BioEnterprise and Employability, and where I am today

This account was created as part of my BSc degree in Zoology. BioEnterprise and Employability is a module designed to prepare third year students for the world after they graduate from university.

Pros of the module:

Five core seminars took place to help students understand the business world:

• An assessment centre – This was the first I’d ever heard of assessment centres so read this blog to find out what we got up to!
• A careers cafe – Spoiler: not actually a proper cafe!
• Dragon’s Den – Not real dragons!
• CV writing – Check out this blog post, even if you think your CV is already great!
• Business plan writing – The main reason I chose this module!

Surprisingly, I found the CV Writing seminar to be the most informative. I had already thought that my CV was good enough however I learnt multiple tips and tricks to improve it and now I believe that I stand a better chance at landing the right job for me.

In addition to the topics mentioned above, I have also learnt how to use social media properly in order to avoid embarrassing questions during interviews and network in the best way possible.

Once my university exams are over I plan on going through my social media accounts and deleting any embarrassing posts which might damage my chances of impressing any potential employers.

I have become more mindful of what I post and endeavour to have sensible (but still fun) social media accounts.

Thanks to the module for pointing out the importance of a good online presence, I believe my prospects of following my dream career path are brighter.

Cons of the module:

While the Employability half of the module was interesting and informative, unfortunately I cannot say the same for the Enterprise half of the module.

This was the section that I was most interested in, in fact, it was the main reason I took this module in the first place.

Many people find that setting up a business is too hard, too complicated, too risky and holds too much responsibility. This is why more effort should have been put into explaining and encouraging us to set up a business of our own but lecturers just assumed that no one was interested and that left the ones who were (me) at a bit of a loss.

It would have been nice if the lecturers could have provided multiple workshops in smaller groups, or even optional 1:1 sessions with each of us to provide us with more information about building a business.

For me especially, it would have been highly beneficial to attend one or two finance sessions where mentors explain the basics of finance management for young and budding entrepreneurs.

We had one lecture on finance but it was for any general business and the lecturer spent around an hour just highlighting that you need to include EVERYTHING into your finance plan.

But he didn’t say how to organise this plan and for every business idea the costs will be different so individual sessions with those who are interested would have made the world of difference!

But what happened next…?

Having said all of that, as a result of the business plan assessment, I was approached by one of the judges on the Dragon’s Den panel, and asked to enter my dream business idea into a national competition called Big Ideas Wales Celebrated!

This competition is for 16-25 year olds who are still in education and have an ambition to create their own business. The final consisted of inspirational talks from successful entrepreneurs, interviews with five different judges (surprisingly my favourite part), workshops and 1:1 sessions with various businesses which could help me on my journey, and an opportunity to pitch our ideas to a panel of three more judges.

Although I was put through to the final I didn’t win the competition but I still thoroughly enjoyed myself and it’s still an impressive achievement to put on my CV.

I made new contacts to help me on my venture and the help I received from the university itself for this competition was incredible, including 1:1 meetings with a financial advisor and I’ve been able to work closely with a graphic designer for free!

My experience at the Big Ideas Wales Celebrated competition. My business idea is called Very Important Pet Animal Boarding, and the side business is called Very Important Pet Treats.

My boyfriend has set up a photography business just this year and for him it was so easy, he could just pick up his camera and go! My dream is a little more complex and will take at least half a million pounds to set up before I can even open the doors to the public.

Due to the complexity of my dream business and the funds needed to get it off the ground, it is sometimes difficult to believe I’ll ever be able to do it.

Being selected to take part in this competition, and then getting an invitation to compete in the final really gave me the hope I needed to encourage me to pursue my dream and carry on with research for my enterprise idea.

Once I was at the final it was also encouraging to hear the enterprise stories of other people and get words of inspiration, and constructive criticism, from the judges to each entrant personally.

Let’s get back on track…

In addition to the core seminars, the university invited multiple guest speakers to explain their work:

• Can trees really be interesting?! – Could this blog change your mind?
• A shark’s tale – The beauty behind the ‘beast’!
• Volunteering – You can do more than you think!
• Can we improve conservation? – There’s always room for improvement!
• Why are museum collections important for research? – Find out by clicking the link!

This was to help students explore future career choices, open up new opportunities and allow us to network with people in various industries.

Personally, while I was interested in some of these topics, none of these seminars encouraged me to pursue a career in these industries, nor did they give me any enterprise ideas. This was mainly because I had already set my mind on an enterprise idea, and therefore also a career choice, before I had started this module.

