WGSU’s Girl Power
You may have met our CEO out and about around campus. She often has pink hair and wears amazing dresses but she spends a lot of time at her desk tackling budgets and strategic plans and other very serious things. She originally wrote this blog for NUS about her career in students' unions. Could this be you?
I love students’ unions, I love working for them and I love what the stand for. I’ve spent most of my career working in them and I’d like to think that this is something which will continue for a long time.
My first experience of a students’ union was when I was at university and I became a Course Rep and later a Faculty Rep with a seat on Student Council. I gained a lot of confidence through doing those roles as a student; the training and support offered by my students’ union made me feel very welcome and valued. The following year I ran for a position as a sabbatical officer and became Education Officer (vice-president) for the 2008/09 academic year. The skills and experience I gained from being a sabbatical officer definitely set me up for heading in the right direction with my career.
Since 2008 I’ve worked in students’ unions except for 18 months somewhere in the middle. I fancied a change and wanted to see what else was out there. Suffice to say I headed back as soon as I could.
When I came back to the movement in 2015, it was to Wrexham Glyndwr which is where I am now and I honestly couldn’t ask for a better job and a better team of people to work with. There’s something special about students’ unions that is rather difficult to articulate, but the culture, behaviours and support are the best I have ever come across. In my team at Glyndwr, whilst I might be the ‘CEO’, there aren’t the behaviours you’d expect from the usual hierarchical structure; I like to think that I guide, support and nurture my staff rather than instruct them on how things must be done. I regularly ask my team for help too, I sometimes make mistakes, and that’s ok because who doesn’t?!
Working in students’ unions has allowed me to grow and develop in a way which I never thought I could…I was the first in my family to go to University and never dreamed of becoming a CEO with an MBA by the age of 33, but thanks to students’ unions, looks like I am!
So what I’m saying is simply, don’t write students’ unions off as a quick stop gap for employment whilst you look for a ‘real job’, these are real jobs, they’re careers with fulfilment, development and with some of the most amazing, diverse people you could wish to meet.
- Sarah Ellis, CEO
