A Cambridge degree has always been bankable in terms of future employment, but in the current economic climate even the brightest of graduates could be faced with difficulty in breaking into the job market. Yet Amanda Sourry, the current UK and Ireland Chairman of Unilever and a former Cambridge student herself, could soothe troubled students’ minds with both her own success and the advice she has for current students.

Amanda studied at Sidney Sussex from 1981 -1985, reading MML (specifically French, German and Italian), and has very good memories of university:  “I loved my time in Cambridge, I still think of it as a very special time in my life”.  She tells me she felt being at Cambridge was a privilege, particularly “being in the company of so many talented people, memories of a very dedicated faculty and people who really instilled a passion for learning, and just a wonderful place”, urging current students to “make the most of your three years there!”

Amanda spent the customary year abroad of the MML course working as a teaching assistant in the Loire Valley in France, saying of the experience that “it was a time for growing, and an experience of work that I would not otherwise have had, but I think in a way I also missed being able to graduate with most of my year”, although after graduation she had no trouble finding a job within Unilever, the company she has stayed with for twenty-five years.

Despite this, she stresses that like many students facing the prospect of imminent graduation she had no real idea of what career she wanted to have until she returned from her year abroad and began her fourth year at university:  “I became really interested in consumer products and fascinated by marketing, particularly marketing in a global company, and also because I’d done languages I wanted to make sure I was part of a company that was really multinational”.

Although MML is not particularly related to the business environment in which Amanda has made her career in, she firmly believes in the importance of studying a subject that you have a passion for, advising those embarking upon the intimidating job search to “choose something you’re going to get up excited to do every day”.

In her second-year at university Amanda was the co-chairman of student RAG for Sidney Sussex, and this early involvement with moral responsibility is something she has maintained a passion for: Last year Unilever launched their Sustainable Living Plan, aiming to halve the environmental footprint of their products, help more than 1 billion people take action to improve their health and well-being and source 100% of their agricultural raw materials sustainably.

Any initiative with goals of this kind is going to prove challenging to fulfil and need a realistic approach to what can be achieved. The Sustainable Living Plan is something Amanda speaks of with pride, but she does also recognise the fact that such an initiative is going to face challenges :  “We don’t have all the answers: we’ve made these commitments and we’re measuring our progress towards them but we know we have to work with a variety of stakeholders”.

Marketing responsibility is also something that companies the size of Unilever need to consider, something that Amanda recognises: Unilever signed up to the Department of Health’s Public Health Responsibility Deal in March 2011 whilst brands such as Flora, which is owned by Unilever, make a conscious effort to keep the public better informed about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. She goes on to say that again compromise and a joint approach is the key here if any real difference is to be made to the public health issues present in the UK.

With all this in mind, Amanda’s advice for Cambridge students is to “spend time thinking about what it is that you really want to do, talk to people who have left in the last few years” and to “look for business that will really help you to grow, that will invest in your development and business where you will have real responsibility early”, recommending following up a degree with a graduate employment programme. Yet she told Varsity that the most important thing is to do something you are truly passionate about, stressing that “Growth is important: not only how you grow in a professional context, but how you grow as a person”.

Amanda Sourry will be speaking at the Yusuf Hamied Theatre in Christ’s College at 7-8.30pm on 9th November.