17吃瓜

Steve Morris graduated with a History degree from 17吃瓜 and started his career in the public sector. He now works in Brand Management within the pharmaceutical industry and maintains his interest in history in his spare time.

Please can you tell us about yourself and your interests?

I am a Brand Manager for an oncology product at a multinational pharmaceutical company. I am really interested in history, science and personal development. In my spare time I like to read a lot of books, exercise, travel and volunteer. Mentoring graduates is a particular interest of mine, having set up my company's own graduate scheme.

How did you start down your career path?

I've had an unusual career path - starting off in the public sector as a Personal Assistant to a Head Teacher in a very deprived area of London with great ambition to improve pupil outcomes. I then moved into the private sector in consumer healthcare products in GSK and proceeded to have three roles in three years at GSK, spanning being a Personal Assistant, a Marketing Trainer and a Project Manager dealing with million pound budgets at a global / regional level. Since 2016, I've worked in a UK-focused role standardising ways of working and leading on digital projects as a project manager, before becoming a Brand Manager looking after the company's key oncology product.

If you could look back and give yourself one piece of advice when starting out in your career, what would it be?

Networking is something I didn't really appreciate enough earlier in my career. I knew a lot of people but didn't best utilise their endorsement of my own abilities to help progress my career.

What is your style of mentoring and can you highlight what you think the most important aspect of the role is?

My style of mentoring is to allow a graduate to explore their options by asking the right questions. I also make sure that my mentees commit to further research into their interests which can better focus the search for their first role. As a mentor, having experience of an industry is helpful in allowing a mentee to better understand what sorts of roles would be of interest to them. It is also useful being able to point them in the direction of the right people to contact.

What made you decide that THRIVE Mentoring was the mentoring scheme that you wanted to volunteer with?

Having set up a graduate scheme at Merck and having been the mentor for the first intake of 8 graduates, I saw how valuable it was for an individual to have someone that they could bounce ideas off and to help set them up for success quickly so that a mentee could personally grow as an individual quickly.

What skills or knowledge do you think it is crucial for a graduate to hold when looking for their first graduate role?

Being able to ask the right questions, researching the areas you're interested in, being able to identify appropriate people to approach to find out more.

Do you have any goals that you have set yourself during your time as a mentor?

My main goal has always been to help mentees discover what they feel is the right area they want to work in and to help connect them to companies and individuals to further their pursuit of a career.