Post-grad job hunting, perfecting the resume, and how to handle pre-interview nerves
An expert panel ran through issues of importance to PhD and Masters graduates at UNSW this month, answering the questions at top of mind for ECRs towards the end of study, as they prepare to start looking for graduate positions for the first time.
The event was organised by UNSW Materials Science and Engineering and FLEET PhD candidate Hien Nguyen, who gathered together a group of experts, including drawing on FLEET expertise and alumni, to share their employment and job-hunting experiences.
“Experiences of work and the workplace play a vital role in helping ECRs develop the skills and behaviours they need for the world of work,” says Hien.
The expert panel brought together by Hien included FLEET/UNSW Research Fellow Dr Peggy Schoenherr, US-based UNSW graduate and software engineer Collin Park, and FLEET alumni Dr Shilpa Sanwlani, now a financial crime data analyst at ANZ Bank.
The workshop discussed various career options for STEM Master/PhD graduates, with invited speakers sharing their career journeys from both academia and industry, and top tips on making the most of training and studying.
Discussions included overcoming challenges of the PhD journey, the difficulty of career choices and how to break barriers and land the desired job after graduation.
Participants had ample chance to ask invited speakers questions and advice during the panel discussions, with some interesting lines of questioning including:
- how did you stay positive during the PhD journey?
- Do you miss your research lab when you move to industry
- What is the most frequently-asked questions that interviewers ask?
- How did you learn all the new skills that were needed for the job?
Hien Nguyen is a PhD candidate in materials science and engineering working with Prof Jan Seidel at UNSW, where she studies nanoscale properties of multiferroic materials and growth of atomically thin films by pulsed laser deposition on different substrates, and investigates electric, magnetic properties of these materials as well as phase transitions and topotactic transformations in complex oxides.