An overall review of the module

While most of the module was irrelevant to my own personal business (something which obviously can’t be helped when teaching around 100 students) I did find the module interesting, especially the guest speaker sessions and the CV writing seminar.

There are areas for improvement within the module but it has brought one of the most exhilarating experiences from my time at university.

The module opened up the opportunity to compete in the Big Ideas Wales Celebrated competition and this, in turn, has opened up even more opportunities to network and learn more about setting up my dream business.

Now it’s just a case of further research and raising funds to make my dream a reality!

Can trees really be interesting?!

Bangor and Aberystwyth university have a rivalry much like Oxford and Cambridge University, or Manchester United and Manchester City Football Club but for one day we put aside our differences and welcomed Jim Provan to the northern region of Wales.

He explained to us his career choice as what he calls a “reluctant population tree geneticist” and how he got there.

Dr. Jim Provan

Initially Provan was enthused by space, stars and the unknown worlds beyond our reach, yet he ended up studying biophysics and carried out a PhD based on the diversity of potatoes. Not exactly your average astronaut.

From there he spent three years with the Tree Research Group investigating genetic variation in trees. Three years of his life realising that, actually, there’s not a lot of genetic variation between trees.

A few years later the Northern Irish Government commissioned Provan to research one particular type of tree…

Juniper Trees

Juniper tree leaves with berries

The separation of Ireland from England around the year 16,000 BC means that species in Ireland are thought to be genetically separate from those in England. Provan’s research found three discoveries:

• The majority of Juniper trees are characterised by 1 of 2 genotypes
• These genotypes are geographically localised
• The Juniper tree is most diverse in Northern Ireland

Later, Provan was contacted again by the Northern Irish Government, this time to conduct similar research on the Ash tree…

Ash

Ash Tree Leaves

Provan’s research was based on how well ash could diversify in case of population issues. For example if Ash dieback, a fungus with devastating effects, were to infect a population, how well could these trees disperse their populations in order to survive.

It was found that all trees are very closely related and not what you want to see when measuring population diversity however seed dispersal covers areas far larger than originally thought.

What about other trees?

Further research was carried out on other trees to find that the Rowan and Elder trees followed a similar effect, but oak, for example, is completely different!

So there you have it, trees can actually be vaguely interesting, even if the person seeking this information has named himself a “reluctant population tree geneticist”!!

My review of Jim’s talk

It was refreshing to hear that some people may not be in the profession they first planned to be, and yet they still find their subject interesting.

I doubt I will pursue this career path in the future however Jim wanted to be an astronaut so who knows!

A shark’s tale

A former Bangor University student, Donovan Lewis, returned to talk to Endeavour society, a group of ocean loving students.

As a shark enthusiast and a member of staff at Blue Planet Aquarium, Donovan was the perfect candidate to educate the current students about sharks.

Donovan Lewis in his natural habitat!

What makes sharks so scary?

Is it their never ending set of revolving teeth? Is it their size? Whatever it is, it’s nonsense!

Media has portrayed sharks to be monsters, it was only the other day when I saw a Facebook post with the caption “nightmare scenes in Florida” yet the drone video captured a young shark gracefully minding it’s own business just meters from unsuspecting tourists.

The video can be found on YouTube here!

It is this scare factor that makes conservation so difficult.

People are more likely to donate to causes helping cute animals like pandas, but if you watch Jaws in reverse, it’s a film about a shark saving people from drowning!

Artwork by Liz Climo: Are sharks really that scary?!

What makes sharks less scary?

Of the 500 shark species, only 30 have been reported to attack a human.

Many people hear of shark attacks but these tend to be more dramatic than reality.

Sharks give a ‘curiosity bite’ as they don’t have hands to check what you are! Once they realise you’re not tasty they’ll lose interest and the unnerved victim lives to tell the tale.

In 2014, for example, not a single person died from shark attacks in America, which is the top most popular country for shark attacks.

1. 475,000 people are killed every year by… guess what(?!) other people!
2. 6,000 deaths in a year are a result of tripping up.
3. Hippos kill 2,900 people every year.
4. 450 people die every year from falling out of bed in America.
5. Falling coconuts kill around 150 people per year.
6. 73 people died in just 8 months by taking selfies.
7. Cows claim the lives of about 20 Americans each year.
8. Falling icicles kill around 15 people in the US every year.
9. The odds of being killed by a shark are around 1 in 3,748,067.

Humans kill up to 273 million sharks every year so who is the real monster here?

Artwork by Liz Climo: A representation of how harmless sharks can be, and also how dangerous plastic is in the ocean!

What can we do?

