The Social Mobility Factory 2025

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending The Social Mobility Factory ran by The 93% Club, what a day! 🙌

On (very) popular request from Bartek Czajkowski, I’ll talk a bit about how the day was and what my favourite moments were.

Throughout the day, I attended all of the keynote speaker sessions and panels hearing from representatives of companies such as BBC Studios, Macfarlanes, DLA Piper, and Amazon, amongst many others. I also had the privilege of listening to the two keynote speakers: Richard Osman, who was my personal highlight of the day with the humorous but relatable talk on his challenges and advice on life, and Simmy Dhillon, who shared a powerful story of entrepreneurship with his business and the hardships he has faced in his life.

I also attended the free professional headshot area as my current LinkedIn profile picture isn’t the greatest. Hopefully within the next week that should be fixed with something even better, although the weather was terrible and I’m sure my hair was probably all over the place.

As well as this, I found it extremely beneficial to attend the CV and LinkedIn clinic to get feedback on my CV and LinkedIn profile. I think that there is a lot of conflicting advice on how a CV should be laid out, but I received very positive feedback on mine with some slight edits. As for my LinkedIn, it was lacking in quite a few areas which I hope to have resolved soon. It was insightful learning from those who have used LinkedIn for years and have the knowhow, as it allowed me to know what I should be doing on here.

At the careers fair, I spoke to a fair few companies in my industry such as Snap Inc. and Meta, as well as some of a personal interest to me, such as Penguin Random House, and some of those that I’ve applied to this year - such as Bank of America and Lloyds Bank.

I also learned that you should always bring a powerbank with you, especially to all-day events. Nonetheless, thanks to the bar staff at the venue for charging my phone, and a special thank you to Oscar Warburton for taking the photos of the Richard Osman talk, or else I would have sadly gone without.

A huge thank you to The 93% Club for creating this space and championing social mobility. Events like these remind us why we should be proud to be state-educated, and opens up opportunities for those of us without a large network of professionals in our desired industry.

Looking forward to applying what I’ve learnt and heard yesterday in my future endeavours, most prominently in my applications for the year-in-industry.

If you’re interested in tech or were at the event yesterday and we didn’t get a chance to talk, feel free to reach out and connect!

(And thanks to David Oladiran for the professional photoshoot with the 93% sign)