Young Careers at Instagram

Students from London Academy were invited along to the London head office of global technology company Instagram. The service facilitated by Young Careers allowed over 12 students from sixth form to experience what it’s like to work for a large technology company.

The students were met by Michelle, Louise, Veronika and Eva who all currently work for Instagram across public policy and community management. They began the tour of the office with their very impressive sweet cart and the students helped themselves to an array of free confectionary.

London Academy students were shown around the office, getting the opportunity to ask questions and see the many people it takes to manage and run such a huge company.

After the introductions the students were allowed to ask questions and hear about what it is like to work for a technology company and more specifically Instagram. Programming and coding were the buzz words of the day, with all the students very keen to hear all about one of the programme engineer’s role in the company and what they can do to gain a similar role. This was a great chance for the students to understand what qualifications they need and the avenues to take in order to work in the technology industry.

“I found it good, lately I’ve been confused about what I want to do in the future but after coming here and seeing the environment, it has opened the door to what I really want to do and I now want to study programming.” Mustafa

The students came away with a deeper knowledge and interest in the sector with the majority of students asking what they needed to study in order work in technology.

“Today was very interesting, it opened a new door into a new industry that we didn’t know much about. I feel like I am very informed about it now, I now know what path I need to take to get to where the people we met today are” Ibrahim

London Academy received a very warm welcome from Instagram and they certainly didn’t want to leave once their session was over.

The service is a pilot commissioned by the Skills Funding Agency to help develop a new approach to careers advice in schools. It enables students to get closer to employers and higher education institutes and benefit from more relevant careers guidance. It is co-funded by the European Social Fund.