00:00:03 I’m Alistair Bertrand. I’m a solicitor, specialising in commercial property. I also do a bit of residential work and I’m also a volunteer with the Prince’s Trust, so being a mentor in the business programme, leaving care programme, doing development awards, and helping with fundraising and other events.
00:00:24 Both my parents are teachers, so they’ve got nothing to do with the job that I’ve been in, but they did expect, I suppose, for me to do well and to go to university, so that was always something which they conceived as happening. I went to a school in France – a British school – so there was quite a lot of ex-pat people and people from all over the world, so it was quite an interesting experience. We had sort of careers days and someone talked about the legal profession in the work he was doing, and it sounded interesting so I looked into it more and applied to university to do law. I came to university in Reading from France, so it was quite a different experience sort of culturally as well as being able to manage your own daily life and sort of sorting everything out and doing everything at your own pace.
00:01:24 When I left university, I did a further year of study in London, and then took a gap year, sort of travelling to Thailand and the States, sort of working in a summer camp, and then I did two years training with a law firm, and then sort of specialised in commercial property. I started volunteering with the Prince’s Trust because I was looking to do some voluntary work, and sort of met a few mentors and discussed with them what they were doing, and what the advantages of mentoring was and sort of different people you could see and different things you could do.
00:02:00 One achievement is to get greater respect from other people you work with or you volunteer with, sort of, people asking you for your opinion or how you would resolve a situation I think is an achievement. Also, I was awarded the volunteer of the year for the South East region this year with the Prince’s Trust. I was given the award for volunteer of the year in the South East region this year by being nominated by the staff at the Prince’s Trust local office for some of the work I do with the young people. It’s something I am proud of, but mainly I sort of enjoy working with the people at the Trust, and the other volunteers and the young people, so I think it is nice.
00:02:54 The setbacks I’ve had recently was working for a developer and they made us all redundant, so it was just going out there and finding a new position and trying to keep morale up during the few months when I wasn’t working. The way I did that was to sort of… I did a lot of work with the Prince’s Trust. Again, sort of, I helped with the programme sort of three days a week for a month, which sort of gave me a whole new set of skills as well but also just keep on looking for jobs and thinking the next one will be the right one.
00:03:38 If there were things I could change, I would like to do even more work with the Trust because there are so many young people that need help out there. There’s only a fraction of people with issues that the Trust can help. So I think the more people do, the better it is for yourself.
00:03:58 End
Alistair Bertrand
Alistair Bertrand
I’m Alistair Bertrand. I’m a solicitor, specialising in commercial property. I also do a bit of residential work and I’m also a volunteer with the Prince’s Trust, so being a mentor in the business programme, leaving care programme, doing development awards, and helping with fundraising and other events.
Both my parents are teachers, so they’ve got nothing to do with the job that I’ve been in, but they did expect, I suppose, for me to do well and to go to university, so that was always something which they conceived as happening. I went to a school in France – a British school – so there was quite a lot of ex-pat people and people from all over the world, so it was quite an interesting experience. We had sort of careers days and someone talked about the legal profession in the work he was doing, and it sounded interesting so I looked into it more and applied to university to do law. I came to university in Reading from France, so it was quite a different experience sort of culturally as well as being able to manage your own daily life and sort of sorting everything out and doing everything at your own pace.
When I left university, I did a further year of study in London, and then took a gap year, sort of travelling to Thailand and the States, sort of working in a summer camp, and then I did two years training with a law firm, and then sort of specialised in commercial property. I started volunteering with the Prince’s Trust because I was looking to do some voluntary work, and sort of met a few mentors and discussed with them what they were doing, and what the advantages of mentoring was and sort of different people you could see and different things you could do.
One achievement is to get greater respect from other people you work with or you volunteer with, sort of, people asking you for your opinion or how you would resolve a situation I think is an achievement. Also, I was awarded the volunteer of the year for the South East region this year with the Prince’s Trust. I was given the award for volunteer of the year in the South East region this year by being nominated by the staff at the Prince’s Trust local office for some of the work I do with the young people. It’s something I am proud of, but mainly I sort of enjoy working with the people at the Trust, and the other volunteers and the young people, so I think it is nice.
The setbacks I’ve had recently was working for a developer and they made us all redundant, so it was just going out there and finding a new position and trying to keep morale up during the few months when I wasn’t working. The way I did that was to sort of… I did a lot of work with the Prince’s Trust. Again, sort of, I helped with the programme sort of three days a week for a month, which sort of gave me a whole new set of skills as well but also just keep on looking for jobs and thinking the next one will be the right one.
If there were things I could change, I would like to do even more work with the Trust because there are so many young people that need help out there. There’s only a fraction of people with issues that the Trust can help. So I think the more people do, the better it is for yourself.
End
Alistair Bertrand is a Volunteer Mentor for The Prince's Trust. He's also a solicitor, specialising in commercial property. The voluntary work helped him keep his morale up when he as made redundant by a developer. Even now he has a successful career the work for The Prince's Trust is very important to him.
