Category: Improving employability

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Breaking up your employability journey – Stage 3

For most, university is about gaining the necessary skills and knowledge to enter a certain field or industry. It is this reason why a lot of people quite easily fall down the rabbit hole and assume they must have their whole university time planned, with placement along the way before concluding in the perfect graduate role.  

Especially for those who are just starting, the untapped potential you have at your fingertips over the next few years can be really overwhelming and you can’t help but try to plan everything as soon as possible (I know I did). This isn’t sustainable and will likely lead to early burnout.  

To hopefully help you with the process, the following article lays out a method of breaking down how you can improve your employability over the course of your university career. This is just a rough guide; some stuff will work for others that doesn’t work for you. And that’s okay.  

If there is one thing you do learn though, it is that you do not need to do everything straight away and even the smallest step is important. 

This is the third article of three, focusing on what stage three students could be doing in this final part of their degrees. If you are interested in any other stage, Stage 1 or Stage 2 please click the respective link. 

Semester 1 

Polish and Self Promotion 

Whether you are returning from a placement, or have just finished your second year, congratulations on making it this far. Regardless of what grades you’ve received, the fact that you’ve already committed this much time to your degree is impressive and won’t go amiss by employers. 

For many, this year is a big one. You get to specialize and focus on a certain field by picking modules, a dissertation and the looming threat of securing a job for when you’re done. It can be a lot, and it can be stressful. But remember, you already have two years of knowledge and skill to show off, so be sure to do just that. 

To avoid the stress of trying to sort out your CV and portfolio, applying for jobs and doing a dissertation all at the same time. Be sure to try and break them up. I recommend starting with your CV and portfolio. 

In the previous articles, I kept mentioning that you should be improving and iterating on your portfolio to the point that you are probably sick of the word. But it really is that important! By now you should hopefully have a nice-sized portfolio of work, including things like your team project. Take some time to fine-tune and make your portfolio something you can really be proud of. Check out this article for some more tips. As the year progresses and you work on more specific projects for your chosen career, be sure to include them in your portfolio and maybe even do a few shameless promotions on LinkedIn! 

Semester 2 

Apex of Applications 

Except for some roles at larger companies like Google and Microsoft, the window for most of your applications will be within your second semester. And there is no point beating around the bush, it will be a stressful period.  

However, if you have a portfolio and cv ready before you even start applying, it will mean you have one less thing to juggle. Having a “generic” cv is a great starting point for any application but be sure to take the time to specialise it for the role you are applying for, much like how you would do with a cover letter. 

Keep a spreadsheet of roles you have applied for, as well as how far along the application pipeline you are, with the relevant cover letters and CVs for each role. This means that if you progress to the next stage, you don’t have to scramble around to figure out what you said in your application. 

If you start to notice trends in your applications with either no responses or immediate rejections, be sure to reflect on why this is happening and actively change your applications. Use the Careers Service to help with this! 

Semester 3 

Securing Those Graduate Roles 

Hopefully, between semesters 1 and 2, you will receive responses from the various companies you have applied for. If they like your application, you might have progressed to the next stage in their application process. It varies from company to company what the next step might be, but it could include any of the following: 

  • Assessment Centre 
  • Coding Interview 
  • Classic Interview (1-1) 
  • Group Interview 
  • Presentation 
  • Personality Test 

Any of these can be nerve-racking to attend but all you can do is try your best. Remember, you are already on good footing because they liked your application. They want to fill their open roles! 

Don’t get disheartened if you aren’t successful with your first, second or third application. The job hunt is an iterative process. After each one, reflect on what went well and what didn’t. Where you can, ask for feedback from those who conducted the interview or managed the application process then apply what you have learned the next time. 

And again, please make use of the Careers Service. It is there to make your life easier and has the main responsibility of helping you get a job.  

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Breaking up your employability journey – Stage 2

For most, university is about gaining the necessary skills and knowledge to enter a certain field or industry. It is this reason why a lot of people quite easily fall down the rabbit hole and assume they must have their whole university time planned, with placement along the way before concluding in the perfect graduate role.  

Especially for those who are just starting, the untapped potential you have at your fingertips over the next few years can be really overwhelming and you can’t help but try to plan everything as soon as possible (I know I did). This isn’t sustainable and will likely lead to early burnout.  

To hopefully help you with the process, the following article lays out a method of breaking down how you can improve your employability over the course of your university career. This is just a rough guide; some stuff will work for others that doesn’t work for you. And that’s okay.  

If there is one thing you do learn though, it is that you do not need to do everything straight away and even the smallest step is important. 

This is the second article of three, focusing on what stage two students could be doing at this next stage of their employment journey. If you are interested in any other stage, Stage 1 or Stage 3, please click the respective link. 

