Transcript of podcast episode with Natalie Rowles from Careers Network
Episode length: 29:08
Cate: Welcome everyone to the latest edition of Career Talk. My name is Cate Linforth, and I’m the International Employer Liaison Officer here at Careers Network, and I’m really excited because this episode, we are joined by the lovely Natalie from Careers Network. Hi, Natalie!
Natalie: I’m good thanks, how are you, Cate?
Cate: Good, thanks. This week we're going to shake things up a little bit, and we're going to do a little bit of myth busting. We're going to talk all about Careers Network and the career services at the University of Birmingham, how we can help students and what students can do to enhance their career prospects, I guess, and maybe try and get rid of me of those common misconceptions around career services.
Natalie, you've worked at Careers Network for over five years now.
Natalie: Yeah, just over five years.
Cate: You are well versed to speak on behalf of all of the services.
Natalie: Well, I certainly hope I am.
Cate: I guess just jump in straight into it. One of the common misconceptions that we find, or that sometimes students might have about a career service, is that students feel as though they only need to enlist the help of career services, or they only need to come and book an appointment with their career service, when they're in their final year of their studies. What do you think about that?
Natalie: I would say that earlier the better. The minute that you land on the beautiful campus of Birmingham, I would say, either just book an appointment, go to an event, go and visit a careers fair. We have many events across the whole year, the whole academic year. I would say, just engage, or even look on the website. We have lots of useful information on to the website, and we section our website is under what career side you're at.
If you're a first year, you may be in that explore phase and you can still be in that explore phase as a final year student. We know that over forty percent of our students are in that explore phase. You're not alone, and it's a common advice to be in. I would say, just contact us and engage with our online information and our online resources. And yeah, we're a really friendly service.
Cate: Just get stuck in. I think that's a really important point to make about the different career stages. For any students who don't know, we break down all of our activities, and we link them to different career stages. There's explore, plan, and apply. Now, some students might start out, explore, go straight through to plan and apply and follow a simple trajectory or a given, a natural career path. What we also find is that sometimes you hop back and forth, don't you?
Natalie: Definitely, definitely. Sometimes you can start University in the explore phase, you know exactly what you want to do, you figured it all out, and you've got that plan, and you turn up, and then you find, maybe halfway through your second year you're like, ‘I don't actually want to do what I thought I wanted to do. I want to change my mind’. So, then you go back to that explore section, and that's absolutely okay, that's absolutely fine. As long as you're engaging with us, and you're letting us know.
Another common myth, if you don't mind me saying, is that you need to know before you book an appointment what you want to do with your career, you need to have some kind of plane. That is a total myth. You can turn up to an appointment and just say, I don't know what I want to do. But here are my interests, here are my skills, or here are the things that I want to be involved in. We see that quite a lot, and don't feel that you have to have a plan, because that's where we come in. We have lots of careers, advisors and employability advisers that can help you, that can look at your career planning, and can really move you through the stages of explore, plan and apply.
Cate: I think that's really important to note, too. Our career service is broken down by college. We've got our five academic colleges, and we have those mini teams within each of the five colleges. It's really great, because we are able to offer a tailored service to students based on their academic areas of study and based on their course and based on the industries that align with those areas of study. But similarly, if, as a student, you decide, ‘actually, I’m studying this very niche subject, but it turns out I don't really want to go into the common career path’, that's actually more common than I ever realized before I started at careers. There are a lot of students that will be studying one area and then go into a completely different area. And that's where careers can help. They can help you, promote yourself in an effective way, and they can help you not only ascertain what you want to do, but also how to effectively market yourself, and maybe go into like a non-traditional career path for you subject.
Natalie: Definitely! You don't have to, just because you may have studied history like I did, it doesn't mean to say that you have to go down that career path, you have to work in a museum, for example. I mean, I work in, my area's digital experience, and I studied a joint honours degree in English and History which some elements that I studied in my degree have been really helpful to what I do now. You don't have to, just because you've studied an area, it doesn't mean to say that you have to go into a certain sector related to your studies. You could look at something and say, ‘okay I’m really interested in the sector of human resources’, for example. You'll gain a lot of transferable skills that you can use, and our careers advisors, and our different programmes are there to help you identify those transferable skills so that you can know what they are, and that you can really put them down on applications, and when you go for interview that you're able to express and market yourself. Having personal branding as well, with LinkedIn profiles and CVs, look at your own personal branding.
