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Henry Fryer

Henry Fryer

00:00:06 Hi. I'm Henry. I work at icould as the Young People Co-ordinator. So day to day, I kind of bridge the gap between icould and young people. I go into schools, I talk to young people about icould and what it could do for them and help them out. I also do quite a lot of techie stuff as well, so just helping with website development and various other bits and bobs.

00:00:25 I enjoy going out and meeting young people, well I can't say ‘young people’ really, fourteen to nineteen year olds and talking to them about icould and careers and future prospects and stuff. It's good fun. I really enjoyed school. Probably not for an academic kind of reasons, I really enjoyed it because my mates were there and I had fun larking round with them really. I didn't really see it as a place to learn. I just thought it was a place to have some fun and spend some time, I guess.

00:00:47 I suppose overall I was good at quite a lot of things. I did quite a broad range of subjects, so I enjoyed English quite a lot, so I did that at A-levels. I also did biology at A-levels and I did law as well. So it's a bit of a mixed bag there really. I wasn't quite sure where I was going with it.

00:01:00 After my A levels I went to university. I studied English literature with theatre studies which was great fun. Theatre was a bit weird though. It was a bit kind of conceptual and a bit different to what I thought it would be, but it was a good experience, I really enjoyed it. I loved university. I went not thinking about the course at all, I didn't even bother thinking about that. All I was thinking about was the social life. I think by the third year, I was ready to leave I think though, after all that work and partying. It wears you out a bit sometimes...gets tiring.

00:01:26 When I was at university, I temped over summer and I had a few jobs. My main job was marking exam papers for English as a Foreign Language students, and that was the most boring job I can...I've ever had and hopefully ever will have. It was a case of sitting in a room with a pencil and ticking boxes basically, right or wrong, and it was just soul destroying pretty much. It was well paid but I'm not bothered about that any more. I want to have job satisfaction really. I suppose I wanted to look for a job that I'd find quite exciting, a job that was new every day. I had no real direction, I mean, I had ideas about being a teacher at one point, being a lawyer, ideas about being a newsreader, a Blue Peter presenter. So many ideas but I keep changing my mind all the time.

00:02:09 I thought about being a lawyer for a very brief moment in time and I thought I'd do law as an A-level without really thinking properly. I did some experience in a law firm which I got through a friend of a friend and after two or three months or so, I just thought it wasn't for me. It's too much paperwork, just pushing papers around really. So it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. I was given guidance by my parents but no specific guidance. They kind of said, ‘if you want to do this, go and do it. If you want to go and do that, do that instead’. They never said, ‘you should go and be a doctor’, or, ‘you should go and be a lawyer’, or, ‘you should go and be a young people's coordinator’. They were always supportive of me, but they didn't kind of push me in a certain direction, which was quite nice in a way I guess.

00:02:44 My father was in the Army for a while as a lieutenant and then he quit the Army and started his own plumbing and heating business. And my mother's always been a secretary really, helping out around schools, and she's now working at icould as well, funnily enough. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, so after working for a few months, I decided I ought to go travelling. So I saved up for a bit and disappeared off around the world for four months.

00:03:09 I went to Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, America and Canada. I had a great time, I met some amazing people and it's made me a lot more confident as well I think. And when I came back, I kind of had an urge to talk to everyone on the street, but obviously you can't do that, it would be a bit strange, but it's changed me completely I think.

00:03:26 My goals last year were to get a job, which I did, go travelling, which I did, and find a nice girlfriend, which I did. It doesn't matter that it lasted for about two months or so. It still happened, so it's a success in my book. This year my plans are to go travelling again, move out of home, which is a big thing on my list at the moment, and I haven't thought of a third one yet. I've got to think about that at some point this week I think.

00:03:50 This is the Lonely Planet guide to Vietnam which I bought a couple of weeks ago. I've been doing some research about it and I'm planning on going as soon as possible. As long as my job allows it, of course. I haven't told my bosses yet, but they'll find out soon. In five years time, I want to be happy and successful. I don't know what I'll be doing, I don't know where I'll be. I might be abroad, I might be here. I've no idea, but as long I'm happy, I really don't care.

