Name: Lassie
Course: Masters in Career Development and Coaching Studies

"If there is a change, find the chance and just do it." Lassie summarises to us her reflection upon her career journey.

Last month I was pleasantly surprised to be contacted by Centre for lifelong learning communication team. My time studying at Warwick CLL is one of the most remarkable memories of my life. I am very grateful for being given the opportunity to reminisce about my precious study experience and share my new career story after graduating from CDCS (Career Development and Coaching Studies).

Before starting the storytelling of my ‘Chapter 2’ in China, I recalled writing an article called ‘The Courage to Stop My 'Perfect' Career Life’, when I had just come back to my hometown for four months in 2021, still revelling in what I had achieved in the UK and having just taken up a position as Learning and Development Supervisor at a French company Sodexo. The qualification of CDCS and the global reputation of Warwick as a ‘door opener’ helped me to be recognised in the Shanghai job market. Time has flown, I have returned to the ‘battlefield’ for almost two years and was promoted to a new position Learning and Development Manager at the beginning of 2022. There have been a lot of changes not only in my role but also my working environment and my mentality. Change, as always, is the central theme of my story. And embracing change is an everlasting subject that every CDCD student should be committed to studying throughout their professional lives.

During my first year in my new company, I devoted myself to the management trainee programme. This was a six-month new graduate talent development programme, aiming to help Generation Z employees smoothly transfer to workplace roles from the college environment to better nurture them to become entry-level managers in the future. As one of the youngest team members of the L&D team who had just back to the ‘office world’ from ‘wonderland’, I was nominated as the programme leader to oversee the whole circle from the entrance activity, training session design, on-job coaching arrangement to final performance evaluation. The knowledge I learned from CDCS, especially the classic theories and systematic training design methodologies empowered me to innovate new courses which I was not capable to do in the past.

Lassie facilitating employee engagement activity

The most valuable thing I contributed to this programme is that I involve the topic ‘Career Development as a learning module for the students. I designed a workshop named ‘Discover Your Career path & Your competency’ to guide them to realize their strength and have a basic understanding that there will be multiple choices and long journeys to adventure in their lives. The training content was based on Donald Super’s life span, Schein’s career anchors and Holland’s vocational personalities and work environments, which are the key concepts I learned from CDCS. Two years ago, I absorbed these classical theories like an ignorant sponge, and now I use this knowledge to help local young people. In addition, the academic knowledge underpins my confidence in training and helps in influencing peers to accept my ideas.

As I continued to push myself to enhance my capacity, some organisational change happened in my department. My boss left the company the next year, I had to wear two hats for a long time. The opportunity was good for me to explore new areas I have never stepped into before and gain more chances in building relationships with key stakeholders. However, the unique chance also got me through the anxiety. I was aware that it was a ‘Transformation process’. I observed my feeling and went through a brief period of depression. After having a transparent conversation with my department head, I received feedback about what is the essential knowledge and competence I should equip myself with if I wanted to be a qualified training expert. In the following months, I successfully delivered the Diversity & Inclusion training inside the company and shared my story when participating in the BAME project at CLL. Also, I established the company's internal trainer system which offered teaching opportunities to all the employees if they had the expertise to share in the organization. The module ‘Career-related learning’ empowered me how to prepare for the TTT (Train the trainer to train) session.

Lassie delivering train the trainer session

If I were to give some suggestions to those who are studying at CDCS today or are planning to come to CDCS, I would say make career development theories a part of your life. These theories are not just tools for you to use in the workplace, they are like a ship that carries you through every time your life changes. They will even navigate you through periods of confusion. Not just to study the course, but to feel them based on your own narratives. After graduation, I witnessed some of my cohorts embark on their new journey as career-related practitioners, my friend Evgeny in class 2019 is one of them. I am so proud of him to seize the chance to have a transformation in his career life.

The biggest challenge I faced when studying at CLL was that I didn’t have many British local friends as others do. Therefore, I participated in a volunteer group, made Valentine's Day cards for disabled people, and visited them in the community near Warwick. I did have a wonderful time with these nice people every time. Participating in community activities can not only give me the opportunity to integrate into society and make friends but also help others. For those oversea students, I would like to strongly recommend you join local community activities. This will help you to build up connections with local people and benefit your career development studies. As far as I know, many CDCS students’ coachees for the assignment was from our own community.

Recently I have been receiving a lot of private messages on the LINKEDIN website from people who are interested in CDCS. They are also very curious about whether they are the right person to come on this course or not. For me, each module in CDCS has helped me to start focusing on myself and to be more empathetic towards others. I would say that it doesn't matter if you are overseas or if you have studied a different profession in the UK, whether it is in Sociology or Human Resources. If you want to understand yourself better and have a theoretical basis for interacting with people in your future workplace, or communicating at home, studying at CDCS could be the treasure in your life.

In the spring of 2022, Shanghai experienced a three-month-long strict lockdown. Many of our scheduled training programmes were cancelled. But we are stronger to face the change with experienced online teaching skills and better resilience. In the past three years, regrettable things have been staged in every corner of the world. I think the only thing we can do is to retain hope for ourselves in development, keep learning new things, be nice to everyone we encounter every day, and expect a new spring to come. For myself, I wish one day a global career development access will come to my life, then I will tell you my next chapter story.

Find out more about our courses in Career Development and Coaching studies here.