What do you actually do?
A podcast from the Careers and Placements team, released every other week during UG semester-time.
Have you ever wondered what a particular job actually involves? Our podcast series What do you actually do? aims to help you find out.
What do you do all day? What skills do you need? How did you get the job? What advice do you have for students? Get the answers to these questions along with career inspiration, top tips and insider knowledge every other week during semesters when Kate Morris asks our guest, ‘What do you actually do?’
Each podcast is accompanied by a blog post with a full transcript of the episode and useful links to help with your research. You'll find the blog link for each episode in the podcast description.
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Latest episode
Media and Communications with Molly Watson
Listen as Kate chats to Molly Watson about her past life working as a BBC News Journalist and her recent career change. She currently works as a Media and Communications Officer focusing on the impact of food on climate change. In this conversation, they discuss the similarities and differences between journalism and a communications role, leaving your comfort zone and making a career change and also Molly's thoughts on what personal qualities are helpful for a career in journalism or communications.
Listen as Kate gets to the bottom of what Molly’s job looks like.
Molly's bio
I'm a media and communications officer working with Professor Sarah Bridle, communicating about the impact of food on climate change and how we can make our food system more resilient. Until a year ago I'd spent my career working in journalism, starting off in newspapers before moving to the BBC and working as a tv news producer.
Browse our previous episodes
We've organised our previous episodes into job sectors so you can find the episodes most relevant to you.
- Climate Communications Consultant: Cass Hebron
- Getting on a top grad scheme, with Lewis McDowell
- Marketing in the museum, with Tasha McNaught
- Running an advertising firm, with Luke D'Arcy
- Client Account Management in Advertising with Izi Hutchinson
Want to know more? Read our job sector information on advertising, marketing and PR.
- A career in corporate social responsibility, with Daniel Arda
- Making people's lives healthier, with Sam Thomas
- Pursuing your passions in the charity sector, with Cat Schroeter
- Working in international development
Want to know more? Read our job sector information on the charity and voluntary sector.
- All roads lead to film-making, with Richard Knight
- Executive producer in TV
- Film composer
- From lecture theatres to film sets, with Hannah Greig
- Getting involved with theatre, with John Tomlinson
- Historical consulting for video games, with Nicholas Gliserman
- Media and communications with Molly Watson
Want to know more? Read our job sector information about the creative industries.
- On the beat, with Ross Gehnich
- Prison Officer (Unlocked Graduate scheme) (Note: the Unlocked scheme has suspended recruitment for 2025.)
Want to know more? Read our job sector information about criminal justice.
- Bringing social media into The Economist, with Adam Smith
- Changing fast: working in agile project management, with Alison Critchley
- Digital archaeologist and entrepreneur
- Flirting with Algorithms, with Harpal Sahota
- From TV to tech, with Vivien Chung
- Historical consulting for video games, with Nicholas Gliserman
- Running a startup
- Starting a Startup, with Phil Daneshyar
- Summer Internship: Make it yours! with Julia Hebron
- Service Designer: Kate Every
Want to know more? Read our job sector information about digital, IT and cyber security.
- Being a project manager, with Laura Hallett
- From lecture theatres to film sets, with Hannah Greig
- How to train your teacher, with Sarah Dagnell
- Lecturing is the tip of the iceberg, with J.T. Welsch
- Managing a University, with Charlie Jeffery
- University widening participation officer
Want to know more? Read our job sector information about:
- Climate Communications Consultant
- Environmental Consultant
- Making a splash, with Tom Pagett
- Pollution is in the air, with Aiden Heeley-Hill
- Summer Internship: It's not easy being green, with Oscar Bentley
- Media and Climate Communications with Molly Watson
Want to know more? Read our job sector information about environment and energy.
- A career in corporate social responsibility, with Daniel Arda
- Changing careers: switching heritage for accounting, with Alice Yevko
- Financial services
- Life as a CEO
- Management consultant
- Service Designer: Kate Every
- Human-centred design in the cultural sector with Alyson Webb
Want to know more? Read our job sector information about finance and consultancy.
- Calling the Midwife, with Jessica Allason
- English grad to junior doctor: Graduate medicine and beyond, with Ian Henderson
- Exploring clinical science, with John Filby
- I ❤ Compliance, with Kate Pyle
- In and out the laboratory, with Stefan Sipika
- Life as a social worker, with Bethany Pease
- Making Medicine, with Tom Ronson
- Speech and language therapist
Want to know more? Read our job sector information about:
Want to know more? Read our job sector information on international development.
- Bringing social media into The Economist, with Adam Smith
- Climate Communications Consultant
- A day in the life of a BBC journalist, with Lucy Vladev
- Get into book publishing, with Helen Barton
- Investigative journalist
- Journalism researcher at the BBC
- Writing for a living, with Lewis Lansford
- TV Journalism, Media and Communications with Molly Watson
Want to know more? Read our job sector information about journalism and publishing.
- Consultant in the heritage industry
- Digital archaeologist and entrepreneur
- Marketing in the museum, with Tasha McNaught
- Senior Estate Manager - English Heritage
- Talking census: a career in genealogy, with Christina Copland
- Working in heritage: In the archive in lockdown
- Human-centred design in the cultural sector with Alyson Webb
Want to know more? Read our job sector information about museums and heritage.
- Civil Service Fast Stream
- Climate Communications Consultant
- Making people's lives healthier, with Sam Thomas
- Managing the economic growth of York, with Alex Dochery
- Placement year in a political think tank, with Andrew Gloag
- The Civil Service Science and Engineering Fast Stream with James Halpin
Want to know more? Read our job sector information about:
- Starting a Startup, with Phil Daneshyar
- How to make a portfolio career work
- Life as a CEO: running Cafédirect
- Running a startup
Want to know more? Find out about Enterprise support at York.
- From lecture theatres to film sets, with Hannah Greig
- Journalism researcher at the BBC
- Lecturing is the tip of the iceberg, with J.T. Welsch
- Making Medicine, with Tom Ronson
- Pollution is in the air, with Aiden Heeley-Hill
- In and out the laboratory, with Stefan Sipika
Want to know more? Read our job sector information about working in research.
We've recorded episodes with York students who have completed internships through York Internships and placements through the Placement Year Programme. We've also talked to graduates working on popular graduate schemes:
Internships
- Student Internship Bureau special
- Summer Internship: It's not easy being green, with Oscar Bentley
- Summer Internship: Make it yours! with Julia Hebron
Placement Year
- Placement year in recruitment
- Placement year in a political think tank, with Andrew Gloag
- Placement Year in the NHS
Graduate schemes
- Aldi Graduate Area Manager Programme
- Civil Service Fast Stream
- L'Oréal marketing programme: Getting on a top grad scheme, with Lewis McDowell
- Unlocked Graduate scheme: Prison Officer