we will finish it off next time. Watch this space, and you should see the completed first draft of Harry’s CV in the next blog!

Although the bulk of our last two sessions have been taken up with working through his CV, we also had some time to talk about what current other areas he is not that confident in, that could potentially be a detriment in the workplace. As I mentioned in my last blog, Harry doesn’t like loud noises and enjoys his own peaceful area to get work done, while he was concerned that his communication skills with others could be a little muddled at times. Together we went through a list of the four different types of “noise” he could encounter in the workplace, and tactics he could use to combat these to make sure that he understands what the other person is trying to communicate to him, and so that he can communicate effectively with others. These are physical noise – and how there is nothing wrong with asking someone to repeat themselves if ambient noise is too loud; physiological noise – and how he just needs to remember to not talk too quickly when there is a whole plethora of information he is trying to get out all at once (this is something I have needed help with myself in the past so can definitely relate!); psychological noise – tactics to help him collaborate and try and reduce his pre-conceived notions if someone offers an alternative (and maybe better) idea, for when he is working in a team in the future; and finally semantic noise – we talked about how there is nothing wrong with asking someone to repeat themselves if you weren’t 100% sure what they actually meant. Harry also mentioned that he can be very sarcastic with people (especially if he’s frustrated) so I explained that sarcasm is often not something often appreciated in the workplace – especially if the other person may also be frustrated.

After CV writing, one of the skills him and his mum were most keen for him to work on (and one of the most important in terms of employability full stop), was interview technique, so in my next blog I will be writing all about our practice interview, where I got a generous colleague to pretend to be an interviewer for a fake job for 15 minutes!

Pete 

#MyMenteeAndMe #InspiringOthers #MentoringMatters #LoveVolunteering #LifeAtZurich

Let me introduce Harry

Firstly before I get started on my second blog, I just want to say a massive thanks for the huge amount of acknowledgements I received after my first blog. When it comes to the art of journalism, I am hardly Samuel Pepys (not even Adrian Mole) – so really value all the feedback I am getting. And with that being said, I can very much appreciate that blogging can be a bit of a closed-loop dialogue wise, so always welcome any suggestions, whether that is an aspect of the scheme or my relationship with my mentee that you would like to hear more about, or even some ideas of what I could do to help him more – as that is always the #1 priority here.

Time to introduce you to my mentee! He is a 19 year young man called Harry, he is from Swindon and he finished college in the summer. Harry is on the autism spectrum, however I won’t be talking too much about his “disability” over the course of this blog, unless I feel it is directly relevant to the matter at hand and might help shed some light on the experience of those with disabilities both looking for jobs, and their experience when they are already employed. This is because I don’t feel that anyone should be defined by their disability, yes Harry may have additional requirements and may find some things more challenging (as many of us do to a greater or lesser extent), however he is a human being first and foremost before he is a walking condition.

We were mutually introduced over email with a quick fact sheet to get to know each other, it turns out we are both big movie fans – it was a great icebreaker on our first meet-up talking about the new Avengers movie – while Harry also enjoys swimming and playing the piano. We had to hold off on our first meet-up for a few weeks while he was busy sunning himself on holiday, though I’m sure he would have much rather been in Swindon working with me! We arranged a time for him to come over to the office for us to grab a coffee for our initial meeting; Harry had asked if his mum could come for the first time which was understandable as he was a little nervous, and his profile had stated that he can feel a little uncomfortable when doing things that are a break from the routine, such as meeting new people. At first it was mainly his mum and myself chatting, as he did seem a little shy and would reply to her instead of talking to me directly, however his mum was excellent at pushing him to talk to me and answer my questions. I explained to the two of them more about the scheme, how Harry and myself would be meeting regularly over the next 6 months to work on his employability skills, though there wasn’t a set structure and we had a lot of scope to work on the skills that we wanted to. After around 25 minutes I could tell that Harry was starting to get tired out by the meeting, so we made our arrangements for our next meeting and then I let him and his mum get on with their day.

Harry came back to meet up with me a fortnight later by himself. I found out when he got there that this was his first time taking that bus route by himself (he had practised it on the weekend before with his parents), which made me feel proud that this scheme was already starting to take a small part in improving his independence and confidence (not that I am taking any credit myself for that particular aspect!). Although he was further out of his comfort zone being there alone, he was noticeable more confident and talkative this time, which is something I hope that we can continue to see him build on over the months. We grabbed a small pod, this was quite near the lifts and it was quite loud – his notes had mentioned that he liked a calm, quiet environment, though again he did admirably being able to focus well.

