Employment Relations & Organisational Behaviour Group (Formerly Department of Industrial Relations) Alumni

The School's alumni relations programme was launched in 1990 as a means to maintain and strengthen relationships with former students and friends and to engage their active support. Today, the School is in contact with over 82,000 alumni. For further information please see the main LSE Alumni Relations web pages.

The Employment Relations and Organisational Behaviour Group holds events for alumni on a regular basis. If you would like to be added to the mailing list for such events please email your details to erob@lse.ac.uk

Our 2006-07 graduates have gained employment with a number of organisations including -

Below are some real stories of our Alumni and their experiences after graduation. More stories can be found on the LSE Graduate Destinations web pages.
 

	Kari Nelson Business Planning Manager People Product Management Standard Chartered Bank, London Education Studied MSc International Employment Relations and HR Management (2004/05) Previously studied Political Science and Family Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada Kari's Story I joined Standard Chartered Bank, an international bank operating across 56 countries, in August 2005. This was my first job after University and it all happened after I met someone from the Bank at the department’s career fair. My first role was as an Analyst in the Diversity and Inclusion team – where I got the (rare) chance to directly apply what I studied. Having a strong academic background really helped me as I was involved in many debates around what diversity and inclusion means and how to embed it across the organisation. I then moved into a new role as Business Planning Manager in People Product Management, working on a variety of projects such as Graduate Recruitment and Employee Referrals. Because there was so much variety in this role, I needed to be able to quickly pick things up and hit the ground running. Having a broad HR education really helped, even though I didn’t know all the details to begin with. Most recently, I’ve become Manager of HR Communications. In this role, and I think this is the case for many roles, it’s more the skills that I developed at LSE rather than specific knowledge that have helped me. Being able to convey a message concisely and with the greatest impact is one of the most important things I think one can learn to do, for almost any job. Taking on three different roles over 18 months has been no easy task but the challenges have been fantastic. My Masters degree at LSE has definitely helped me and I’d recommend the programme to others looking for stretching careers in HR.
	Caroline O'Brien Talent Analyst OE Support Function Standard Chartered Bank, London   Education Studied MSc Human Resource Management (2005/06) Previously studied Management & Marketing at Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland. Caroline's Story I joined Standard Chartered in September 2006, shortly after handing in my dissertation. I saw the job advertised on an email from the Dept of Industrial Relations at LSE. My role is a Talent Analyst within the Talent Management Team. My team engage in recruiting, developing and retaining talented individuals in the bank. My role focuses on MBA recruitment and development. I also work with my Manager on engaging and developing High Performers at Senior Management Level.   My role contains a varied workload, that requires me to deal with changing priorities and to adapt myself to different situations. I also work closely with Senior Managers across the bank, ensuring that we recruit the right people into the right roles.   The MSc in HRM has helped me in my role as it exposed me to working with people from different cultures, this is both helpful as I work with my colleagues in Asia on a daily basis as well as the multi-cultural candidates that I recruit and develop. The Employee Relations course equipped me with the fundamentals of employee law and how that impacts the business, learning about Age Discrimation has been particularly relevant to my role. The Organisational Change and Organisational Behaviour courses provided me with knowledge and skills that I use when thinking through engagement and retention strategies. The motto at LSE is to “find the cause of things”, I always use this concept when faced with a problem that needs solving.   Life has taught me to work hard and when something is difficult, LSE taught me to work even harder. Everyday I find myself using the skills and knowledge that I acquired while studying the MSc and I have no doubt that I will continue to use and build upon it.
	Larisa Hill Senior Reward Analyst HR Reward Prudential UK & Europe Education Studied MSc International Employment Relations and Human Resource Management (2006/07) Previously studied Bachelor of Economics (Social Sciences) (Hons), The University of Sydney Larisa's Story  I started with Prudential in October 2007, shortly after completing my MSc. The job was advertised by an EROB department email and I was attracted to it as it clearly stated the company was seeking people who were looking for a global career. This seemed to fit perfectly with my studies and how I wanted my career to develop. I joined Prudential as part of the Momentum Programme, which is a group-wide leadership development programme, aimed at growing future leaders of the company by giving them opportunities to work at different parts of the business in Europe, Asia and the USA. Momentum participants are expected to change roles every 18 months to 2 years to maintain a broader view of how the company operates globally, and in order to develop both personally and professionally. My first role in the Momentum programme is working in the UK & Europe business in Reward, specifically Executive Reward. I work directly with the Head of Executive Reward in managing the reward aspects of the senior manager and executive population. My work involves research, data analysis, preparation for the senior salary review, and dealing with other aspects related to the employment relationship of these employees. I am also responsible for managing and coordinating international assignments for Prudential. I believe my studies at LSE have prepared me greatly for my job. On one hand, I use the theory and practical teaching from my classes on a daily basis in my current role. On a broader level, the IER & HRM course has given me a greater knowledge of employment relations in a global context which has helped me in my understanding of working with other parts of the business, and liaising with members of the Momentum programme. I know the skills I learned at LSE in terms of research, analysis and argument will be invaluable as both a member of this programme and as I further develop my career.
	Sweta Jain Human Resource Manager HR Division Bitscape IT Solutions Pvt Ltd, India Education MSc International Employment Relations and HR Management (2004/05) Previously studied Business Information Systems at University of Northumbria, (Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK) Sweta's Story After completing my Masters I returned back to India and joined my first assignment with RT Outsourcing Services (RT is a national partner of many Fortune 500 Co’s. It is India’s leading provider of technical support and reverse logistics services with its Clients ranging from HewlettPackard, Nokia Siemens, Ericsson, IBM, Gilat, Vodafone and many more. I was appointed as an HR Executive – Training and Development where primarily, I was responsible for conducting Induction programme for the new Joinees in the Organization, giving Training to staff members on all the processes of Hewlett Packard and other IT Giants on customer service and Quality standards for Eg. Customer Delight, ISO, Japanese Quality Methods (TQM, Kaizen etc). My Second and third assignment were with medium sized US based Organisation located in Ahmedabad (Gujarat). During these two years I gained momentum on overall aspects of HR. In my recent role as an HR Manager my responsibilities were further enhanced, where I was involved in developing HR Strategies to support and achieve employee relation activities by conducting employee satisfaction surveys, and providing appropriate feedback to the Sr management on the action adopted. I am also actively involved in Creation of world class working environment which, would help in retaining and attract the highest caliber people. Working immensely with IT companies, I can say My BIS Degree helped me adversely in understanding various technical aspects while recruiting Software Consultants simultaneously, my postgraduate degree gave me an edge where I could easily understand HR Aspects of ensuring “Best Fit” within the organization. The LSE program was a blessing, which helped me discover and learn at my own pace, thereby, developing my thought process and enabling different direction and impulsion to my overall career.

If you are one of our Alumni and would like to share your story, please email s.watson1@lse.ac.uk. We would love to hear from you!