Category: Science careers

Bristol Connects: How one click of a button solved all my job hunting and career fears

Posted on by Careers Service

Hi, I’m Avellina, a recent Biology graduate from Bristol and I’m here to tell you how in my final year all my worries about job hunting, choosing the wrong career and job applications vanished and it’s all thanks to Bristol Connects.

With graduation looming, all the responsibilities and changes that were coming up weighed heavily on my back. For the first time in 17 years, my life wouldn’t be structured by exams, lectures and academic calendars. Instead, my life would diverge into an entirely new, unique path as I pursued my first job.

Amongst the excitement, fear and the uncertainty for what lay ahead, one thought routinely replayed in my head: How am I going to achieve my dream career?

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Careers in Medicine

Posted on by Careers Service

Welcome to the fascinating world of medicine. Where science and compassion interact to save lives and transform the human experience.

Panellist, Amber, speaks to students at the Careers Service about the Mature Medic Platform.

In March we welcomed a panel of 4 speakers for a panel event, who shared their experiences, as well as their top tips, to students interested in a career in medicine.  

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Aman: My IKEEP experience with a tech start-up

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The IKEEP (Intrapreneurial Knowledge Exchange Enterprise Pathway) programme, run by world-leading business incubator SETsquared, offers free online training in entrepreneurship and business skills.

Some students then take on a project with an innovative SME. We caught up with epidemiology postgrad Aman Jat after he finished his IKEEP placement with medical tech start-up Microsol.

Aman Jat at the beach in Cornwall

Aman, can you tell us more about the project you were working on? 

Microsol is a science start-up focused on delivering AI-enabled software products for predicting aerosol properties in respiratory drug delivery. Microsol directly contribute to the advancement of respiratory therapeutics, which is beneficial to society and the economy.

The aim of our project was to plan Microsol’s public launch. A key objective was to develop a marketing campaign, find prospective investors from data and expand their network, as well as enhance their web presence.

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4 hidden ways the PLUS Award benefits you! – untold secrets of a PLUS Award achiever

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Hello prospective PLUS Award achievers! I’m Avellina, a final year Biology student and 2021/22 PLUS Award achiever. 

Avellina smiling.

Many students understand that the Bristol PLUS Award is an employability award that rewards you for going above and beyond your degree. We know that it boosts our CV and makes us stand out to future employers… but there are also secret, unknown benefits that you’ll only uncover upon starting the Award process! 

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Graduate stories: Deferring my biology Master’s to stay in Bristol.

Posted on by Careers Service
An image of a girl smiling into the camera whilst wearing her graduation gown.

Lucy graduated from Bristol in 2022 with a degree in biology. Despite planning to go straight into further study, Lucy decided to defer her Master’s in London and stay in Bristol. She currently works as a healthcare scientific support worker in a Virology lab at Southmead hospital. Keep reading to see why she made this decision, the career and personal benefits, and her advice for other students and graduates.

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City Challenges: Students Provide Solutions to Real-life Problems

Posted on 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. 

Five things you can get from our upcoming Sector Spotlight Series

Posted on by Careers Service

Meeting with employers does involve networking – which we know can seem terrifying! But don’t let that put you off coming to talk to some of the 300 plus employers that come to Careers Service events every year. There’s so much you get from coming along. Here’s our top five:

1. Productive research

Coming along to a large scale employer event, like one of our Sector Spotlight Series (27 October to 11 November) events, is a great way to get a lot of information quickly. There’s no better bang for your buck than being able to research multiple employers on the same day.

2. Insider information

As you’ll be speaking directly with employers, you get the inside scoop on the work culture and can get answers to questions that aren’t on their website or FAQs list. Employer representatives might include recent Bristol graduates who can tell you all about their work. Come and get the gossip!

3. Work experience opportunities

Employers come to our events because they want to hire Bristol students. They will have work experience and internships on offer as well as graduate jobs. Recruiters will often hire people to their full time roles that have completed work experience with them, so you can get in there early.

4. Get ahead

Meeting employers in person (even if that is through Zoom!) is the best way to make a good impression. The people you meet might be a future interviewer, so you can make a good contact and start to stand out from the crowd early on. You can also ask for tips on making applications 👍

5. Something for everyone

It doesn’t matter if you’re starting to explore your options or ready to apply for opportunities, you can get useful information from an employer. The range of employers we connect with is huge – large and small, local and international – and from a huge array of sectors.

At our Sector Spotlight Series, you can meet employers from:

  • Banking and Finance – 27 October
  • Law – 28 October
  • Consultancy – 29 October
  • Public Sector – 3 November
  • Engineering – 4 November
  • Technology and Data – 5 November
  • Consumer Goods and Retail – 10 November
  • Sciences – 11 November

👋 We look forward to seeing you there!

And if you’re worried about networking, use our resources to build your confidence, our elevator pitch builder to prepare your introduction, and our how to prepare guide for ideas about questions to ask. Remember, you can always ask your Careers Service for help through our live chat too.

My COVID-19 SME Internship: Luke – Acer Ecology

Posted on by Careers Service

Luke, a third year Zoology student, has written about his recent internship experience which was supported by our COVID-19 SME Internship Fund. The aim of this fund is to support local SMEs including charities, social enterprises and start-up who are operating at maximum capacity as they respond to the challenges of Coronavirus, while giving students valuable and meaningful work experiences in a difficult economic climate.

We know that many of you have had your summer internships and work experience cancelled or are struggling to find opportunities. Luke found himself in this situation and our COVID-19 SME Internship Fund offered him a new opportunity.

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How might the Bristol PLUS and Outstanding Awards support your career journey?

Posted on by Careers Service

Update: The Outstanding Award process closed after the 2020/21 academic year. Current students who have made an outstanding contribution to their PLUS Award activity may consider engaging with the Outstanding PLUS Award, which launched in the 2021/22 academic year.  

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My SME Internship at a science start-up

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Manan Vaswani describes the opportunity he received to apply his computing knowledge in the real world. The role was part of the SME Internship Scheme run by the Careers Service, you can find out more about the scheme and how to get involved here. This is what he had to say about his experience:

The word ‘internship’ used to conjure visions of long monotonous days, working for large companies on projects to which my only contribution would be slogging out the most mundane of tasks. This perception, however, was flipped upside-down after Spin Up Science arranged for me to carry out an internship with the science start-up, QLM Technology. (more…)