Bill Urquhart
The TedX society, time travel and teaching English are just some of the highlights from 2019 Philosophy alumna Bill’s time at the University
| Name |
Bill Urquhart |
| Degree |
Philosophy |
| Year of Graduation | 2019 |
Your time at the University
I chose Edinburgh in part because of a couple of lovely trips to the Fringe I’d made with my family as a teenager; and in part because of the University’s excellent reputation and facilities. It really was a lovely four years and the perfect amount of time to spend studying a degree. I know so many students studying at universities in England that would have loved to have had that extra year away!
There were lots of things that made it memorable. I think one of my favourite moments was joining the TEDx society and giving a talk at a large public speaking event. Oration was definitely never my forte, but pushing myself to do that was incredibly rewarding and I really appreciate the opportunity to have done it.
I also spent a very interesting month in China teaching English, which was a job I stumbled across on the University Careers page. I made some fantastic friends and got to work somewhere that I never thought I’d visit.
I can now appreciate just how cool the subject of Philosophy I got to write about was – Time Travel!
In hindsight too, a really underrated part of my degree was writing my dissertation. Being able to demonstrate that level of mastery over an albeit niche subject area was really gratifying. Additionally, I can now appreciate just how cool the subject of Philosophy I got to write about was – Time Travel! I think I’ll forever be smug about that.
Your experiences since leaving the University
My current role is as a Senior Account Executive and I work at an Ad Agency called Mindshare. Prior to this I worked for an agency called Performics, and prior to that, when I arrived home in London, I was slogging it as a waiter. No shade - it’s hard work.
I’d spent the summer of my second-year doing an internship for Publicis Media which had given me a brief experience of the marketing world. But what particularly attracted me to a profession in advertising was the opportunity to combine my creativity with logical thought.
In my final year, I decided to enter a student advertising competition called ‘the Nods Big Idea Award’ that I saw featured on the University Careers page, and I ended up being a finalist.
So armed with all that, a Philosophy degree, and some extra-curricular grafting material, in the autumn I began applying for some roles. Coming from a non-vocational degree like Philosophy was certainly difficult initially. For better or for worse, I was equally (un)qualified for almost everything. However, with a lot of persistence I landed my first in-person interview, and luckily, I ended up getting it!
In general, my job leans much more towards the technical end of advertising jobs because of the fact it’s so data driven. However, when I first got stuck in I particularly liked that. For me, it was crucial to gain some ‘hard’ skills to complement the soft skills I already had; so working with data every day and getting certifications all sounded great.
At work, every day is different, and I’ve got to work on some big names including: Europcar, Revolut, Asda, Vonage, and IBM. So despite having to work from home for almost all of my career so far, I’ve genuinely been really enjoying it.
Alumni Wisdom
I think the best thing that you can do to prepare yourself for the world outside University is to do things in addition to your degree. While a great cover letter or CV layout can get you some of the way, if an employer’s presented with 100 Humanities students with 2:1’s from Russell Group universities, you have to have something to set yourself apart.
So: make the most of all that free time you have, learn some skills, capitalise on your long summers, and check the range of opportunities on the Uni Career page from time to time. It’ll be worth it.