TargetJobs UK Female Undergraduate of the Year 2022 Finalist
Sophie Gibson, a second year maths student, reached the final of the TargetJobs UK Female Undergraduate of the Year.
In this post, Sophie kindly talks about what motivated her to apply, the application process and the support provided by the Careers Centre.
Why did you apply?
My journey to the final began with me browsing the Careers Centre website. I came across a Future Female Engineering event hosted by TargetJobs. Up to this point I was oblivious to this faculty being a career possibility.
Through the team challenge I met young females who aspired to become engineers and were also pursuing a STEM degree like myself. Listening to strong and driven female speakers who work for a company which aim to inspire the next generation of female engineers was very motivating. After this positive experience, I then frequently checked the Careers Centre website for upcoming events.
From attending this Future Female Engineering event, I received an email from TargetJobs encouraging me to apply to the Female Undergraduate of the Year award as I fitted the requirements. I decided to apply on a whim without having any experience of applications, psychometric tests or interviews.
How did the Careers Centre help?
I had a look at the Careers Centre website to investigate if any help was available. This is when I discovered the Career Ready Sessions. Firstly, I attended the ‘How to Write an Effective CV’ session and along with reading the example CV provided on the website I learnt about the structure of a CV and what content employers look for. Secondly, I decided to create a LinkedIn profile and to help with this I attended a ‘LinkedIn Skills’ session where I learnt about messaging etiquette, how to create a personal URL and how to connect with people on the platform. After this, I found tips and practiced psychometric tests which I found through the careers website. I then completed my application and psychometric tests for the competition and waited to hear back.
This led to an unexpected phone call a month later from Rolls Royce who are sponsoring this award to inform me that I had made it to the top 20 finalists from over 600 applicants.
I was then invited to a networking event with Rolls Royce employees and an assessment centre day a week later. I had never been to a networking event or an assessment centre before so I felt very unprepared.
I revisited the Careers Centre website and signed up to an ‘Interview’ and ‘Assessment Centre’ Career Ready session. These provided me with knowledge on resources like Interview360, the STAR method and to just be yourself ! I then spent the week practicing the STAR method and using Interview360 to see how my answers were coming across. This led me to feel fully prepared and confident in my answers when it came to my interview. The interview consisted of behavioural and motivation questions, a five minute presentation on a brief given to us the night before, which was diversity in STEM and how we can make a difference to this and lastly a problem solving challenge.
A week later Rolls Royce informed me that they were very impressed by my performance and that I had made it into the top 10 finalists from my category! I was then invited to the final awards ceremony held in Canary Wharf to join the other 122 finalists from the other award categories. Further to this, Rolls Royce offered me a 10-week Engineering and Technology Summer Internship in the Innovation Hub in Derby.
As part of my preparation for the awards I utilised many of the fantastic resources on the Careers Centre website. From reading example CVs to advice on answering interview questions, they all helped make the process much smoother, leaving me feeling more relaxed and prepared when it came to the assessment centre days. I can’t thank the Careers Centre enough for providing me with the resources to prepare for this application process.
The Careers centre were very supportive in my journey to become a finalist for Female Undergraduate of the Year. They provided me with a brilliant range of resources to help give me the best chance of being successful.
Well done Sophie – this is a fantastic achievement and we hope you enjoy your summer internship with Rolls Royce.