Semester 1 

Securing Placements 

Stage One done! Congratulations on completing your first year. Regardless of how it went, don’t dwell on the past, because from here things truly begin to ramp up. While in first year I recommended maybe spending about half an hour working on your employability, now you should probably start ramping up a little bit. Especially if you want to get a placement. 

For many, you may be thinking that you have plenty of time to secure placements for third year, but they can be extremely competitive to get so the sooner you start the better. This is even more important for larger companies like Microsoft and Google who tend to search and hire earlier in the year.  

Be sure to make use of the careers service to help improve your CVs and Cover Letters before you start applying, as they will be able to spot any weaknesses in your applications that could cost you an interview. It might take some time for companies to get back to you about applications but in the meantime, you will be confident in the fact you have applied for roles in a calm and collective manner rather than rushing to send applications off later in the year while juggling assignments. 

For some students, a placement year might not be the thing for you (I know it wasn’t for me). That is perfectly fine, but it doesn’t mean you’ll have nothing to do. It just means you have more time to fine-tune your portfolio! Working on extra projects is a fantastic way to get companies to hire you. And you may also want to consider applying for shorter roles you can either do alongside your studies, or over the summer between stages 2 and 3 (The MyCareers page is great for this as it advertises roles done with the University). 

Semester 2 

Networking and Interviews  

After that initial rush of applying for placements, be sure to try and catch up with your studies. It can be a difficult thing to juggle both your degree and employment, so don’t feel bad if you drop slightly behind!  

Hopefully, you will start receiving responses to applications at some point during semester 2, or even semester 1, and if they like what they see, you may be in with an interview. In a post covid world, a lot of interviews might be over video, but there are some cases where they may ask you to come to their offices. This might mean that you must miss some lessons but if you let your personal tutor and module leader know, it should be fine. The Careers Service also has resources to help you prepare for interviews and assessment centers so that you can really shine out to employers.  

Regardless of if you are going on a placement or not, there is something you must start doing. Networking. Certainly not the happiest word in the English language, networking can fill you with existential dread, but it does work. Whether it’s talking to other people at an interview or attending a short conference, just talking to people will help down the line, especially if you manage to get some LinkedIn connections! 

Semester 3 

Portfolio Progression 

Hopefully by now, if you tried to secure one, you have a placement for next year. Fantastic! What now? You might think you can put your feet up for the rest of the year and to a certain extent you can. But there are other things you can be getting up to. At around this time of year, you might be working on your team project, which is something great to include in your portfolio. But what else should you include?  

If you haven’t been working on anything outside of your degree, you might have a solid portfolio of work, but it will look exactly like everyone else’s. Spending time working on your own projects, be it a mobile game, recreation of a piece of software or just something fun you made in your spare time, is a great way to stand out. If you want more tips on how to improve your portfolio, check out this article. 

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Breaking up your employability journey – Stage 1

For most, university is about gaining the necessary skills and knowledge to enter a certain field or industry. It is this reason why a lot of people quite easily fall down the rabbit hole and assume they must have their whole university time planned, with placement along the way before concluding in the perfect graduate role.  

Especially for those who are just starting, the untapped potential you have at your fingertips over the next few years can be really overwhelming and you can’t help but try to plan everything as soon as possible (I know I did). This isn’t sustainable and will likely lead to early burnout.  

To hopefully help you with the process, the following article lays out a method of breaking down how you can improve your employability over the course of your university career. This is just a rough guide; some stuff will work for others that doesn’t work for you. And that’s okay.  

If there is one thing you do learn though, it is that you do not need to do everything straight away and even the smallest step is important. 

This is the first article of three, focusing on what stage one students could be doing to get their employability journey underway. If you are interested in any other stage, Stage 2 or Stage 3 please click the respective link. 

Semester 1 

Settling in 

For many, this is your first time away from home, living in a brand-new city, and sometimes even a brand-new country. It can be a lot to process, which is why thinking too far into the future so soon will not be beneficial. 

Just take the first semester to get the lay of the land, settle into a routine with your degree and try and make some friends. Joining a few societies at the start is a terrific way to get integrated with university life and looks great on your CV later down the road. 

Semester 2 

Setting up 

Now that you’ve had the chance to settle into your degree and university, now might be a good time to start looking a little bit into the future. I should emphasise that you do not have to get started now if you don’t think you’re ready to.  

If you are feeling up to it, try and spend 30 minutes every week working on your employability. This could be by improving your CV, practicing writing cover letters, online courses or attending sessions hosted by the careers service. But at this stage, spending more than 30 minutes a week might not be necessary so be sure not to spend all your time doing this. Doing something as simple as setting up a LinkedIn account is a great way to get started. 

Semester 3 

Looking back and looking forward 

In the final part of first year, chances are you will be swamped with deadlines galore so don’t worry if you can’t spend much time working on your employability. But after the deadline season is finished and you have a nice long summer break ahead of you, there are a few things you could be getting up to. 

