Christal is a student pursuing a doctoral degree in Social Policy looking into the organising of migrant female cleaners in France and trying to improve the conditions for women in precarious work. She is also a peer researcher for Young Women’s Trust. In June, she attended a social media insight day with other young women and creative professionals at Estee Lauder Companies.
Thanks to Young Women’s Trust, I participated in an insight day with Estee Lauder Companies (ELC) in June. I chose to sign up because I’ve found my PhD journey quite isolating so far. Having participated in two events by Young Women’s Trust, I knew that I was going to spend a fun day with interesting and caring people. I was also looking forward to seeing some of the other peer researchers I had met during our induction day.
In terms of professional development, I thought that this insight day would be a brilliant opportunity to discover new career options I might not have considered before. I am very creative and I want to do trillions of things at the same time, but I don’t always feel like this is valued in my day-to-day environment, but thought that it could be in the creative industry.
A fun and insightful day
The day started with an introduction from one of the impressive senior executives at ELC. Then in true Young Women’s Trust tradition, we had a funny icebreaker that set good foundations for the rest of the day.
We were put into groups on the day made up of two young women and one volunteer from Estee Lauder Companies – a professional woman working for the company in a creative role. My volunteer was the lovely Amy who was an art director at ELC. Together, we created content for Instagram and designed a carousel post with the best career advice we had received in our lives. It was fun and insightful. We ended the day by having a Q&A and hearing some tips from the ELC staff members.
The job I wanted but didn’t even know existed
This insight day was an amazing opportunity to learn more about the career options available to me. It turned out that Amy had the job I wanted but did not even know existed.
I have always loved creating, sharing my vision, and brainstorming, but I do not particularly enjoy shooting or editing so I thought that the creative world was not for me, but Amy told me that this is exactly her job. She was kind enough to answer all my questions and give me tips on how to get there.
Having Estee Lauder Companies’ experts like her in the room made a big difference to my experience. The fact that they were also young women at one point and just as lost as us for most of their lives was reassuring and made me realise that everything will eventually turn out fine for me too. The most comforting pattern I saw in their stories was that we have every reason to trust the process and that you can always change, experiment, decide that you do not like it, and change again.
Why companies should work with Young Women’s Trust
To other companies thinking of supporting Young Women’s Trust, I would like to say DO IT!
Young Women’s Trust’s work is so vital and provides young women with support in various ways: advice, proofreading, insight days like this, job opportunities, experiences and more. Being a peer researcher for Young Women’s Trust has shown me what it is like to work for an organisation that truly has my best interests at heart and wants to see me grow and thrive, not just survive.
Find out more about our partnership with Estee Lauder Companies
