introduction to the careers and employability service for bioscience year 1 students bruce woodcock...
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction to the Careers and Employability Service
for Bioscience Year 1 students
Bruce Woodcock University of Kent Careers and Employability [email protected] You can download a copy of this presentation at www.kent.ac.uk/careers/slides.htm
“Students in their first or second year at university need to ask themselves what job they want to do.
It’s important that they do not wait until their final year to think about finding a job, especially in the current market”.
Sarah Shillingford, Graduate Recruitment Partner, Deloitte
The more you enjoy university life, the more you’ll get out of it. Employers like you to have what they call “customer-facing experience”. You’ll get loads of that if you take a part-time job or work as a student volunteer. It’s a terrific help if you can understand how businesses work, show you can get things done and apply simple common sense. It was my work experience that gave me all these things, not my academic course. Kate, marketing officer with a PR agency
Join three university societies and become actively involved in at least one.
Alan Richardson, Graduate Recruitment, Royal Bank of Scotland Group
What can I do with a Kent Bioscience
Degree?
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/bioscience.htm
One third of graduate jobs accept any degree subject.
BECAUSE:• Learn new skills quickly• Analyse & solve problems• Communicate well• Open to new ideas,
adaptable and flexible• “Managers of change”
• Marketing and Sales
• Retailing• Social Work• Personnel• Civil Service• Accountancy• Banking• Computing
VACATION WORK
• Work Experience pagewww.kent.ac.uk/careers/vacwork.htm
• See our jobs and internship databasewww.kent.ac.uk/ces/vacancies.html
• Science internshipswww.kent.ac.uk/careers/ScienceJobs.htm
• Placementswww.kent.ac.uk/careers/placements.htm
BUNAC
www.bunac.org.uk
Spend summer working and travelling in North America.
Summer Camp USA: employed as a camp counsellor, teaching sports, music and other skills
Work America programme: anything from working in a theme park or a restaurant to arranging an internship with a company.
WHAT SKILLS DO BIOSCIENTISTS NEED? - GSK
• Presentation skills• Teamworking• Computing skills• Time management/organising skills• People skills• Report writing/documentation of
experiments• Laboratory experience• Problem solving skills
Example Bioscience CV
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/sciencecv.htm
Apply early for placements in your second year as some deadlines are early in the first term!
Location of the Careers Service
Bruce Woodcock
• An adviser is on duty for short (15 minute) consultations in the Careers and Employability Service any weekday morning 10.30-12.30 or afternoon from 2 pm to 4 pm. You don't need an appointment to see the duty adviser at these times. Just ask at Careers Reception to see them.
• Email: [email protected]
• Monday careers events and vacancy emails
Moodle Science Careers Employability Award
• 2% unemployment rate for graduates who completed the award compared to 5% for other Kent graduates.
Moodle Careers Employability Award Assessed by a range of quizzes and assignments
Only 2% unemployment rate for students completing the award compared to 5% for other Kent students.
Will greatly improve your career planning and jobhunting skills, giving you strategies to make career choices and will increase your chances of getting a graduate level job.
Takes about 12 hours to complete
On completion you will get a University of Kent Careers Employability Award to add to your CV
Get 60 Kent Employability points for successful completion of the module.
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/moodle.htm
Moodle Science Careers Employability Award 14 Quizzes: need 75% to pass but allowed unlimited
attemptsComplete 3 of the following seven
assignments Employability skills quiz Employability skills
quiz: drag & drop
How to develop the skills employers want?
Test your spelling & grammar!
What makes you happy at work?
How commercially aware are you?
Special interests topic lesson
Interview preparation Practice interview What are the most
common interview questions?
Aptitude tests & assessment centres
CV quiz CVs & covering letters
drag & drop quiz Career planning drag &
drop quiz
Analyse your skills & learn how to make top quality applications
Do you want to live to work or work to live?
Researching careers Choosing a career Submit a CV Social media Action planning
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/moodle.htm
Comments from students who have completed the award
You get a really nice certificate!
It was so easy, quick and I learned a lot.
Without realising, you have finished the course
and have already put together a very good CV
and covering letter.
It really blew my mind with some ideas I’ve never known
before, such as portfolio working and working from
home. I never thought about obtaining happiness from my
work before.
It would be mad to apply for a job or attend an
interview without doing it! Before the course I had only a vague
idea of my career path and opportunities. Now I am applying for summer internships and know how to
effectively sell my skills to a prospective employer and have a much
more focused plan for my future.
The module is very, very useful! I really love how it makes you to think about your personality and helps you to identify your
strengths and weaknesses.I found the module to be highly thought-provoking as it really
encouraged me to consider how my degree will benefit my future and what I can be doing now to
improve my graduate employment prospects.
I enjoyed the depth of the module. It went far beyond some general tips on
how to write a good CV and prepare for an interview. Rather it went in to detail
about the whole process of graduate job search from the beginning to the end. It
was very instructive .
The amount of time put into this is astounding! I actually spoke to friends from other universities who said they
wished they had something like this.
It has made me feel a lot more confident when it comes to
applications and interviews and has also made me think about skills that I didn't think I had
before. I recently had a very successful interview
largely because I put the advice on the module into
practice.
FIRST YEAR CAREER PLAN
• Career Planning is a long term process. Start early!
• Get a SUMMER VACATION JOB to add skills to your CV.
• GET ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN UNIVERSITY LIFE – societies, sports, student representative, to get evidence of skills for your CV.
• Prepare a Science CV
• Get the Careers Employability Award on Moodle
• See www.kent.ac.uk/careers/timeline.htm
Introduction to the Careers and Employability Service
for Bioscience Year 1 students
You can download a copy of this presentation at
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/slides.htm
SCIENCE INTERVIEWS
• Interview may be “on the hoof”
• Technical questions: often on your project – revise it carefully
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/interviews/ivscience.htm
Bioscience Careers Page
• What Kent Bioscience graduates did after leaving
• Jobs related to your subject
• Employers and vacancy sources
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/bioscience.htm
Application Form Questions
• Describe how your personal planning and organisation resulted in a successful achievement of a personal or group task.
• Describe a situation where you had to work effectively as a member of a team. What were the team’s aims? How was the team selected? What was your role?
• Describe a challenging situation which required your persuasive skills and your ability to organise other people in order to reach a successful resolution.
PREPARATION - THE KEY TO SUCCESS
• Research the employer and the job
• Prepare answers to obvious questions
• Think of your unique selling points
• Prepare some questions to ask
• Dress smartly
THE COVERING LETTER
First Paragraph State the job you’re applying for. Where you found out about it. When you're available to start
work (& end if it's a placement)
Second Paragraph Why your interested in that type
of work Why the company attracts you
(if it's a small company say you prefer to work for a small, friendly organisation!)
Third Paragraph Summarise your strengths and
how they might be an advantage to the organisation.
Relate your skills to the job.
Last Paragraph Mention any dates that you
won't be available for interview Thank the employer and say
you look forward to hearing from them soon.
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/goodbadcovlet.htm
Science CVs: “Sell” your degree
• List relevant modules (plus marks if good!)
• Projects – especially if relevant
• Laboratory skills/IT skills
• Soft skills – evidence of teamwork, project management, problem solving etc.
• For non-science jobs (e.g. banking) you would need a different CV focusing on your soft skills more than technical skills.