Faces behind the frog: Jen Carter

As part of our 'Faces behind the frog' blog post series, we talk to Jen about her role as a Unifrog Account Manager and the advice she would give to her 17-year old self.

What’s your favourite thing about your role?

My favourite thing by far is getting out into schools and colleges and meeting my contacts to chat through how they can use Unifrog most effectively. No two schools use it in exactly the same way, and everybody has challenges which I love to try and overcome. The platform is so flexible in the way it can be incorporated into the curriculum, and the perpetual tweaks and content launches mean that my meetings are always punctuated with exclamations of “I didn’t know it could do that!”. 

As my contacts will testify, I love a cuppa and a catch up, and I really enjoy building relationships with my schools and colleges so that everyone feels supported and able to come to me with anything they might need, be it platform queries, suggestions for future tweaks, or requests for training.

What’s your favourite anecdote about Unifrog having an impact on a student’s life?

Technically this isn’t one of my wins, but a fantastic colleague of mine went into a school on the day the Canadian University search tool was launched, and on a whim (or was it pure serendipity?) she decided to showcase that tool. For one of the students there that day it opened their eyes to the world of possibilities and they subsequently applied and were accepted to study in Canada. Unifrog really does change lives!

What advice would you give to your 17-year old self?

There are a few clichés that I could come out with here and they’d all be true! 

• Act now, apologise later.
• Don’t stress too much, whatever will happen is going to happen anyway.
• Follow your instincts, they are there for a reason!
• Pretend to be confident until it comes naturally.
• Procrastinate less (Having spent far too long thinking about these questions, I’m not sure I’ve learnt this lesson yet!)

What do you get up to when you’re not working? 

I’m married with 2 teenage/tween girls and a dog, so they take up a lot of my time! Alongside working part-time at Unifrog, I’m also studying a master’s degree at Uni in Person-Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy, a subject I love and find fascinating.  I volunteer at Childline as a counsellor once a week which is incredibly rewarding, and lastly, I’m a trained massage therapist and I work the odd shift at a local clinic to keep my hand in. 

My favourite way to relax is taking long walks along the river near where I live with my dog. That or playing cards, board games and video games with my kids.