November 28, 2013, by Simon Gosling

“A Day in the Life Of…” – The 2013 School of Geography Careers Networking Event

Simon Gosling, Lecturer in Climate Change & Hydrology and the School of Geography Careers Contact, talks about last month’s annual careers networking event. 

The School of Geography’s second annual careers networking event was held at the Ropewalk last month on Halloween. It was jointly organised between the School of Geography and GeogSoc, the student Geography society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geography students from all three undergraduate years came to chat with eight alumni guests employed in a variety of sectors. The evening kicked-off with each guest in turn spending a few minutes describing what a typical “day in their life” at work involves. The remainder of the evening was then organised in a “speed-dating” style, so that groups of around 10 students spent about 10 minutes talking with each guest around a table. When the 10 minutes were up, they circulated round to the next table to chat with another guest.

“The ‘speed-dating’ style and relaxed atmosphere were some of the best aspects of the event”   Student attendee

“The guests who attended were extremely approachable and I think the setting and format lends itself brilliantly to the networking element”   Student attendee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of the guests were School of Geography alumni, some of whom had graduated from Nottingham as early as last year. This meant that the guests were in an excellent position to provide friendly advice about career options, employability and applying for jobs after graduation.

“It was an environment where you could talk to employers in a more personal way than I have experienced in the past. I also liked how the guests were all geography graduates, it shows the possibilities”   Student attendee 

“For me, the best aspect of the event was that all of the guests had a personal connection to the University”   Student attendee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The invited guests were from a diverse range of sectors and organisations:

• Andrew Sharp – Mars (Branded Manufacturing).
• Lyndsay Gough – Keystone Law (Law).
• Jeremy Smith – SLR Consulting Ltd (Environmental Consultancy).
• Emma Taylor – Integrated Transport Planning (Planning and Transport).
• Matthew Trimm – Goldman Sachs (Investment Banking)
• Thomas Howe and Hannah Campion – PGCE (Teaching).
• Joe Bailey – Postgraduate study (Postgraduate study).

“It was great getting to meet different people from such different career backgrounds. It made me realise the breadth of sectors geography allows you to go into”   Student attendee

“I liked the broad range of potential employment routes represented at the event, and the ability to build on things learnt at the previous annual careers event”   Student attendee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In an online survey completed by students after the event, 100% of respondents felt that the event helped them to think about what they needed to do to improve their chances of employment after University. 96% said they would attend a similar event in the future, which is good news because these careers networking events are now an annual occurrence. And of course, given that the event fell on Halloween, students also had the opportunity to put questions for specific guests into a pumpkin throughout the event so that they could be answered by the guests later on in the evening…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The event was funded by a grant from School Employability fund from the University’s Careers and Employability Service (CES), following a recent £1m investment in the careers service at the University of Nottingham.

 

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