Ella M
BSocSc in Sociology
Ella is an Operation’s Officer at The Carbon Literacy Project. She graduated from Manchester with a BSocSc in Sociology in 2024. Here, she talks about what she does now and how she got there following her time at Manchester.
My current role and how I got there
As an Operation Officer, my main responsibility is to review and accredit Carbon Literacy courses developed by companies and universities and critically evaluate the courses.
I am also responsible for the annual development, collection, analysis and presentation of The Carbon Literacy Project’s DEI data.
My course helped set me up for my career path by allowing me to be trained in Social Research Methods – a skill many companies want and need to help understand and improve their workforce/client base.
In my current role, I was asked to collect diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) data for the whole company, compare this data to previous years and present it to senior members of staff. I couldn’t have done this without the in-depth training I received from the Sociology department at University of Manchester.
Studying Sociology has also helped me to become more confident in arguing my ideas and perspectives in seminars, allowing me to speak up in meetings with senior team members and suggest new ideas.
My experience at Manchester
I was looking for a Sociology course which was over 30% research methods and had modules which covered lots of different topics. I also had a look through previous years’ university league tables for Sociology and noticed that University of Manchester was consistently at the top end of the list. I also had a look at the modules listed which matched up pretty well to the areas of Sociology I am most interested in.
I had no idea about the career that I am in now and didn’t know what I wanted to do after university for much of the time I was a student. Due to this I knew that it was really important for me to do work experience in lots of different fields to figure out what I did and didn’t enjoy and to develop key skills needed for the workplace.
When I was in my second year, I applied to the 10,000 Black Interns scheme and was placed at The Carbon Literacy Project and really enjoyed the work I was doing and was offered a full-time position after graduating.
The UoM careers service also has fantastic resources which can help with preparing interviews, writing cover letters and accessing help for bursaries when undertaking unpaid internships.
The most surprising takeaway from my course which has helped me has been connecting with academics in areas of Sociology which interest me the most, learning how to produce literature reviews (a skill which comes in handy more frequently than you’d think) and learning how to process large sets of data using SPSS.
I also met my best friends and housemates on my course – It’s great to have friends on your course that can support you and vice versa.
My advice for future students
My advice to future students is that Sociology is such a diverse subject with so many areas, find out what you like and read as much as you can around it! Also, don’t be afraid to speak to your lecturers, they have office hours for a reason – use them! Manchester is an amazing city with so much to offer, have a wander around and you’ll find something you’ll enjoy.
Don’t let people convince you that it isn’t worthwhile studying Sociology, it gives you a unique understanding of society coupled with skills to analyse different groups using research methods. If you work hard the opportunities for Sociology graduates are endless.
If you’re like me and don’t know what you want to do, that’s ok – just try to get as many experiences as you can. These don’t always need to be related to a job – you’ll hear something (a role or field) that you like the sound of, research it, and it could lead somewhere!