Alumni Success Profiles: Kirsty Walden

(5 min read)

Name: Kirsty Walden

Current Role: Admissions Executive - Team Lead

Multiverse Apprenticeship: Project Management and Data Fellowship

What are the main responsibilities of your current role? 

My responsibilities include:

• Running the day to day of the Career Builders candidate assessment team.
• Developing our strategy and building operational efficiency to ensure that BAU runs as smoothly as possible.  
• Unblocking the team's time and solutionizing any problems that occur. 
• Analysing our data to develop efficiencies and build our strategy this includes analysing our team capacity from our forecasting data and identifying resourcing issues. 
• Managing a team of 5 associates ensuring they have direction and support in order for us to push through in making things happen for our candidates. 

What does a typical day in your role look like? 

I normally start my day with a team meeting to look at deals, application numbers and priorities of the day. The team will give updates and share challenges for us to problem solve together. Then I would catch up with the launch operations and sales team to discuss extensions and the state of client deals and how we can work effectively together. We look at the 'health' of the deal and its subsequent potential impact on admissions. I have a time blocked out for people to drop into a zoom and ask any questions they may have about eligibility, assessment, compliance, timeframes or support they may need, Lastly I always block out time to focus on work that will enhance and improve admissions process, team or the candidate process, whether that be project work or simple documentation creation. My day is a mixture of supporting the team, project work and then BAU.

What do you enjoy most about your job? 

I get to work with some real superstars (everyone is so kind!) and having that flexibility to really develop our process and assessment models is really exciting. There are so many things to work across and problem solve so everyday feels different and you're always challenged.

What are the challenging aspects of your role? 

Ruthless prioritisation, there is so much we need to change, enhance and deliver and when a lot of areas feel like they are on fire to solve it actually means that being able to have long term vision and understand what would break first and ensure we have sight of that can be hard in a fast moving company that is just breaking out of the startup phase. 

Why did this role/industry appeal to you? 

I have switched across industries previously (fashion to tech) but I needed to work at a company with a strong social impact and mission. Multiverse was the merger of tech and education and we are doing something new in the field of apprenticeships. It felt like they were disrupting the industry and I wanted to be a part of that change. 

The role appealed to me as it was a team that hadn't been established and didn't really have a process (I was the first person in my team, with my manager joining 2 weeks after me). It was a team in infancy and I liked that I could come in and curate the process. Putting those ideas across and being able to execute them pretty quickly.

What skills do you use and develop as part of your role? 

• Project and Stakeholder Management skills
• Clear and Effective communication 
• Leadership 
• Time management and fierce prioritisation 
• Data analysis 
• Critical and Creative thinking 
• Strategic thinking 
• Stakeholder management
• Researching and presenting skills 
• Problem solving and negotiation 

What are your future career plans?

Having completed my first Multiverse apprenticeship a year and a half ago I still continue to develop my skills through training and applied learning. As a part of my role, I try to use data as much as possible to inform our business decisions and strategy which has meant I have been able to develop my data skills. In future I want to expand on this, by building strategy for companies using data to inform better decisions around making social impact. A book I read called 'Invisible women' showed me the impact and power we could use if we collect, use and listen to the right data. I am still early in my career so I don't want to narrow down my options too much just yet :)

How did doing a Multiverse apprenticeship support your career journey? 

It was definitely a challenge when I took on the Project Management apprenticeship at a large digital transformation firm where I came in leading my own projects pretty early on in me starting at the organisation. It was daunting but my coach, MV mentor and the programme enabled me to step into the role and feel supported throughout. It has given me great transferable skills that I have been able to use directly  in my role in Admissions when delivering OKR work and project work.I wouldn’t have gotten my next job without doing the mentoring programme where I streamlined where my career path could go with my brilliantly matched mentor Isobel. She showed me that I had loads of transferable skills but I needed to have a mission to get behind first and join a company with a strong (friendly!) culture. She led me to Multiverse. 

What achievement are you most proud of since completing your apprenticeship? 

Since completing my initial project management apprenticeship I would say I am most proud of developing and scaling my team. We have grown from a team of 2 to now a team of 6 in the space of 4 months. It was no easy feat to hire so many outstanding people in the small space of time and get them onboarded and working on complex projects as well as BAU within a month! However it was such a proud moment and rewarding experience. 

Can you provide a brief history of your career journey since completing your apprenticeship? 

After completing my apprenticeship I remained at the company I had completed the apprenticeship with until my contract was complete which was for the last 4 months. During this time I worked with my Multiverse Mentor whom I got matched with and we worked on looking at other options as we both knew the place I was currently working was not the right fit for me. As she put it the role and company 'wasn't serving me', advice I keep with me today. So I looked at companies that I felt had strong mission statements and aligned with my values so I thought it was a long shot but took a look at the roles going at Multiverse. The Admissions role instantly stood out and the concept of developing assessment and smart matching models from scratch was exciting. I applied and have been here ever since! Coming upto just over a year now, where we started as a team of 4 only running in the UK to now have expanded into the US, the Admissions team is its own function and with 28 employees and still growing. 

What advice would you give to current apprentices who want to progress in a similar role? 

My advice would be to work on getting exposure across the industry, do your research and really understand the market and the kind of areas of assessments you would want to get into. The great thing about my role is that it gives me lots of great transferable skills that means I can flex across the different areas in the business. 

Two really broad key takeaways that can apply to anyone in any industry: 

1. Take time to focus on your personal development - dedicate real time and thinking for this as it will really pay off if you give the time for it  
2. Networking and remaining curious - Go and talk to that person across the room, book in a zoom coffee catch and understand their role. You never know what you can learn and bring into your team.