February is a special month for those studying in the Faculty of Arts, as the Careers Service and Faculty collaborate to host the annual Faculty of Arts Careers Series, spanning four weeks from 1 to 25 February 2022.
Category: Careers thinking
Ten tips to make the most of your winter vacation!
Now that the holiday season is upon us, have you considered how you might spend the break from University? If you want to make the most of the time, this can be a good opportunity to continue your careers and employability journey.
Have a look at our top 10 tips to help you maximise the break from University:
Wellbeing in the workplace
How to master the transition from university to first job
The last couple of years have been really difficult to be both a student and an employee. The job market is looking up, but as you transition between university and the workplace, how can you make sure to look after yourself?
My SME Internship: Anastasiia – Altuity Solutions
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.
My SME Internship: Tom – Beaufort Chancery
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.
City Challenges: Students Provide Solutions to Real-life Problems
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.
Case Study: Find out about Andreea’s journey with IKEEP!
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, 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…
Case Study: Senmag Robotics’s experience with IKEEP
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.
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…
CPSA Case Study: Sourcing your own SME Internship
As a final year BSc Psychology student, I wanted to use this year to develop my skills and experience so that I would be in a strong position to apply for graduate jobs. After taking a course on drugs and addiction as part of my degree, I realized that I felt passionate about this subject.
I decided that I wanted to look for an internship in a related role, to help me to decide if I would enjoy working in this field. However, I was not finding many advertised opportunities for the kinds of internships I was interested in.
Through the Careers Service website I learned that students could source their own internships through the university’s SME internship scheme. (more…)
CPSA case study: Bouncing back from rejections
“Thank you for your application for [job name] at [company].
However, after careful consideration we regret to inform you that you have not been successful…”
Emails like this are almost inevitable during your job search. Despite knowing that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, receiving rejections can feel crushing.
Here are some practical tips to get out of the rejection rut … (more…)