Applying
It took me three years to apply for the Rising Stars programme. The first year, just the title put me off. To identify myself as someone who was a star seemed quite big headed! The second year, I opened the application and the yes/no tick box question “Have obtained consent from your relevant manager to apply for the Rising Stars programme?” was enough for me to close Word. The idea of me asking my manager if I could be considered a star seemed laughable. In the third year, two things were different.
1. I attended the International Water Association Young Water Professionals Conference 2019 and met the 2019 Rising Stars. They were a lovely group of people who seemed like really good friends, I thought how great it would be to have a bunch of friends at the same point of their careers as me but all around the UK. We had a bit of a minibus ride to our site visit and they asked if I had considered applying, as well as giving me strong encouragement. What’s the worst that can happen?
2. I was also attending a Springboard for Women training course part time with the University of Sheffield. One of the exercises was to visualise some goals for the future. I explained to my peers at the course about the programme and my concerns but they strongly encouraged me to apply. Why discount yourself- let other people to do that if it’s going to happen!
With the encouragement of both of these groups, I decided to finally complete my application. And that’s how I ended up driving home early from my holiday at Stonehenge on my birthday at stupid o’clock in the morning to go to an interview at Anglian Water’s Thorpewood House!
When asked in later years if the name of the programme should be changed, I strongly disagreed. I think, if I wasn’t confident enough to so much as apply to the programme, then I wouldn’t have been confident enough to make the most of the programme. To ask the leaders of the sector the hard-hitting questions and so on, I would have shied at the back instead.
How were my expectations different?
I thought the programme would all be planned for me but actually you did a lot of the planning yourself. I’ve never sat there before and thought what companies do I know nothing about? Where do I want to visit? This might be something that gets changed up a bit in future, though.
But apart from this, I got everything I was hoping to from the programme. Especially if you compare my application with the below.
Best bits
So my blog posts go into detail about all the different events I’ve attended but what I have got from the overall programme?
My involvement in the interviews for the 2022 Rising Stars- I had never been involved with an interview process before.
Making the group of friends from all different areas. I always know I can turn to them if I need help.
To meet people from different companies and different areas to better widen my networking pool. In the water sector, there are much more than only water companies, there is a multitude of consultants, supply chains and more. I feel like the programme has helped me reach out to these people and expand my vision about the paths that my future water industry career could take.
It has really grown my wider network. I’ve met with lots of Directors, CEOs and similar. This has really made me see that we’re all human! I think one which really stuck in my head was the informal chat with Liv Garfield.
The confidence to just email someone in the water sector and say I’m interested in what you do, can you please tell me more or can we please have a virtual coffee. This is something I am still working on but I never would have even considered it before.