Cate: I think that's really important. I think also, like even another layer to that, if you're an international student and say you want to stay in the UK, our Career Service can help you decide if you want to stay in the UK, if you want to return to your home country, if you want to go to a third country, but they can also help you market yourself. If you are returning to a different country other than the UK, the Career Service can help You put your UK experience and all of the skills that you've gained as an individual who's travelled to a different country for your studies, and really market those skills as well, and make the most of your time in the UK.
We've talked a little bit about the careers advice and guidance that we can offer, and I think that's probably what most people think about when they think about a career service. They think about going to a careers advisor having an advice appointment, getting some guidance. What are some of the other ways in which students can engage? You mentioned at the beginning, go to some events. What events do you mean?
Natalie: We have exploring your career option events. We do also have some top tip sessions, and they are on building a good CV, a LinkedIn profile, all the things related to when you're applying for jobs. Psychometric testing, applications, cover letters. We also have other events, we have insight into events where we have employers come along and they share their insights into a certain sector, and they're really useful. If you are, if you're studying one area, you can then look at actually, ‘I’m interested in something that's really outside of my current study’, and you can go along to that and listen to what the employers are having to say as well.
Cate: I think those events in particular, where you get industry knowledge, whether it's through a panel event with employers, or whether it's through graduates that are talking about their experiences. Those events give you a real first-hand look into what it would be like working in that in that industry. We can say until we're blue in the face what something might be like, or the guidance team can offer insight into a particular sector, and obviously the colleges and the academics are really helpful with that as well in terms of offering a glimpse into what your profession would be like if you were to go into different sectors. But when you have an employer event, or when you have an opportunity to hear from employers or people that are working in the field, especially when there's networking involved, it's a win-win situation isn't it.
Natalie: It really is, it really authenticates that area in that sector. I think that is such a useful event to go and attend , even if you have a slight interest in it. I definitely would take the time for those events as well. We do have some of the events that are recorded, that you can watch if you can't attend it because you're in a lecture, or you're working, or you're just studying . We do record some of our events as well.
Cate: I think that brings us to the resources on the website. The Careers Network website, we're not just about like live in person events. Obviously, those are a huge part of what we offer, but even just on the website, you can go on to the website if you don't feel like you're ready to personally, or physically engage with career services, or speak to other people about it, there are ways in which you can engage and start exploring the opportunities available to you. The website's broken down by what phase you're at.
Natalie: It’s broken down by what career stage you’re at. That career stage is, so when you first start, you’re asked a list of questions about how career ready you are. So, we respond to that, and we section down our online information into that explore, plan, apply career stage. It's easier for you to then gather the information that you need at that stage, and then look at to see how you might move to the next stage of your career, or your career planning.
We do also have a careers digital resources hub, that has lots of different platform that are available 24/7. So, maybe it's eleven o'clock on the night, and you're thinking, ‘oh I want to put my CV in, and I want to say what score I’m going to get, is my CV good?’. We have a CV checking service that you could submit, and you get instant feedback. We also have a video interview and platform as well ShortlistMe, so you can do that.
Careers Connect is our online system where you can book up appointments, you can book up events, you can search for opportunities, whether that be work experience opportunities, internships or actual graduate roles, you can search for those on there as well. You have access through your student username and password.
I would definitely advise you to just have a rummage around our web pages. We always welcome feedback as well so if you do see something that you think we can improve on, we always welcome feedback.
Cate: I almost feel like sometimes, we have so many resources and so much that it can be overwhelming to students. Because, where do you start? I think that's what we're always trying to get across is, don't be afraid, don't feel like you have to start at the right place, and that's going to define the trajectory that you find yourself in. Nothing that we offer is a straightforward journey. You can take two steps forward, one step back. You can step sideways. You can go on a winding path. Everything that we offer is complementary to each other, and interchangeable.
Natalie: No journey is linear.
Cate: And, no journey is the same. I think, working in careers, we find that. Just talking to our colleagues, we all have such different career paths that have landed us where we are. It's really important to note that even now a lot of the jobs, you might start university thinking that you want to go into one profession, but by the time you finish university, the way that technology is evolving rapidly, you might be interested in a job that didn't even exist when you started University.
