When I heard that I was accepted for the science communication placement I had applied for I had mixed emotions. I was incredibly excited for the break from the regular university grind to work for a year and gain some transferable skills, but I was also nervous as I’d never had a ‘proper’ job before.
Having now almost completed my 12-month placement, I can say wholeheartedly that this experience has been the best thing I have done at university (apart from my actual degree of course). I cannot recommend it enough to other students. I consider myself fortunate that I was able to find a placement in a career field I am incredibly interested in, but even if I realised it was not a field for me, that still is a valuable realisation.
Opportunities to develop skills and strengths
My experience at the STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory has been nothing but full of opportunities to develop new skills and strengthen existing ones. I have been very fortunate that my work team have been open to me trying new things and exploring my interests and passions. The list of skills I’ve developed and strengths I’ve worked on is massive, but I wanted to highlight the two opportunities and certifications that I have found the most valuable and rewarding.
The amazing part? They were completely voluntary, and paid for by work!
I became STEM Ambassador Certified, which is something I deeply cherish from my time on placement. I can continue using this certification once I leave my placement. And by the time I leave, I will have undertaken over 40 hours of STEM Ambassador volunteering. Spending hours with young people and teaching them about science isn’t for everyone, but it is an amazing opportunity to develop patience, communication skills, and see the immediate impact of an activity. All the experiences this certification has opened up for me have been vital to shaping my career aspiration journey on placement, and have given me clear steps for after graduation – doing a PGCE course to get teaching certified!
I also was able to attend four science communication conferences plus two scientific user conferences my work runs. These were great opportunities to develop my networking and socialising skills in a professional setting, and I learned so much from all the talks and workshops. Attending conferences also gave me a lot of exposure to different jobs and career paths in my field of interest (science communication), plus lots of local and international travel experience. This has helped significantly with my ideas around what I want to do after I graduate next year.
Best bits of my year away
There are three things that were the best parts of my year away.
I got to travel to Dublin, Ireland and Portland, U.S.A during my placement to go to really inspiring science communication conferences. Both of these were absolutely amazing learning experiences. I highly recommend other placement students to jump on any opportunities to travel during their placements if they are able and willing.
The next best bit was getting home at the end of a work day and not having to worry about studying or doing more work until I went into the office the next day. If I did have to work outside of working hours, I knew beforehand and was able to claim back the time as what is called “time off in-lieu” at a later date. However, this hardly ever happened outside of voluntary activities.
The experience I consider the “best bit” of my year away, was the public engagement volunteering I did at work. The sense of accomplishment I got from helping with activities and tours of the site for young people (primary to sixth form age) was incomparable to anything I’d ever done before. This experience alone has led to me volunteering with York Students In Schools next academic year, and has informed me so much related to my future career aspirations.
Top tips for making the most of your placement
Now that you’ve heard about my placement experience, I want to give you some tips about how I made the most of my placement experience. Hopefully they help anyone going on placement do the same 🙂
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help – there are no ‘stupid’ questions. They know you’re a placement student, they shouldn’t expect you to know everything they do.
- If you want to try something out or pursue an interest, ask! You never know, they might say yes and you could weave it into a lot of your work and projects. This is how I pursued my interest in public engagement and working with young people. I just asked if I could and what opportunities were available.
- Have confidence in yourself – they hired you and won’t ask you to do something they don’t think you are capable of doing.
As this is my last blog during my time on placement, I hope you have found hearing about my journey and experiences helpful. 🙂
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