Your discipline focused Employability Newsletter Welcome to your Employability NewsletterWelcome to the College of Social Sciences and International Studies Employability newsletter: We are half-way through term one and the hard work and pressure is really kicking in. Add on top approaching deadlines for graduate schemes and the all the extra events and activities you can get involved in, it can get a bit overwhelming. This newsletter can help! We have distilled down all the discipline-relevant events for you. We have yet more fantastic alumni speakers, such as for the Sociology / Criminology / Anthropology: Careers with your degree event. Anyone can sign up, and hear about careers in the public sector, charities sector, PR and Government. Julia Paci Upcoming Careers Events in the CollegeSociology/ Anthropology/ Criminology; Careers with your Degree Date: Thursday 8th November Come along to our discussion panel where we have four fantastic alumni working in a variety of sectors who have used Sociology/ Anthropology/ Criminology degrees to have successful careers and/or go into further study. This will be a fantastic opportunity to hear about the career options open to you, to network with a number of prestigious alumni, to find out about their careers, and learn about what steps you can take to follow a similar path. PGCE Teacher Recruitment Fair Date: Tuesday 4th December Are you a PGCE student? This is your chance to speak with a number of teacher recruitment agencies, schools and local education authorities to find out about the NQT vacancies they have available locally, nationally and internationally. There is no need to book, just turn up! Career Planning SupportApplying for pupillage Date: Friday 9th November Exeter alumnus Tom Windsor (Employed Barrister at Slaughter and May) will be running a workshop on making pupillage applications. The workshop will focus on advice on applying for pupillage, the BPTC and mini-pupillage. It will cover what to do/what not to do in terms of writing your application. The workshop will finish with a Q&A session. Politics PG Career Seminar Series: Thu Trang Nguyen (UNHCR) Date: Friday 9th November This is the first talk in the Career Seminar Series aimed at all Politics PG students. Trang will be in conversation with Beverley Loke (Lecturer in International Relations) about her varied experiences and recruitment advice for students interested in government, think tanks and UNHCR. Meet the Barrister: Jonathan Ashley-Norman QC Date: Tuesday 13th November A talk from Jonathan Ashley-Norman QC about his career, with a Q&A session about becoming a barrister and life as a barrister. Jonathan Ashley-Norman QC is a specialist in law enforcement in a corporate setting, defending, prosecuting and advising those ensnared in the complexities of business crime. He has advised and defended people from all walks of corporate life and all manner of businesses. Planning your strategy with Aspiring Solicitors Date: Tuesday 20th November Join Gemma Cowley from Aspiring Solicitors for a workshop focusing on how you can plan your strategy to prepare for interviews and assessment centres. She will cover the different types of interviews and assessments, what law firms expect in terms of commercial awareness, and how you can make the best impression. Commercial Awareness with Tozer's Solicitors LLP Date: Thursday 22nd November Join Deborah Black and Gráinne Staunton (Partners at Tozers Solicitors LLP) for a workshop focusing on commercial awareness and its importance to Law firms. The session will look at what ‘commercial awareness’ means, why it is important to Law firms, what firms look for in graduates, and how to demonstrate commercial awareness in your applications.
What can I do with my Philosophy degree? Wed 7th Nov, 12:30-1:30pm, Forum Seminar Room 08 Conversion to Law for Politics Students Wed 14th Nov, 10:30-12:30pm, Amory B106 SSIS Careers: Finding Internships Thurs 15th Nov, 12:30-1:30pm, Amory B316 How to develop a strong CV for Social Scientists Wed 21st Nov, 12:30-1:30pm, Amory B106 What else can I do with my Law degree? Thurs 22nd Nov, 3:30-4:30pm, Constantine Leventis Teaching Room What's New in the Career Zone?Stem Careers Fair Date: Tuesday 6th November The STEM Careers Fair is open to Exeter students of all years and disciplines and provides a fantastic opportunity to meet over 80 graduate recruiters from some of the country’s top STEM organisations. There will also be postgraduate study providers and our Career Zone on hand to help. Law Fair 2018 Date: Tuesday 13th November Over 80 organisations will be exhibiting, providing a fantastic opportunity for University of Exeter students from all disciplines to interact with some of the country’s top recruiters and discuss training contracts and vacation schemes. The event is open to all students and there is no need to book in advance. 2018 ASET Student Competition – chance to win £400! ASET are calling all students who have recently completed a placement to share their experiences in an inspirational way for a chance to win up to £400. The competition is designed to use inspirational stories from previous placement students to help encourage the next cohort of students to undertake a placement, in the UK or overseas. If you completed a placement, internship or a period of work experience that was support by the University during the academic year 2017/18 or summer 2018 then you are eligible to enter the competition. To find out how to apply, visit the ASET Competitions web page. The competition closes on Friday 30th November 2018 12 noon! Alumni FocusNick Wood BA (Hons) International Relations & French, 2013 Current Job: Consultancy: Justice, Security & Peacebuilding at an international development What did you do after you graduated? After my undergraduate degree, I stayed on to study an MA in Applied Security Strategy at the university’s Strategy & Security Institute. After graduating, I went into the security and risk management sector and worked for a small company in London, focusing on political risk analysis, investigations and kidnap response. It was an enjoyable, challenging and eye-opening period where I was able to put a great deal of skills I’d learned at university into practice. After a year, I moved into international development consultancy to work on several security sector programmes in the Horn of Africa. On my very first day with the company I travelled downtown Mogadishu, body armour and all. Having made it back in once piece, I’ve since been travelling between London, Nairobi and Mogadishu regularly for the past two years. What skills and knowledge did you develop which helped with your career prospects? One of the biggest challenges we face in international development, particularly in ‘fragile’ environments is how to ensure that we and our work aren’t overtaken by the pace of events. How do we make sure what we do is still relevant? How can we reconcile competing priorities? How do we mitigate against significant risks before they manifest themselves? How can we bring this group on side? University prepares you well for working hard and for working with a range of people with diverse, and sometimes divergent, views. There are time pressures, work pressures and discovering a workable work-life balance is an integral part of making it through university unscathed.
The world of work, especially in fast-paced and challenging environments, is much the same – for better or for worse! It might seem counter-intuitive not to discuss the degree itself when addressing this sort of question but university is just as much about discovering how you yourself tick, how you approach and solve issues, how you work with others and, ultimately, how you can complete everything to the best of your ability and still find time to enjoy life outside of work. What advice would you give current students searching and applying for jobs? As my time at Exeter was drawing to a close, I took the following approach: Submit more job applications than you’d like to. Become familiar with job-hunting as an art rather than a science: find the job sites and sources which work for you; search existing roles until you start to corroborate your searching by finding the same jobs on different sites – that way you know that you’re not missing out too much. Get into the habit of writing bespoke cover letters and tailoring your CV for anything you feel suited to; make them complementary together – It really is worth your time. Apply to enough positions that you don’t feel as though you’re putting all your eggs in one basket. Rejection is part and parcel of job-hunting; try not to take it personally. Be yourself in interviews; practice a few key lines you can weave in at given opportunities but don’t be someone you’re not – you’ll either be found out or, even worse, you’ll be offered a job in a place where you don’t fit! Stick it out and go for what you think you’ll enjoy or what might give you a foot in the door to where you want to go. Contact the Email Julia Paci (Employability & Outreach Manager) Becca Drew (Employability & Alumni Administrator) |