Well, we know that by 2030, 85% of the jobs haven't even been designed or thought up. Technology is rapidly changing, the world is rapidly changing. There are things that you can get involved in. We have a mentoring scheme that would be really useful. If you were thinking about getting into a sector, or if you’re in that planning section, you can start to think, ‘okay, then, I've got this plan in mind. I want to get into that area. But I want to get first-hand experience. I want to be mentored by somebody who is in that sector’. That can come from alumni. The mentoring scheme is absolutely fantastic.
Cate: The mentoring scheme, I think, is one of those things, a lot of people are apprehensive about mentoring because it seems intimidating. There's this misconception or this myth that with mentoring you need to know what you want to do, you need to know what you want to talk to someone about. I think anything that involves networking can be a little bit daunting to students. But actually, having spoken to some mentors, it's not about that at all. The mentors are there to offer an impartial voice. They're not representative of the university. No one is judging you. They're not your family and friends. They don't have that same vested interest, or those predisposed notions of what you should or shouldn't be doing. They're there to be a listening ear and help guide you down that path during a confusing and tricky time, and they're there to speak of their experiences, and to offer just a friendly, professional, informal bit of advice and that relationship. So many students get so much out of that mentoring. It's something that even as you move in through your career after university, a mentor is so beneficial in like every, just in every situation isn't it, just to bounce ideas off of.
Natalie: I mean even just to see, we've got lots of student and graduate stories where students have had mentors, and they've gone on into their dream graduate role because they've experienced mentoring service here. We have a lot of student and graduate stories, and they're available on the website, we've got some videos, some audio and written ones. So, definitely have a look at those because they can run you though their journey and what they did, what service they accessed. It’s not just mentoring that they may access. Definitely, for first year students we've got an excellent program, the Birmingham Project. That's great to start off in your first year. It's group projects with employers, and it helps you enhance your skills and discover what strengths you have, and develop your confidence, and I think that's so essential, for when you're in any year really, developing confidence and working with employers and working with your peers as well. The Birmingham Project is excellent for that.
Cate: Don't they put you in groups of students that are from different degree disciplines as well. It's a nice eclectic mix in each of the groups, which is good because you get exposure, you meet people from other degree disciplines. You learn how to develop those skills and those that teamwork with people that aren't necessarily like-minded, and I think that exposure to be able to work with employers on projects that they set is invaluable, and that's such a great thing to put on your CV. So, even if you don't have a traditional internship or a part-time role, when employers see that you've participated in the Birmingham Project, it says something, doesn't it? It says that you've worked in team, it says that you've developed those skills, you've worked with employers. It's real tangible experience that helps with your career. The Birmingham Project is a perfect example, because that's only open to first years, isn't it?
Natalie: Yes, it's only open to first years, but we do have the Personal Skills Award, and that's an employability program. It's for undergraduate students, and it gives you the opportunity to build a portfolio, whether you've done online courses, whether you've had bits of work experience, or you've done campus activities. You're building skills along the way, and you can recognize those skills, build a portfolio and you gain points for certain activities.
Cate: So, if you attend a careers fair, an employer event, or a workshop.
Natalie: Yeah, you get points for all of those as well, and there may be some things that you're doing separate to Careers Network, and it might be different extracurricular activities that you do, it might be that you are part of a student society or a student group, and you have a role within that. It's all those things that you are building up a skill set, and it's helping you to recognize that. There's different levels as well that you can complete for the Personal Skills Award. There is a standard one, and there's also the advanced one as well. That also goes on your transcript as well so when you leave University, it's on your transcript. It's recognized by employers and it's something great, as you say, to put on your CV, put on your LinkedIn profile.
Cate: You've got the whole degree program to complete that, don't you? You’ve got the whole time. So, whilst there's no rush on that one, if you don't do it in your first year you don't have to feel like you've missed out. You can enrol and just tip away at it, can’t you?
Similarly for postgrads, we have the Postgraduate Professional Development Module, don't we? That's a similar process, isn't it, where everything that you partake in or everything that you engage in helps develop this portfolio of skills that's recognized by employers. You can put it on your CV, you can use that as a starting off point, I think, to talk to employers about me of the skills that you gained at university.
