Headline partners of BUCS Women’s Hockey programme, ICG places a key focus on promoting female leadership. The asset management firm also happens to be the career destination of a certain Cambridge University graduate, so we sat down with Sarah Longworth to discuss why ICG is her dream role, the benefits of ICG’s insight day, and the valuable skills she learned as a BUCS athlete.
At Cambridge, Sarah juggled a degree in veterinary science with playing 3rd team netball. She detailed the highs and lows of her BUCS Career; going from a non-BUCS League team in her first year, joining the 6th division in her second and then going on to win the league in her final year. In her last season, she was made captain of her team – it was during this year that she developed key transferrable skills, helping her stand out against other candidates when applying for a role at ICG.
Towards the end of her Veterinary Science degree, Sarah realised it wasn’t the career path for her. She started researching other career options and received an email from BUCS inviting her to attend the ICG insight day. The insight day sold ICG and asset management to Sarah: “I wasn’t planning on going into investment, but the insight day changed my mind about it and ICG became my main job goal”.
Sarah discusses how the insight day gave her a valuable opportunity to network and connect with ICG Employees and other female graduates – and remains a key highlight of her career journey: “I was able to see why ICG employees love working there for myself, rather than just going in blind, that really helped me feel more confident in the interview.”
One of ICG’s main focuses is the promotion of female leaders in a male-dominated industry, and they are proud headline partners of the BUCS Women’s Hockey programme, which helps elevate this message. Sarah commented on ICG’s attitude to women in the workplace – “even in email communication, they had a female focus, and that was a key factor in my application following the insight day.”
Sarah was also able to see how the skills she’d gained competing in BUCS at university would help and advantage her in the future. “Along with the teamwork and communication skills I gained as a player, my experience of being on the club committee as team captain was invaluable. The extra managerial roles expanded my skillset to include organisation, stakeholder management and communication with external businesses.”
University sport gave Sarah the opportunity to develop and hone these skills, and the passion she held for netball gave her an advantage in the application process at ICG: “ I’d really enjoyed everything about playing netball at university - it was the best part of my Cambridge experience - so it was quite easy to talk about and use to my advantage.”
Following the insight day, Sarah applied for ICG’s Graduate Scheme. “I had the advantage of understanding ICG as a business thanks to the insight day and was feeling confident due to the personal connections I had made there. Thankfully, I was successful in my application, and I’m looking forward to starting my career in asset management at ICG this month.”