Henry Fryer

Henry Fryer Hi. I'm Henry. I work at icould as the Young People Co-ordinator. So day to day, I kind of bridge the gap between icould and young people. I go into schools, I talk to young people about icould and what it could do for them and help them out. I also do quite a lot of techie stuff as well, so just helping with website development and various other bits and bobs. I enjoy going out and meeting young people, well I can't say ‘young people’ really, fourteen to nineteen year olds and talking to them about icould and careers and future prospects and stuff. It's good fun. I really enjoyed school. Probably not for an academic kind of reasons, I really enjoyed it because my mates were there and I had fun larking round with them really. I didn't really see it as a place to learn. I just thought it was a place to have some fun and spend some time, I guess. I suppose overall I was good at quite a lot of things. I did quite a broad range of subjects, so I enjoyed English quite a lot, so I did that at A-levels. I also did biology at A-levels and I did law as well. So it's a bit of a mixed bag there really. I wasn't quite sure where I was going with it. After my A levels I went to university. I studied English literature with theatre studies which was great fun. Theatre was a bit weird though. It was a bit kind of conceptual and a bit different to what I thought it would be, but it was a good experience, I really enjoyed it. I loved university. I went not thinking about the course at all, I didn't even bother thinking about that. All I was thinking about was the social life. I think by the third year, I was ready to leave I think though, after all that work and partying. It wears you out a bit sometimes...gets tiring. When I was at university, I temped over summer and I had a few jobs. My main job was marking exam papers for English as a Foreign Language students, and that was the most boring job I can...I've ever had and hopefully ever will have. It was a case of sitting in a room with a pencil and ticking boxes basically, right or wrong, and it was just soul destroying pretty much. It was well paid but I'm not bothered about that any more. I want to have job satisfaction really. I suppose I wanted to look for a job that I'd find quite exciting, a job that was new every day. I had no real direction, I mean, I had ideas about being a teacher at one point, being a lawyer, ideas about being a newsreader, a Blue Peter presenter. So many ideas but I keep changing my mind all the time. I thought about being a lawyer for a very brief moment in time and I thought I'd do law as an A-level without really thinking properly. I did some experience in a law firm which I got through a friend of a friend and after two or three months or so, I just thought it wasn't for me. It's too much paperwork, just pushing papers around really. So it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. I was given guidance by my parents but no specific guidance. They kind of said, ‘if you want to do this, go and do it. If you want to go and do that, do that instead’. They never said, ‘you should go and be a doctor’, or, ‘you should go and be a lawyer’, or, ‘you should go and be a young people's coordinator’. They were always supportive of me, but they didn't kind of push me in a certain direction, which was quite nice in a way I guess. My father was in the Army for a while as a lieutenant and then he quit the Army and started his own plumbing and heating business. And my mother's always been a secretary really, helping out around schools, and she's now working at icould as well, funnily enough. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, so after working for a few months, I decided I ought to go travelling. So I saved up for a bit and disappeared off around the world for four months. I went to Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, America and Canada. I had a great time, I met some amazing people and it's made me a lot more confident as well I think. And when I came back, I kind of had an urge to talk to everyone on the street, but obviously you can't do that, it would be a bit strange, but it's changed me completely I think. My goals last year were to get a job, which I did, go travelling, which I did, and find a nice girlfriend, which I did. It doesn't matter that it lasted for about two months or so. It still happened, so it's a success in my book. This year my plans are to go travelling again, move out of home, which is a big thing on my list at the moment, and I haven't thought of a third one yet. I've got to think about that at some point this week I think. This is the Lonely Planet guide to Vietnam which I bought a couple of weeks ago. I've been doing some research about it and I'm planning on going as soon as possible. As long as my job allows it, of course. I haven't told my bosses yet, but they'll find out soon. In five years time, I want to be happy and successful. I don't know what I'll be doing, I don't know where I'll be. I might be abroad, I might be here. I've no idea, but as long I'm happy, I really don't care.

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Young People Co-ordinator

Age at filming:
19-25,
Employer's name:
CRAC: The Career Development Organisation,
Job location:
Cambridge

Henry Fryer is the Young People Co-ordinator for icould. He went travelling round the world and came back with bags of confidence and the urge to talk to everyone on the street. So a job where he goes into schools and talks to young people about their careers is great for him.

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One Response to Henry Fryer

  1. G3 Creative says:

    The anxious wait for exam results for students and their families is almost here and already we have had an influx of young prospective design graduates looking for career advice in graphic design. Whatever the results please don’t panic or get stressed out. Practical help and career advise is available. We wish you all well.

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