Natalie: As well, they have sessions on how to interview and and how to articulate your skills in interviews as well. I just think they're the two great beneficials, whether you undergraduate or postgraduate, you've got these award programs that are recognized by employers.
Cate: We've touched on this already, there's so much that we offer, but one of the things that I would say to students is just to have a look early on in your studies, especially if you're a postgraduate student, because you're only here for a fifteen-month programme. Have a look early on in your studies. That doesn't mean you have to do everything right away, but we do offer me things which only happen at certain points of the year. For instance, like the career fairs, most of them happen in the Autumn term. We have our main Autumn career fair. We have our engineering, science and technology fair. We have our business financing, consultancy fair. We have a law fair, and then we've also got a virtual fair this year, which are all happening in October and November. Those things, we don't want students to miss out on them. Even if you just have a little browse when you first come to Birmingham, take some time. Have a little mooch around, and maybe put me things in your diary and come back to it. Check back, I would say little and often. We've also got the internships and work experience fair, which happens end of January, beginning of February time.
We haven't even touched upon internships.
Natalie: We haven’t! I don't think we've got enough time. We’ve also got as well, if you don’t want to work for someone else, if you want to start your own business, we've got an enterprising team that can help you with that. They have boot camp sessions, they can help you start your own business. We also businesses that work over in the Exchange.
Cate: In the accelerator, at the Elevate Programme in the centre of Birmingham.
Natalie: Honestly, the list is endless of things that you can engage with, and yes, that can sometimes feel overwhelming. Just roll it back to the start and just say just one thing, engage with one thing. Then make a little promise to yourself. Write down something that you engage with one thing, and write down something you may do in three to six months time, and just continue that. It's just these little steps that you can do that is eventually going to help you once you graduate, get to the graduate role that you want.
Even when you graduate it doesn't stop there because we're here for you now and into the future. You cannot get rid of us literally. Once you graduate, there's still support there for you, you can still have appointments, you can still attend events, you can still access our services. You may be in a graduate role and think ‘this isn't for me. I want to change. What are my options?’. All of our careers advisors are trained in that and are trained to help you in that.
Cate: I think it's really worth noting as well that this isn't, we touched on some of the postgraduate services that we offer, but careers network, and then our counterpart in the business school, Birmingham Business School Careers. We're not just here for undergraduate students. We're not just here for students that are studying full time or not just here for students that are studying on our Birmingham campus. If you're studying in Dubai, we've got services for you. If you're studying remotely, we've got services for you. If you're studying part-time, we can help you. If you're studying a taught postgraduate course, a Master’s. Whether you're doing your PhD. Whether you're studying at the Birmingham International Academy during a foundation course or a pre sessional English course. We are here for any Birmingham student. Rather than being overwhelmed about everything that we offer, it's more we've got something for everyone.
Natalie: We have an inclusive service, we offer something for everybody. Whatever stage you're at, whether you're studying on campus online, whether you're studying in in Dubai, whether you're international students, whether you’re UK students. We've got something for everybody.
Cate: I think that's really important, and we don't just support you If you want to stay in the UK. We support you if you want to go to a different country, we support you if you want to return home. We support you if you're from a different country, and you want to stay in the UK. We really are, like you said, an inclusive service. The message that I’m taking away from our chat is just, give us a go, give us a try. Get stuck in. Have a look at the website. There's going to be something for you. Have a little browse on careers connect. You can look at some of the jobs. You can set alerts so that you get an email about certain jobs that are coming up that you're interested in. You can have a look at the events that are going on. I think it's just really important just to have a little look. Once you have a look, you've got time to decide what you want to do. What if it's for you? Not everything is going to be for everyone. But just have a go.
Natalie: Definitely, you can email through to us as well. If you don't feel comfortable seeing somebody face to face to start off with, you can just email it through to us and we will get back to you. As Cate has just mentioned, looking at our online resources. Just engage with that one thing and make yourself a little wish list for what you're going to do, and give yourself a timeframe of when you're going to do it.
Cate: As a career service we're here for you. We're here to support you, and anything that you might need, whether you're still deciding whether you feel completely lost, whether you know exactly what you want, and just want me help achieving it, we’re here to help.