The main threats to shark populations include:

• over-fishing
• by-catch
• pollution
• collisions with boats
• finning

Most sharks are long-living species that mature late. They cannot reproduce fast enough to make up for the mortality rates and populations are decreasing.

Due to the high impact that sharks have on food chains, a major reduction in shark populations would be devastating.

Conservation organisations such as The Shark Trust, The Shark Conservation Society and aquariums like Blue Planet, are dedicated to boosting the number of sharks and educating members of the public on the truth about sharks, so go and check them out to see how you could help!

My review of Donovan’s talk

Donovan is a very animated man who is quite clearly passionate about these graceful animals. This made the talk very interesting and giving sharks a better image in the media is something I would be compelled to pursue for my future career plans.

Volunteering

Here at Bangor University, North Wales, there is a volunteering scheme as part of the student’s union.

They believe that everyone should have the chance to be able to volunteer and Undeb Bangor provides over 750 opportunities for the students at the university.

Back in 2012 I volunteered with my local church. Sometimes we don’t notice how bad our streets are until a group of 5-10 youths pile it all into bin bags.

One of the members of Undeb Bangor, Gaz Williams, came to talk to us about some of the activities that we could get involved in, although I did not expect him to tell us that Undeb “sends students to the mental prison.”

Obviously he just meant that they send the students there so that they could help the inmates… I hope.

If potentially getting locked up isn’t your cup of tea, other projects are available.

These can range from helping children, the elderly, the vulnerable, or the environment, so with around 50 different projects to chose from, there is something for everyone!

What’s in it for me?!

Volunteering is not just ‘working for free’, you’re working for the experience, to meet new people and to help make the world a better place, or at least to make one person’s world a better place.

By spending just an hour or two in the community you could…

• Help others
• Build your CV
• Gain new skills
• Have fun!
• Give back to your community
• Expand your network
• Receive training for more advanced skills

If you make a big enough impact, there is a chance that you could be nominated for prizes in recognition for your hard work and generosity.

But I’m not a student?!

You don’t have to be enrolled at a university to take part.

No matter where you are in the world there are always opportunities to volunteer.

Whether it’s for a local charity or for the nice old lady next door, you can do something to help.

So if you’d like to get involved you can check out all of the projects from Undeb Bangor here, or find a charity near you by clicking here!

My review of Gaz’s talk

It surprised me how many volunteering opportunities there are in my local area and I am now more likely to seek out these opportunities in the future. As a result of this talk, I have already completed an introductory course for British Sign Language and thoroughly enjoyed it, so who knows where that may take me!

Building a business plan

Only a small minority of people aspire to start their own business. Many people believe it is too risky and there is too much responsibility in being your own boss. In fact, over the course of this module it has been repeated several times that “many of you will not be interested in the ‘enterprise’ half of this module” and as a result of this I found that the lecturers didn’t seem as enthused to explain business plans. To be honest, this ‘enterprise half’ is the main reason I chose to complete this module so I was a little bit disappointed that more wasn’t done.

I have a vision, an idea in my head that I want to make a reality. The only thing I don’t know is how to make it a reality. That’s where the business plan comes in.

I overheard many of the students telling their friends that they don’t see the point, no one’s going to need to do a business plan, no one wants to own their own business.

WRONG.

Not just because I seem to be the only person in the room who is interested in building a business, but because most people will have to write some sort of business plan at some point.

Simply Do Ideas is an online resource used by our lecturers for enterprise teaching, supporting startups and encouraging innovation. It’s helped me for my business plan because it makes it all look so easy! Go and check it out!

A business plan can be used as a basis for setting out your aims, targets, and ultimately how to make it a reality! It’s not just used for new businesses either, these can start up new projects, fundraisers, classes and workshops.

The only problem with business plans, is they can be incredibly intimidating!

You have no need to worry. Bellow is a simple step by step guide including the basic questions that a business plan should to cover.

Concept

• What is the idea and what does it do?
• Does it provide a service or sell a product?
• What problem does it solve/need does it meet?

Customers

• What is the size of the market?
• Who are your customers? Think about their age, gender and lifestyle.
• How will you get your customers?

Competitors

• Who are your competitors?
• What do your competitors do well/not do well?
• Why will people choose you over other companies?

Compatibility

• Passion! How much do you love the thought of running your own business?
• Resilience! How well do you think you stick to tasks when things get tough?
• Communication! How confident are you at communicating your ideas?
• Planning! How well do you believe you plan and keep on top of things?
• Network! How much support do you feel you will get from your family and friends?

