Honor Roth
BSc Geography
What has your career story been since graduating from the University of Glasgow?
I joined Nestlé a few weeks after graduating from Glasgow University, and 9 years later I am still here!
I didn't join under a traditional graduate scheme, I originally started as HR Admin on an 8-week summer placement scheme (my plan was to return to Glasgow to start a Planning Masters). At the end of the summer placement, I was offered a contract for 1 year and I decided to take this over returning to University.
After a year as a HR Admin, I was offered the opportunity to join Nestlé’s Global Mobility Team. Nestlé is a huge global company and one of the benefits it offers is all the international opportunities, in my role I was responsible for transferring employees around the world, both into and out of the UK, supporting them with their relocation and helping them and their families adjust. This involved shipping, schooling, tax, immigration, social security and financial support.
After 4 years in this role, I moved to become a Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP) in our Confectionery business, here I worked with the Confectionery leadership team to align the people strategy to their business strategy, I then moved on to become a HRBP supporting our Sales and Marketing Leadership Teams. Since April 2023 I have been a People Partner supporting all Commercial and Corporate areas of Nestlé UK, this entails supporting the business with big change projects, employee relations, develop relationships to drive change and culture and a special focus on Reward.
What attracted you to the University of Glasgow for your studies?
I'm from Yorkshire, a long way from Glasgow, but my sister studied at The Glasgow School of Art so from my trips to visit her I knew what an amazing city Glasgow was!
I also loved the option to study both human and physical geography modules and the additional subjects that had to be taken in first and second year. I also knew it was a highly respected university for Geography.
What did you value about your degree?
I valued how busy we were, a lot of my friends at English universities had so much spare time and only spent about 5 hours in Uni a week. My experience was completely different, and I loved it, I felt like I really got value for money and learnt an incredible amount in my 4 years.
Whilst my degree has no correlation with my career in HR, I feel like it set me up for success with transferable skills. I am also completing my CIPD (HR professional qualification), and my degree has certainly helped me here with how to structure my academic writing.
I also value the friends I made during my time at Glasgow, I had such a tight group of friends and we’ve still stayed in touch and regularly meet up throughout the year. We had such good fun together at Glasgow.
What advice would you give to current students in terms of building a successful career?
I didn't have a set career plan and it worked out for me! I remember feeling so pressured in my final year of Uni, submitting my dissertation, revising for exams and applying for grad schemes. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, if you put the effort in and try your best things will work out.