Our new ‘Meet the Team’ feature will give you a glimpse into the people behind Careers and how their work contributes to the breadth of exciting projects and opportunities, we provide to help develop your employability.  First off, meet Irena,

1. Name

Irena Zientek

2. Job Title

Information Resources Manager

3, How long have you worked in Careers at York and what did you do before you worked here?

13 years. Previously, I was Careers Information Officer at the University of Huddersfield Careers Service.

4. What do you do in a typical day in your job?

My working days are varied and busy. There’s the inevitable over-flowing email inbox, so lots of messages to handle, actions arising to undertake and information to disseminate.

Internal and external meetings tend to be in the mornings and include catch-ups with Information Team, updates with other colleagues working on the latest projects and meetings with partners outside Careers.

Being the Information Resources Manager, I’m responsible for the enquiry handling service and the information provision (mainly via the Careers website). This requires planning the next information projects and developments, as well as overseeing the procedures and systems for the Information Desk. I also identify gaps in information provision and work on updating and developing the web pages.

I line manage the Information Team, so personnel issues (such as catch-up meetings with individual team members and planning the team’s workload) play a part in my regular work.

Along with two of my Information Team colleagues, I conduct one-to-one Careers Information Appointments with students and graduates. I also help staff the Information Desk during vacation times and handle initial enquiries (via face-to-face, email and telephone).

These are just a few of the tasks and responsibilities involved in my job and it’s the variety and fast-pace nature of the work that I love.

5. What do you enjoy most about your job?

• The variety of tasks and responsibilities – no two days are quite the same
• My work colleagues – they’re helpful, hard-working and great fun
• Helping students (sounds corny, but it’s true!)

6. If you could do any job in the world what would it be?

Unfortunately, there’s no such job as ‘professional tea drinker’ (and tea taster doesn’t count). So, I’d either be a wildlife warden/ranger (particularly if it involves bird watching), because I like to observe wild animals’ behaviour or a military historian / researcher, as I’m particularly interested in this subject and being an info bod, I like digging out information.

7. What are you…

• Watching? Inside the Animal Mind (BBC 2 documentary, presented by Chris Packham) shedding light on animals’ thinking and The Musketeers for some good swashbuckling fun!
• Reading? I’ve two books on the go at the moment: Brother Cadfael’s Penance by Ellis Peters (a medieval whodunit) and An Army in Exile by General Wladyslaw Anders (the WWII wartime memoirs of this Polish Army General).
• Listening to? An eclectic mix of genres including: The Waterboys, JS Bach’s Brandenburgh Concertos and Gordon Giltrap (guitarist extraordinaire).