Dara Pierre, Employability Boost: Demystifying Career Paths
Back to all stories What is an Employability Boost?
The Employability Boost offered fully funded one to three month bursaries opportunities for Surrey Black Scholars to undertake career enhancing activities such as grant writing, conference organisation, mentoring, public engagement, manuscript preparation, entrepreneurial development or stakeholder collaboration. Delivered flexibly alongside doctoral study, this scheme was designed to compensate students for time spent on these activities, allowing them to extend their doctoral work, develop new professional capabilities, and pursue opportunities that may otherwise be inaccessible.
Through this opportunity, I was able to offer a space for reflection, discussion, and growth.
Surrey Black Scholars' Reflection of the Employability Boost
Surrey Black Scholars (SBS) Employability Boost was the first grant I wrote and submitted.
I was both excited and nervous, but proud of the opportunity to bring our ideas to life. My initial plan was to attend two national conferences: Solutions in Science (SinS) and the British Mass Spectrometry Society (BMSS) Annual Meeting. Later, I included an event for PGRs, Beyond the Degree: Exploring Career Prospects in Academia and Industry, to demystify career paths. I wanted to create a space for professional skill development, drawing on insights from experts.
Beyond the Degree: Exploring Career Prospects in Academia and Industry was a 4-part, half-day seminar designed to provide PhD students with information to help them make informed decisions about their next professional steps. The sessions were Professional Branding, Mental Health and Job Search, CV Awareness, and Panel Session.
Ms Naimat ‘Ju’ Ajimobi’s session on Professional Branding focused on establishing a system to ensure your business is seen while incorporating personal branding elements. She made us see that we are businesses, and that it is possible to attract the right customers (employers) with the right strategies.
Ms Terri Sylvester’s Mental Health and Job Search session started with an emotional check-in and validated any feelings that arose. She explained the possible feelings as part of the stress of a PhD or any other transition. She urged us to pay more attention to our feelings and bodies and offered suggestions to remain grounded. It was a session aimed at creating a community for open discussions about the emotional burdens of completing a degree, particularly among minoritised students.
The CV Awareness by Dr Susan Black offered a different approach to viewing CVs. She delved into the different types of CVs, including traditional and narrative CVs. She gave suggestions on best practices for structuring CVs to improve the chances of obtaining a desirable outcome. It all comes down to choosing the right headings to showcase your skills and making it easy to read so you can get the main points, because time matters when making an impression. She shared the latest literature and useful resources for further reading.
The seminar concluded with a panel of Professor Leanne Williams and Drs Zoe Harris, Tristan Harkcom, Katie Gould, Dimitar Kutsarov, and Abigail Otchere, experts from academia and industry. They candidly discussed their career paths, highlighting key successes, pivotal decisions, and challenges, including imposter syndrome and burnout. This openness provided attendees with a relatable, honest look at the job market from diverse viewpoints.
Though intended for PhD students entering the workforce, the event proved relevant to anyone considering a career change.
Feedback indicated the session was relevant and informative. I am grateful to have brought this idea to fruition alongside my other responsibilities and pleased with its success. One participant suggested holding more events like this.
Planning the event was demanding: finding and confirming speakers, deciding on a date that worked for everyone, and handling the logistics of in-person versus online formats. Throughout these challenges, I learned the importance of networking and shamelessly verbalising my needs. Everyone I spoke to was friendly and helpful. I developed many skills, such as event planning, as a result, and proved to myself that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to complete.
Thank you to everyone who offered advice on developing the event, the presenters and panellists, and the attendees. It truly takes a village to create lasting effects.