Career options – Careers Service Blog

Why I’m choosing teaching as a career

Posted on December 6, 2021November 23, 2021 by Careers Service

Ethan Osborn-Clarke is a final year Geography BSc student planning to teach Geography in secondary schools in London once he graduates, following the Teach First pathway. Other options for getting into teaching exist too – see links further down for details. We caught up with Ethan to discuss why he’s choosing this career path.

Teaching is a popular career choice for many graduates, for various reasons: job satisfaction, security, or to inspire the next generation.

There are many reasons I‘m going into teaching – all confirmed by my primary and secondary observation days and too numerous to go through individually. To try and summarise, I’ve put them into four main areas: fulfilment, differentiation, progression and challenge, giving a glimpse into my rationale for going into teaching.

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Last chance to apply for the Ideas stage of the New Enterprise Competition!

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Careers Service

The Ideas stage for the New Enterprise Competition is open for applications for another week. For the opportunity to test out your idea by pitching to us and to win up to £200 in equity free funding, what have you got to lose?

We caught up with Shabaj, who created the Success Program, a sports journaling app, which was awarded funding from the Ideas stage of the Competition last year.

In a nutshell, what is your start-up idea and where did the idea come from?

I’m working on a sports journaling app that allows individuals to track their weightlifting performance and provides customers with a quantitative measure of how their training programme is impacting their performance. Having our customers reflect on what they achieved on their last workout allows them to compete against themselves from one workout to the next.

The aim of the game is progression, but how can you know if you are progressing if you aren’t tracking your results?

I’m not the strongest person in the gym, by far. Often, if I push myself more than I am physically capable of and I get an injury. I got tired of repeating the same mistake and started to record my workouts in a notebook. However, I got fed up with flicking through the pages to find what weights, reps and sets I should do. I also lost more pens in the gym than most students do in three years at university. So I decided to build an app to think and carry less in the gym.

Have you always been interested in entrepreneurship? What inspired you to get into it?

I let my curiosity direct where I put my attention- which has its own set of pros and cons! My journey into entrepreneurship is more self-centred than most. From the projects I worked on, I always had a personal connection with problem I was trying to solve. Since I couldn’t find a product or service that met my needs, I would find out how I can create my own solution. If I have that problem, someone else might too.

Picture of Shabaj who founded the Success Program — Shabaj, founder of The Success Program

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My SME Internship: Anastasiia – Altuity Solutions

Posted on October 26, 2021November 9, 2021 by Careers Service

As students, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to succeed.

The job market is extremely competitive, and often, recruiters already expect you to have work experience when you graduate. So, many of us spend the holidays searching for vacation schemes and internships, myself included. During this winter vacation, I was looking for opportunities to boost my CV when I stumbled across the SME Internship Scheme. It was truly the perfect opportunity because you are able to gain some experience working remotely whilst also getting paid for it.

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My SME Internship: Tom – Beaufort Chancery

Posted on October 18, 2021November 9, 2021 by Careers Service

Hi, my name is Tom. Just before my graduation, I reached out to Beaufort Chancery in hopes of building my professional experience through the SME Internship Scheme.

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There may be no wine, but could virtual fairs be a better use of your time?

Posted on October 7, 2021October 7, 2021 by Careers Service

There’s a virtual careers fair taking place every week throughout October – one for every sector in fact! But what is a virtual fair like to attend and what are the benefits of the virtual format over a physical event?

Zubair Ahmed Zoha Khan tells us about his experience… Zubair is in his 2nd year of an Accounting and Finance degree.

Before joining the fair, I was a bit worried about how I would be able to interact with employers effectively without meeting them face-to-face. But rest assured, it was amazing! Below are some of the positive features that stood out for me:

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City Challenges: Students Provide Solutions to Real-life Problems

Posted on October 4, 2021October 1, 2021 by Careers Service

The City Challenges are an exclusive programme of events which provides you with the opportunity to engage with Bristol’s charity sector, gain informal work experience, and develop your skills through working on real life challenges posed by local community organisations.

The first City Challenge involved piloting a problem-solving session focusing on reducing HIV stigma within the medical community, which was supported by the Brigstowe charity and the Careers Service Community Engagement team.

A total of 10 students took part, developing their teamwork, communication, and decision-making skills to create presentations in which they gave details of how Brigstowe could approach raising awareness in the medical community of unfair and untrue beliefs around people living with HIV.

This City Challenge allowed students to explore their interest in community outreach as well as learn about how they can be aware of and actively combat their own biases around their attitudes to people who are living with HIV. They explored issues such as how General Practitioners and students can destigmatise their work when dealing with people living with HIV. Brigstowe will now be able to use these ideas for possible future funding bids, marketing campaigns and training sessions.

The next City Challenge will be based ask the question ‘How can we encourage male university students to talk about their mental health?’ and students will be working with Talk Club and the Community Engagement team. This challenge will be eligible for the Bristol PLUS Award and held on Wednesday 27 October from 11.30am to 5pm and you can sign up on myopportunities.

How attending a careers fair helped me choose a career path

Posted on September 30, 2021October 7, 2021 by Careers Service

Our Sector Spotlight Series is running from 29 September – 12 November.

Connect with employers from a wide range of sectors at our virtual careers fairs, panel events, and webinars. It doesn’t matter what degree you are studying; there are opportunities in every sector available for you.

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Case Study: Find out about Andreea’s journey with IKEEP!

Posted on September 13, 2021September 24, 2021 by Careers Service

The Intrapreneurial Knowledge Exchange Enterprise Pathway (IKEEP) begins with fully funded training to equip you with the skills to drive innovation and bring fresh thinking to businesses.

Once you’ve completed your intrapreneurial training, you can apply for a project placement and get the opportunity to take your new skills and help a business solve an innovative challenge.

Andreea Patrunjel, MSc in Computer Science

Andreea Patrunjel, a postgraduate student, studying an MSc in Computer Science at the University of Bristol, took part in the IKEEP programme. She completed IKEEP’s online Intrapreneurial training and went on to apply for and take part in the 4-week project placement. She was matched with a Bristol start-up, Groundwaves, a company which have pioneered some of the most powerful haptic technology, and applied it in a footwear product, fusing the worlds of fashion and technology.

We caught up with Andreea to hear more about her experience with IKEEP…

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Case Study: Senmag Robotics’s experience with IKEEP

Posted on September 6, 2021September 24, 2021 by Careers Service

What is IKEEP?

The IKEEP Programme consists of high-quality knowledge exchange opportunities, providing fresh perspectives and skills to enable regional businesses to grow while honing the talent of future graduates.

Students involved will have participated in online training in a range of business areas such as managing innovation, business model development and project management. Student teams are ready to be placed within a company to develop business model solutions, improve market awareness and more!

Senmag Robotics’s Experience with IKEEP

Senmag Robotics took part in the IKEEP Programme this year. The student team, matched to this business, carried out market research to evaluate the most suitable markets and potential customers/early adopters for their product. They were also involved in the company’s website design, implementing improvements using HTML and CSS.

Spyros Lavetiz, the CEO and Co-founder of Senmag Robotics

Senmag Robotics is a Bristol-based start-up and New Enterprise Competition finalist producing affordable haptic feedback technology, which allows a user to physically interact with computer simulations, making environments and objects in AR/VR feel solid.

Spyros Lavetiz is the CEO and Co-founder of Senmag Robotics and has recently completed his final year of a master’s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bristol.

We spoke to Spyros to find out more about his experience with IKEEP…

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