Bolster Buddies round 1 ✔️
Tags: Creative, Digital Marketing, Mentorship, Tech, Developer

We launched the Bolster Buddies initiative earlier this year to pair people with our diverse team’s expertise for a chat over coffee. We launched on International Women’s Day and focussed on female applicants for the first round, offering a boost in our typically male dominated industries of music, entertainment, tech and creative.

Our ultimate goal is to help people learn about our industries and provide some guidance on how to get a leg-up wherever they’re headed. After the first round of pairings it became clear this program is just as valuable to our team — who found the experience interesting and inspiring — as it is to the applicants.

First up was our content producer Hugo, who works on projects such as LNWY, YouTube Music, Blundstone and JBL. He met with Valerie; who wanted to “learn more about the content/creative side of digital” and “essentially validate that’s where I want to go, and if so, how I can get there.”

Buddies Hugo and Valerie at Bolster HQ

Here’s what Valerie had to say:

“It’s not often you get a chance to meet and discuss what other creatives are doing in the industry when out in the workforce. My Bolster Buddy experience was awesome because I got to hear first-hand what the team at Bolster are doing, how my buddy got to where he is, and what other opportunities I could take advantage of to upskill myself in my job and diversify my skills in other areas. TY @ Hugo and the Bolster team”

Next up was our front-end web developer Eibhlin, who has worked across projects such as Linktree, Splendour and the Elton John tour. We paired her with Linda — a “a career changer that’s moved into the tech industry and finding my feet” who was “dying to find some mentorship or professional advice about how to navigate through the industry as a junior/woman, and to pick the brain of an experienced developer.”

Linda (L) with our front-end dev Eibhlin (R)

Here’s what Linda said about her coffee with Eibhlin:

I was lucky enough to be paired up with Eibhlin for my Bolster Buddies chat and I couldn’t be more positive about the experience. As a recent career changer into tech, an industry where women are typically underrepresented, it was incredibly valuable and inspiring to be able to talk to someone who understood exactly where I was coming from — she had so many great insights and advice to give about her own career and my current crossroads. Our ‘little’ catchup ended up spanning over two hours, and it meant so much to me that she was so generous with sharing her time and experience. It really reinforced for me why having opportunities like Bolster Buddies available to women, and other underrepresented groups, is so important and necessary — you can only be what you can see, and having an example of that right in front of you is powerful. I walked away feeling so empowered and with another kickass lady in my network!

Huge thanks to to Hugo, Valerie, Eibhlin and Linda for taking part in the experience. We were overwhelmed by the amount of amazing applications received, so if you’ve already applied don’t worry — we’ll try our best to team you up with someone from Bolster.

If you’re yet to apply, go right ahead below! Applications open to all: