One of the first tasks we asked our interns to do was to write a profile blog to introduce themselves and share their message for employers. This is Yannis…

Hello!

My name is Yannis, I recently turned 23 years old and am a First-Class law graduate.

To date, my experience in business has been very eclectic. In 2018, I interned in the banking industry with Barclays (M&A team), the pharmaceutical industry with GlaxoSmithKline (brand protection) and the legal industry with Freeths LLP. Now I am excited to begin this six-week journey with Access Generation, which is the first social enterprise I have been involved with.

I studied law because I have always had a commercial mindset and wanted to see how business and law intertwined. Consequently, I excelled in modules like “Employment Law” and “Business Entities”, for which I won academic awards.

My ambitions for the future are very wide ranging, but for the purpose of this blog post I will narrow them down! During my previous experiences, I have shown myself capable of adapting to countless industries/high-pressure situations, often juggling multiple commitments. I also have a knack for identifying upcoming trends, which is why I created a YouTube channel when the site was in its infancy and subsequently gained over 12,000 subscribers and nearly four-million views before the site became “mainstream” as it is today. I believe my skillset (including an array of things that I haven’t disclosed here) will equip me for a leadership role in a medium or large company, within the next 6 years.

Another one of my ambitions is to uplift people from underprivileged backgrounds. There is a famous saying, “it’s not about what you know, but who you know” and in the future, I want to be somebody that people who know no-one can rely on to demonstrate their ability. The fact is, the talent is out there and sometimes people just need a platform to show what they can do.

I chose to intern with Access Generation because of the amazing work they’ve already done to identify “the gap” between education and the working world. There is a real problem out there, which I experienced first hand. For example, I had applied to one of the UK’s highest rated graduate-schemes and travelled over 200 miles (yes, literally) for an assessment centre, only to be rejected without feedback or any reimbursement for travel. Practices like this are unacceptable and there needs to be reform of the application process for many companies.

I am most excited to be running focus groups at my old university, where we will gauge the opinion that young people have of the application process of a variety of organisations. It is my hope that we can then use this data to make a positive change.

In the next 6 weeks I hope to develop my project management skills and foster good relationships with businesses all across the UK. Additionally, I want to provide Access Generation with a clear final recommendation of what businesses need to do going forward to create a win/win situation with young people seeking employment.

To any employers who may be reading this, I am a versatile individual with great analytical, communication, research and presentation skills. I’ve worked in customer-facing retail roles, research-based corporate roles, presented to senior executives at Sky/GSK/Barclays and worked part-time as a qualified lifeguard for two years. Put simply, I can adapt and excel in any situation.