Brandon’s story

Brandon, 21, joined City Year UK for his university placement. 

Find out how a year of volunteering helped him.

“At the start of City Year I was very shy and timid, I was very anxious about the year ahead and had not planned much for my life after university.  Over the year, I became more willing to step out of my comfort zone, taking on roles and challenges that I would not have done before.  I’ve become more confident in my public speaking, more willing to speak in front of bigger audiences. And I am a lot more organised! I plan everything a lot more thoroughly and in advance. 

“During the year, I faced many personal challenges – with the stress of preparing my dissertation for my final year at university – but I had a strong relationship with my impact officer, who I spoke to about my personal aspirations and he told me about his career journey. He inspired me. After university I am looking into a master’s degree in Sweden and I am learning Swedish. Our personal development training gave me even more motivation to push for my dream. We had external speakers come in and hold a ‘learning from leaders’ talk where I found out many of them had lived abroad, and their words have given me extra encouragement. Towards the end of the year we also had an interview skills day where  we had a mock interview with an external partner which I know will be extremely beneficial when my time comes to look for a full time job.”