Undergraduate medical sciences students heard from speakers from academia, industry, the NHS and the University Careers Service when they organised their first careers conference.
The School of Medical Sciences inaugural Undergraduate Careers Conference was held in the Zoology Building.
More than 120 students and included speakers from academia, industry, the NHS and the University Careers Service.
The academics who oversaw the organisation of the event, Dr John Barrow and Dr Steve Tucker, assembled a team of medical science students from across the undergraduate years to be entirely responsible for the event, which was to be organised ‘by students, for students’.
The organising committee comprised second year student Laura Kutt, third years’ Ana-Maria Cujba and Christina-Anastasia Christopoulou, and fourth year student Janis Sliede.
Afterwards third year student attendee Ronald Coutts said: “The conference was absolutely brilliant. Well-paced, good speakers, good subjects and fantastic organisation.”
Janis Sliede added: “The lecture theatre was packed and we heard inspiring personal stories of career success and valuable career advice from experts in the field.”
Dr John Barrow said: “The aim of the conference was to highlight the range of career opportunities available to life science graduates, both within academia and beyond. Our main aim was for this to be run by the students, so it also had the added bonus of providing some professional development for those students involved in running the event.”
Dr Steve Tucker added: “We hope the main outcome of the conference is that the delegates had their eyes opened to the wide variety, and sometimes unexpected, career paths that you can follow after your degree. They also had a lot of practical advice on preparation for interviews, CV writing, how to show yourself in the best possible light. We’re in the process of putting together a feedback questionnaire, which will go out to all delegates to gather some feedback.”
Plans are already being made for another conference next year. The organising team will remain in place and be joined by new members recruited from undergraduate students within the School of Medical Sciences.