As my journey at university comes to an end, and the last assignment of my three years at Bangor is impending, this final reflection serves as my conclusion. Including my opinions on the content and seminars delivered as part of Bangor University’s Science and Employability module I reflect on the importance this module has had on my future career paths post graduation in July 2019.
Getting to Know You: The Foundation
To begin with, the module started strong with introductory lectures from Dr. Christian Dunn, and employability coordinator Clare Brass, to welcome us in to the module and prepare us for our time at university coming to an end *very soon (too soon?)*.
Although not all covered by the preceding blog posts, we were given a quick introduction to job hunting platforms and social media presence by Dr. Christian Dunn, including the importance of creating a LinkedIn profile, and networking with potential employers. This was then followed by an in-depth CV writing workshop given by Clare Brass.
As I have been in some form of employment since I was 14 the CV writing workshop for me was only moderately helpful as I have already been building on my CV since then. However, it is always beneficial to learn from an expert and some of the tips were invaluable – particularly in highlighting and shaping your CV to specific job advertisements.
The social media content however, was extremely relevant. Although I think it is becoming more prevalent to be aware of your social media presence, I considered it primarily as reducing your negative appearance – keeping a ‘clean’ account, and updating your privacy and security settings. I hadn’t previously considered increasing your social media presence to become more visible to potential employers, and creating a professional online presence – using traditional platforms like twitter, as well as the more career based LinkedIn.
Following this however, I actually created a Twitter account and a LinkedIn profile to begin to establish a professional online presence, I also rewrote my basic CV so I have that as a baseline to modify when I begin applying for jobs, post-graduation.
Practicing Professional: The Assessment Centre & Dragons Den
The first of the two three-hour career experience practical sessions was run as an assessment style centre hosted by employability coordinator Clare Brass. The centre was a fun experience, and although we only had time to complete two tasks characteristically found at such an event, everyone (particularly in my team) got fully involved.
This session particularly was valuable to me as it is something likely to be encountered across all future career paths, especially with its increasing global popularity and overall efficiency. The closing feedback also enabled us to later consider our strengths and weaknesses throughout the day, and take this away for further reflection.
Secondly, and much later in the year to conclude the enterprise series of lectures held by Chris Walker, was the Dragon’s Den day. This focused primarily on the creation and pitch of our very own business plans to an audience.
Although I enjoyed Chris’s style and ability to captivate an audience throughout, I didn’t find this component of the module to be relevant to me personally. As I do not consider myself to be overly business ‘savvy’, this just acted to confirm what I had already suspected. Despite this, I liked the layout of both the lectures and the Dragons Den workshop.
Overall, I think these workshops have given me more confidence in dealing with similar situations in the future, as its definitely easier (less scary), going in to something when you know what to expect.
Branching Out: The Seminar Series
Throughout the Science and Employability module we were encouraged to attend a variety (minimum of 6!) science career based lectures covering a variety of topics from guest lecturers and blog about them.
When beginning this module, the seminar series was what I was most excited for and the idea of opening up to new career horizons. I really enjoyed the varied content available throughout the series from guest lecturers and experts in their own fields, as it provided an excellent opportunity to consider new fields and network with other successful scientists. Despite this, out of the recommended ones I went to I found they focused predominantly on on-going research projects – which is good, especially as I would like to maintain an academic focus throughout my future career.
However, I had looked forward to learning more about future career paths, and how other people had decided on what they wanted to do and how they got there, in keeping with the employability side of the module. As well as this, I think it would have been beneficial (for my personal interests) to include talks from on-going masters or PhD students as this is what I am still predominantly interested in.
Although I did enjoy the series, the relevance of them to my future career choices was somewhat limited.
Final Comments
When I began the module I found myself regularly avoiding considering my future plans post-university and impending adulthood. I always have had a rough idea of continuing down an academic pathway as I enjoy independent research and the scientific community, other than this though I had no prior ideas of which direction I wanted to go post-graduation. Throughout the course of the module there were a lot of pros and cons:
Pros
- Invaluable expert advice throughout
- Broadening of horizons
- Increased confidence in a professional setting
- Created a professional online presence
Cons
- Overly familiar setting took away the professionalism of the workshops
- Workshops often too short too complete
- Sometimes not relevant to me
I really feel this module helped me however, maybe not define my interests, but define what I am not interested in throughout the seminar series. The other more practical components of the module were invaluable however and can be applied to almost all future career pathways throughout conservation, and other (if not all) sectors.
10/10 enjoyability of employability.
Conservation conversation. 