Uni Work VS Work Life

It’s World Youth Skills today. 

To mark this date, we asked some of our Bink colleagues a few questions about their experiences in the world of work vs. university life, what they learnt in their first jobs, and which skills acquired at Uni proved to be the most useful.

reading working laptop black and white university vs working life

Richard Webb 
Legal Counsel

Richard Webb 
Legal Counsel


  • With the wisdom of hindsight, what advice or words of encouragement would you give your younger self in that first job? Think about how you can make yourself as valuable to the organisation as possible, as soon as possible, while maximising your skills – imagine yourself as a sponge soaking up every bit of experience and knowledge that you can!
  • What mentorship style worked best for you as a recent graduate starting your career? Continuous coaching from managers, as opposed to more infrequent check-ins, was key for me. I also found a mix of classroom-style training sessions and ­­on-the-job/practical learning was helpful, but getting the right balance wasn’t always easy.
  • How did you feel the skills you acquired in university measured up in your job? Ironically, the knowledge I developed during my law degree turned out to be of little use to me as a trainee solicitor in a commercial law firm. The most valuable skills I developed during my traineeship were a mix of soft skills (i.e, communicating effectively with colleagues and clients) and non-law related technical skills (i.e, knowledge of clients’ businesses and sectors). In hindsight, I wish I’d done a non-law degree in an area with more practical application, such as economics or history, followed by a one-year conversion course at law school.
  • Thinking back to your first job, what was the biggest shock about transitioning from university into working life? That people more senior than me had plenty of things to worry about other than my career – I quickly learned that I needed to take ultimate responsibility for my own development, rather than relying on opportunities to come to me.
  • And following from that, what was the biggest advantage? Other than a payslip? Not having to do exams anymore! And, more importantly, feeling like I was a valuable part of something bigger than myself on a daily basis. Working with others is so much more rewarding for me than the often-isolated academic lifestyle ever was.
Lucia Codreanu
UI Designer

Lucia Codreanu
UI Designer


  • With the wisdom of hindsight, what advice or words of encouragement would you give your younger self in that first job?  I would tell myself to not lose patience if something’s not turning out perfectly after the first try and that things take time and that’s okay.
  • What mentorship style worked best for you as a recent graduate starting your career? Any style! You can learn a lot from more experienced people – not only work-related stuff. I wish I had realised that earlier.
  • How did you feel the skills you acquired in university measured up in your job? Unpopular opinion, but I learned a lot from my time at university – from time management to social skills to actual theory about how we communicate and perceive visual information.
  • Thinking back to your first job, what was the biggest shock about transitioning from university into working life?  How laid back everyone was and how hands-on the design process is compared to what we were taught (or at least how I had imagined it to be).
  • And following from that, what was the biggest advantage? Other than a payslip? The opportunity to get to know the people you work with and learn more about them and their hobbies and interests, bonding over silly internet memes, getting to work on real-life projects, just to name a few.
Andrew Preen
Business Analyst

Andrew Preen
Business Analyst


  • With the wisdom of hindsight, what advice or words of encouragement would you give your younger self in that first job? Take on and build from feedback received. Listen to your gut before making decisions; it’s usually right. Every task and project you work on is a learning experience.
  • What mentorship style worked best for you as a recent graduate starting your career? A supportive mentoring style with a blend of 1-2-1 coaching offering advice and direction.
  • How did you feel the skills you acquired in university measured up in your job? My soft skills (communication, people skills and writing) which I developed at university have been most essential in my ability to work effectively with peers and clients. Aside from technical frameworks or concepts learnt which can be applied loosely in the workplace, every workplace has different processes or procedures (which aren’t taught at university), and you need to be able to adapt to these. If anything, university teaches you how to approach and tackle tasks, which is fundamental in the workplace. 
  • Thinking back to your first job, what was the biggest shock about transitioning from university into working life? The working hours and commute were quite the contrast to university life. 
  • And following from that, what was the biggest advantage? Other than a payslip? Routine. And delivering the technology you have played a part in building, to clients.