Recent alumni

Will  (2012 ) Policy Analyst at the Foreign Office

“After leaving GSAL, I read English at Cambridge before joining the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Taking English literature A-level really helped me prepare for university and the world of work: it honed my close reading skills and taught me how to write well. But, maybe more importantly, it introduced me to some of the best writing in the English language, works which I continue to return to long after studying them.”

Chessy (2012) Strategy Consultant

“I work in strategy consultancy in London which involves working out the answers to some of the biggest challenges and opportunities for businesses in the UK and around the world. Before starting, I thought my job would be mostly about maths and data, but I’ve realised that words are actually just as important. I spend a lot of time working out how best to communicate answers to my team and clients as well as listening to the client and reading what they say about their business. English literature A-level set me up perfectly to handle this side of my career; it helped me to understand how language can and will be interpreted differently by different people and in different contexts. Spending time closely analysing texts means that I can now apply the methods I studied in my own writing and spoken presentations to ensure that my clients will read the correct meaning in what I am saying.”

Sophie (2013) Political Consultant in the City of London

“Whilst I did not study English literature at university, the A-level course gave me my first experience in formal essay writing and critical thinking – skills I found invaluable throughout my undergraduate and Master’s degrees. The ability to understand how one text can produce several, often wildly different, points of view is one I use every day in my job now, working in political consultancy in the City of London. Working in politics means being able to analyse a text, place it in its context, isolate the key evidence and use these to construct your argument – and to be able to defend it if someone else disagrees!”