You’ve just finished your first year of university, congratulations! Now is a great time to reflect on what you have done in the past year. What modules did you enjoy more than others? What topics did you find harder to grasp? Asking yourself questions like this might already give you an indication of what field you might want to go into as well as what topics to work on outside of university to gain more confidence for next year.  

If you already have an idea of what field you want to go into (you absolutely do not have to know this yet though), this could be a prime opportunity to start looking into companies in that field that could take you on for placements after your second year. There is no point applying quite yet but getting an idea of what companies are out there will be a huge help down the line. 

Where you can, try to work on your portfolio. By working on projects in your own time, that aren’t related to university, it not only shows your work ethic but also your initiative. There is also the advantage of keeping the skills you’ve learned up to now sharp and ready for stage 2. 

While there are many things you can get up to in the summer, be sure to take time for yourself and have a break. Try not to burn yourself out and rest so that by the time stage 2 comes around, you can come in swinging. 

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Interview: NUCATS

We interviewed two committee members of Newcastle University’s Computing and Technology Society (NUCATS) to get some insight into what the society does and the different ways it can help you.

Who are you and what are each of your roles in the society? 

Sofia: So, I’m Sofia and I’m president of NUCATS. I basically run our weekly meetings and sort of oversee most of what we do, and I just try to make sure everyone feels like they’re playing an equal role in running the society. So more of a motivator than a dictator, I’d say.  

There was a sort of impromptu bar crawl that we went on this last week and people were coming up to me and asked me where we were going next, what’s the next thing that we’re doing? And I was like this isn’t my event, I’m just here for the ride because the social secs organised it. I trust them to be able to make the best decision because it is a social event.  

Ben: And I’m Ben, I’m the gaming officer for the society. I perform a role similar to the social secretaries but with more focus on our gaming events. So recently we hosted Mario Sonic Olympics which was good fun. 

What is your society in 10 words or less? 

Sofia: Tech, gaming and social events for those interested in technology. 

Ben: NUCATS is the way to explore the social side of computing. That might be eleven words. 

What do you do in your society? 

Sofia: We see ourselves as the social side of the technology community at Newcastle University. We aim to create a sense of belonging for those who study computing and other similar courses or are just interested in tech. We try to make it easier for students to make friends with like-minded people and make memories outside of just attending lectures. We also hope to empower students by bringing in industry sponsors and hosting events that could help with employability. 

Ben: We run series of tech, gaming and social events as a way to bring people with similar interests together and do things such as boost their CV or just meeting people to have good times at university. 

What do you want to do when you finish university? 

Sofia: I already know what I’m going to be doing. I’ve got a graduate job starting in September where I’ll be a cloud solution architect for Microsoft.  

I’ll be starting my graduate job in September 2023. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work on projects where I can make a difference in the impact an organization is able to make on the world. So, kind of like an enabler for the company to be able to do more, if that makes sense.  

But I also look forward to being able to work on passion projects within Microsoft. My main focus will probably be on encouraging more girls and children of color as well as people from low-income backgrounds to pursue the tech industry. 

Ben: My aim after university is to possibly join the games industry as a developer because I have a real fascination with being able to point at something and say that was me. I want to put my name to something and as someone. With very little artistic talent or musical talent, the games industry seems a good place for me to do that. 

What makes your society different from something like Cyber Soc? And is there a rivalry? 

Sofia: Everybody says that. No, there isn’t a rivalry.  I like to think of it as like cousins. Maybe we’re the older cousin than they are, but it’s that sort of relationship. So yeah, we get this question a lot. Cyber Soc is a great Society that supported us so much over the past few years. I’d say the main difference between us and Cyber Soc are that they’re building a community of students with an interest in cybersecurity and learning to hack in an ethical environment, while we are building a more broad all-encompassing computing and technology society. So we have events that not only cover cyber security, but we also have game design, employability skills, programming skills, etc.  

Ben: Cyber Soc essentially is just a more niche subsection of NUCATS but let’s face it, they’re a great society too. And we do a lot of events in collaboration with them, so we have a good working relationship. 

Do you have any corporate sponsors, and if so, what do they help you do? 

Sofia: We do, sort of. So recently we’ve put on events sponsored by BA Systems and Accenture, and we’ve got some more planned for later on through the year. The way we’re kind of doing at the moment is a sponsor will sponsor event rather than sponsoring the entire year. So at least they can kind of pick and choose what they do. So that’s been our approach so far. Maybe we’ll eventually get someone who’s just like “actually we just want to fund your entire year”. But until that happens at the moment it’s just an event-by-event basis. 

How do you think NUCATS, either as committee or as a member, will help you get a job? 

