Final Reflection

In the final year of my undergraduate degree, I have had the pleasure to have been taught a variety of career-driven skills within a science based employability module.

Firstly, the cohort was given an in-depth lecture based on writing a curriculum vitae (CV) and using your experience to your advantage. This was then followed by an interactive seminar working on interview skills for future careers. Both the seminar and lecture's was given by Clare Brass, an employability specialist at Bangor University.

Clare was highly informative and provided us with a wealth of knowledge and experience in order to prepare us for our life after University! However, I do believe the CV writing lecture may have been more useful if it was a computer based session, working on our CV's independently with advice and guidance to both the class and individually.

You can be judged on your CV within 8.8 seconds

The interview based seminar was probably less useful for myself, as I am well versed in interviews from my career history.

I believe it also would have been more useful if we could have been given interviews from local professional/ employers rather than basing our learning off our peers.

Overall, Clare Brass did a fantastic job in inspiring myself to work on my CV, to cater it towards my future career interests.

Bangor University is a very forward-thinking, innovative institute, often providing students with fantastic business themed opportunities like this.

Secondly, the cohort was provided with a business themed set of seminars given by Chris Walker, a Bangor University lecturer and business consultant. I never particularly thought I would be interested in business, but Chris' talks inspired me to think beyond research and into science innovation. Learning about business models and being able to work interactively with like-minded scientists to develop an innovative idea and a business plan opened my mind up to the possibility of business.

On a previous blog post I discuss this interactive session where students group together to brainstorm business ideas and develop a business model for the ideas.

This really allowed me to access my more creative side, whilst putting to use my knowledge of science, and what my ideas could do to fill significant gaps in current research techniques.

Twitter gave me the opportunity to join a research expedition in 2019/2020.

Thirdly, and possibly one of the most important tools from this module, was the ability to manipulate social media to my advantage. Dr. Christian Dunn provided a series of lectures on the use of social media to boost employability, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram! Being able to utilise key apps like LinkedIn will significantly boost my chance of employability and has enabled me to network with local ecologists, and other similar environment-based employees and employers. LinkedIn also allows you to keep up to date with contacts at the university and any contacts made during your degree including outside lecturers giving seminars on your area of interest.

Key social media you can use to boost your emplotability

Twitter is a very important link, particular in science and research. Making yourself known on twitter and showing interest in other colleague’s research can help you gain key contacts. This was particularly true for me as I closely followed Dr. Simon Maddock’s research on Twitter. Shortly after, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Maddock at Bangor, where he gave a talk on Seychelles caecilians. After his talk I was able to talk with him, and one of the things that was most important to that conversation was that he recognised me from twitter! This then led to a discussion of joining him on a research expedition in 2019/2020. Other social media apps can also be key links to employability, by linking all of your social media to your search on Google, and connecting within each application. This makes you more visible to an employer. You can also use Instagram to demonstrate your hobbies and interests, and Facebook/ Twitter to show you follow current research.

This Google search shows my Facebook profile, which is first listed, followed by my Instagram second, academic twitter fourth and even my LinkedIn profile as the 5th search result.

Additionally, my Facebook and LinkedIn profile photos also appears on the search. Both images are appropriately themed with me holding a frog in one and a stick insect in the second. The search engine also links to my blog post I have written for the Bangor University page on my expedition to Cusuco National Park, Honduras

Finally, one of the most interesting parts of the module was the variety of seminars we were suggested to attend and discuss within a blog. Writing a short blog post on a seminar that could last upwards of an hour is quite a challenging piece of work. This module allowed me to improve my skills at writing notes, in order to remember the key points of the speaker’s research and interests. This skill is invaluable and is something I am sure I will be able to transfer into any career I choose.

Each seminar was unique and provided a fantastic view into the world of research and careers surrounding science. Although my primary interests lie within the field of Batrachology (amphibian science including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and caecilians), I was able to experience more of what the world of Zoology has to offer; from a lady who’s world is flies, to

learning how dinosaurs walked the Earth and even bee conservation!

Dr Erica McAlister, senior curator of Diptera at the Natural History Museum, London

Not only was I able to learn something new at each seminar, I was also able to make valuable connections with a range of scientists across the UK who may be the key a future career in research.

Overall, the module has been truly helpful in teaching me how to perfect my CV and social media to aid my employability, as well as enabling me to make vital connections for my dream career. I am excited to complete my undergraduate year and move on to study the amphibians of Madagascar as part of my Masters degree project (details to follow).

I hope that you enjoyed following my final academic year as an undergraduate and have learnt something interesting from my experience. In particular the importance of networking, exploring further than your comfort zone and how to stand out from the crowd!