To start with, we went through his “Getting to Know You” form – this was a set of questions on the topics on his personal development, self-esteem, aspirations for the future, life satisfaction, and his overall health and wellbeing. This is a document that Volunteering Matters have asked to be completed at the start of the scheme, and once again at the end to help measure our progress. We spent the majority of our first session going through his answers. One thing that is great to see is that he is very confident in his own abilities and will always “back himself” (I wish I'd had that confidence myself as a teenager!). While some areas that he scored himself lowly on were his ability to work in a team and cope with problems. Although certain roles offer the opportunity to avoid those aspects, I talked him through some examples of where collaborating and crisis-management can be unavoidable in any job, from bomb-disposal to quarter-end reporting (I will leave it to yourselves to find any similarities there).

Towards the end of the session we talked about what he wanted to get out of the scheme, and something that him and his mum had both mentioned was his CV. I will leave that with a very dramatic “To be continued…” and will document our experiences working through his CV in Blog #3!

Pete 

#MentoringMatters #LoveVolunteering #MyMenteeAndMe #LoveZCT #LifeAtZurich

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone. I have signed up to the “Inspiring Young Disabled People” 2018 scheme and, for the next few months, I will be documenting my experiences in this blog. For those who aren’t aware, last year the Zurich Community Trust in partnership with Disability Inclusion Group (DIG) got involved in a work shadowing programme with the charity Volunteering Matters. This programme was set up across the UK with the aim of breaking down barriers to hiring disabled employees, while also improving the confidence and career aspirations of young disabled people. Young people were matched with mentors across six Zurich offices, who will help them to think about their career opportunities, build their confidence and aspirations, and open their eyes to the world of work.

The scheme was a resounding success, with 90% of mentees reporting and increase in confidence, 84% said they felt they had developed new skill, and 100% had enjoyed the projects. There were also huge benefits for the mentors, with 93% having a better understanding of the barriers young disabled people encounter. 92% also felt that the experience had helped reduce barriers around working with disabled people, and 100% felt #Proud to tell others they are part of Zurich! With these incredible metrics, The pressure is really on us 2018 mentees to try and have a similar impact – and from talking to some of them already I am positive it is one that they (and fingers crossed maybe myself) can rise up to!

For those who are going to be reading my ramblings over the next few months, I thought you may be interested to find out a little more about me (for those that aren’t, feel free to skip this paragraph). Disability has always been a topic very close to my heart. When I was a teenager, I took on a Saturday job working for Disability Challengers, a charity based in the South East that provides play centres and activities for young people aged 2-25. As I got older, I used the expertise I had gained to set up my own network of parents with special needs children in order to work as a babysitter. This could often be for parents who hadn’t had the chance to have an evening out in years, simply because there wasn’t anyone else with the skills and confidence to handle their sometimes more demanding children in a 1:1 setting. I then had a gap between graduating university and starting at Zurich where I spent a year working at a primary school as a Special Educational Needs Teaching Assistant. I worked 1:1 with some children on the autistic spectrum who needed a little bit of extra help with reading and writing in the classroom. So, when I started looking at graduate schemes, one of the big selling points of Zurich was how active it’s charity arm, Zurich Community Trust was, and since then I have loved the opportunity to get actively involved in these schemes away from my day job. This includes abseiling off the tallest structure in the UK and fundraising for my team’s summer challenges. 

I joined Zurich on the graduate scheme back in the summer of 2016 (how the time has flown!), and I became actively involved in DIG as its working lead at the start of this year. The opportunity to combine three of my four biggest passions: Zurich, Disability, and volunteering (haven’t found a way to weave Portsmouth FC into this yet but watch this space!) felt like something too good to be true. Yet, I have loved every minute of it so far this year despite the extra work and time commitments. I have relished the opportunity to get involved in various Zurich schemes, helping to sustain our recognition as the first Disability Confident Insurer. The chance to get involved in a programme like the mentoring one, which acts more at the “ground level” of the issue, is a really exciting one. Though it is a little nerve-wracking to be in a position of such responsibility for an individual who is potentially more vulnerable.

I have my first meet-up with my mentee next week, so I will be talking about that some more in my next blog. I have never been a mentor before, nor have I ever blogged my experiences (let alone through a platform that will be read by others), so this will be somewhat of a novel experience for myself as well!

If you have any questions or feedback about this blog or the scheme, please get touch with me on email or Yammer, or just say hi if you see me about! I promise I don’t bite (even if it might look that way before the morning coffee has hit the system).

Pete       

        #LoveVolunteering       #MentoringMatters        #LoveZCT       #LifeAtZurich