Sofia: Well, I think from the more committee standpoint because I have been on the committee before, it already has helped me get a job. So, during interviews I had many questions where I could pull from experiences that I had as a committee member. Interviewers really love to see when students play an active role in the community, so being on the committee or being a member of the society is a great way to show that. 

Ben: For me it’s more that it just helps me be more outgoing. So in my first year of university, I had not so much of an issue, but a lot more time struggle to go out and speak to new people and make new friends, whereas the committee and being just a part of the society in general, it’s a really great way for me to meet new people and have to interact in ways that I typically wouldn’t. It is just valuable experience to get for going to the world of work. 

What three things do you think your society brings to help improve employability? 

Sofia: 

  1. Opportunities to build skills 

we hold several events where students can build on skills in a fun way, such as hackathons, game jams, workshops, that sort of thing. All of these can be put on a CV and spoken about in interviews, which is super super valuable. 

  1. Opportunities to speak to employers 

Our sponsors are normally companies that are actively looking to hire students or graduates, so at our events they’re always happy to answer questions and tell you more about the opportunities. that they have. 

  1. Opportunities to get involved.  

One of the ways that students can make their CV’s stand out is by showing how they actively participate in the technical community? So, by being on committee, participating in events, etc., you gain experiences that you could talk about in interviews. 

Ben: I don’t have three additional fees for that, but I’ll reiterate my previous work of the social aspect of work is incredibly important, and the society really helps people come out of their shells and interact. and I found on my placement year that just being able to interact with people in a different setting that you might be uncomfortable with, is a really useful skill, 

Sofia: I think it’s a skill that a lot of computing students generally lack, so yeah, being in the society is such a great way to get more comfortable with that. 

Have you any events coming up? 

Ben: We’re planning before the end of this term a Christmas quiz, followed likely by a bar crawl. And as the gaming officer I will have to plug, we have a series of gaming events coming up. Some would be online some would be in person, so we’ll do the likes of Jackbox, Among Ss online and in person WII Sports and Gang Beast. 

What’s your policy on people outside of the School of Computing joining? 

Sofia: There’s no policy on anyone outside of the computing joining. We want everyone who has an appreciation or interest in technology to join because over my past year working in industry, all of my friends were so interested in tech and wanted to stay in the tech industry. But only maybe one or two of them did computing everyone else did like business or history or HR or things like that so anyone can have an interest in technology regardless of what they study. And we are so so welcoming to anyone. 

Ben: I’d like to add value for money. It’s got to be one of the best societies so you can join in terms of only just the pizza you can get its exceptional value for money. 

Sofia: Pizza in Python event, you get free pizza I think we’re also going to be bringing beers, wines, soft drinks. All that would be free if you attended the event. 

Ben: Definitely worth joining if you have any interest in technology whatsoever. 

Sofia: Yeah, yeah, it’s almost like you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t join, because the community you are able to build and the people you can ask for advice and for help. It just opens you up to this massive group of people who have done computing who’ve gotten all these experiences in their lives. It’s great. 

We’re always happy to have new members. I think we’re one of the biggest societies, but we handle it well. There’s such a big variety of events and types of people you can meet, and everyone has really amazing interests. It’s a great place to meet people virtually and in person. 

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Placement Insights with General Electric Healthcare

We interviewed James Huish about their time on placement last year with General Electric Healthcare and the struggles with online application processes. Here is what they had to say: 

Who did your industrial placement with?  

General Electric Healthcare 

As described on its website, General Electric Healthcare is a leading global medical technology, pharmaceutical diagnostics, and digital solutions innovator. They enable clinicians to make faster, more informed decisions through intelligent devices, data analytics, applications and services, supported by its Edison intelligence platform.

What was your role?  

Software engineer in the Medical Imaging Team 

Why did you do a placement?  

I wanted experience working with programming in an actual job, both to learn and to help with getting a job after graduating 

When did you start applying and how many places did you apply for?  

I applied for 3 or 4 and had a few video interviews but got rejected, I had more or less given up but then a lecturer posted an advertisement on Canvas, and I applied through them. 

How was the application experience?  

The applications for most were frustrating with 1-way video interviews where I had to record myself and got no feedback. In the placement I got, I just had one video interview, but it was actually with the people working there, rather than the other 1-way recorded interviews. 

What, if any, help did you get from the university when applying?  

None, although the placement I got was advertised through a post on Canvas. 

What work did you do over the course of your placement year?  

It took a long time to get much work but when I did it was a variety of things, for example, porting an application from windows to Linux and adding features, helping to bug fix and improve an application in development, and managing a Blinded Image evaluation (not coding related). 

How was the overall experience of doing a placement?  

Good, there were times I did not have much to do and also, I was not in a software team. The people were great, and I had a great experience but would have learnt a lot more if I were in a team with more software engineers. 

Would you like to go back to that company after your final year?  

I would, depending on available roles and location.