EMPLOYABILITY WEEK FEBRUARY 2020
The Postgraduate Research Careers Week, a programme organised by Organisational Development & Professional Learning (OD&PL) took place from the 24th to the 28th February 2020, where 14 free workshops were offer to postgraduate researchers (PGRs).
Monday covered topics related to networking, collaboration, self-awareness, and transferable skills. Tuesday was mostly focused on communication skills and personal business models, while the following day explored relevant matters such as imposter syndrome (feeling like a fraud), career destinations inside and outside academia, and how to improve your LinkedIn profile by making it attractive to employers and recruiters. On Thursday, the participants were able to learn about working outside academia, reaching employers with confidence, and job search strategies.
For the final day, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop titled: How to impress employers without feeling awkward or too much like “Selling Yourself”. This session, conducted by Ruth Winden, who started by asking our doubts and needs to be solved through the workshop. The general concerns of the assisting group was to solve issues comprising: virtual vs face to face interviews, how to bring something in if the recruiters do not ask about it, what to do when I cannot answer a question, what to ask at the end of a job interview.
The attendants discovered the importance of knowing about the company and the interviewer beforehand, understanding the position, and carrying a personal assessment. As an exercise, we were told to bring two job advertisements that interested us along with our current CV, in order to identify the required skills for the desired position. The concept of CAR stories (Challenge-Action-Result) was acquired by sharing our professional anecdotes, in which we could also demonstrate different skills to the interviewers.
The workshop was very helpful, it allowed us to interact, receive feedback on our approach and be more confident about the interview process. This kind of workshops occur not only on special occasions, but are planned by OD&PL throughout the year for the professional development and career success of students like me at the University of Leeds.
Any questions regarding the postgraduate research facilities at the University of Leeds, please get in touch! 🙂