Contents

• What are the necessary ingredients of the idea?
• What things will you need to do to make the idea happen?

Cash

• In
  • How will your idea make money?
  • What initial funding do you think you might need?
• Out
  • What are the things you will need to spend money on to make the idea happen?

The Welsh Dragon’s Den: why are workshops so important?

The workshop

To help the students of Bangor University, a makeshift ‘Dragons Den’ was set up in which students created and pitched their business plan to a judging panel including:

• A phycology lecturer specialising in making adverts look appealing
• An entrepreneur
• The enterprise manager from our student union.

My group settled on the idea of a delivery company for groceries. I know what you’re thinking, this is hardly a new idea.

Major supermarkets have their own delivery service and it would be difficult to beat that competition. The problem with these services is that the customer must spend a certain amount of money on products from the supermarket before being eligible for delivery.

To out-compete our rivals we planned on providing delivery to customers at various local shops without needing a minimum spend. This would be useful in situations where you’re in desperate need of some milk but you don’t have time to go shopping.

We worked hard to figure out the viability of the project however we were stumped when one of the judges told us our business idea was being trailed by a widely known company in London.

Tip: Always check whether or not your ‘new’ business idea already exists!

How was this helpful?

No matter what course you do, the majority of a student’s time at university is spent in a lecture theatre where a general trend is observed:

• Students at the front of the room are fairly interested in the lecturer’s ramblings.
• Students at the back are likely on their phones, recovering from hangovers or already asleep.

It is this routine and trend that keeps students within their comfort zone. No matter how hard you listen, you’re less likely to learn from anything if you’re relaxed.

Many people recommend stepping out of your comfort zone, but how far do you go?

The risk zone is a place where students are more likely to learn. This usually involves engaging with new people and doing new things.

Are workshops the lecturer’s equivalent of tough-love or is it just pure evil?

If a risk zone is being thrown into the deep end of the pool, then the panic zone is being stranded in the middle of the ocean.

Students won’t even attend class if you’ve told them you’ve planned a ‘panic zone’ activity.

Thankfully, a workshop is just a risk zone session!

Personally I found Bangor’s dragons den workshop to be an interesting experience. I believe our team worked well, even though our idea was already in motion.

Although I knew what the steps were to complete a business plan, I learned more about how to complete these steps, so workshops can’t be all bad!

Career’s Cafe

If you’re imagining a coffee shop with advertisement stalls, you’d be just as disappointed as I was when I walked into yet another lecture theatre with not a biscuit in sight!

The panel was made up of five alumni members and each took their turn to discuss their employment experiences.

Bethan

Since graduating a masters degree in wetland science and conservation Bethan has worked in several positions within conservation:

• Sampling wetland habitats
• Managing woodland for the Snowdonia Society
• Snowdonia National Park:
  • A seasonal warden
  • A Snowdon partnership manager
  • An ecology and climate change officer

Nia

As a Living Seas manager for the Wildlife Trust, Nia mainly organises projects and finds funding.

She carried out her ecology masters degree because at the time she had no idea what to do after her BSc, showing that it’s okay not to know which path to take.

Jonathan

Jonathan stayed at Bangor University working as a research assistant, then moved on to work for a different company, investigating water quality on bathing beaches. Now he’s a Welsh Water scientist!

Graham

Graham confessed he almost failed his course at Bangor, yet now he teaches.

Reece

As the animal care technician at Bangor University, Reece didn’t need his BSc in Zoology and Marine Zoology, the minimum qualification requirements were fairly basic.

Although he also summarised his job as “10% science and 90% poo”.

Tips from the people who should know!

Volunteering

Every speaker mentioned volunteering!

Not only does it improve your CV, it also allows you to realise passions, gain connections and improve skills.

Don’t restrict yourself to one particular job role. Gather a wide range of knowledge.

If you’re reading this thinking “but I won’t get paid” this is the wrong mindset. Think how much you want to do that line of work, think how much you want to learn, think about the progression opportunities!

Interviews

• DO…
  • dress smart and show good body language
  • give multiple examples to show what you have done
  • think about why the interviewer is asking that question – what do they want to hear
  • ask for feedback at the end
• DON’T…
  • give one word answers
  • tell the interviewer to refer to your CV
  • repeat your CV
  • waffle – if you don’t know the answer, just tell them and move on!

‘Who you know’ vs. ‘What you know’

Networking is great for finding new opportunities, but that’s about it.

In terms of job interviews, you can’t be interviewed by someone you know, so knowing people won’t.

My review of the careers cafe

Despite the lack of tea and cake, it was uplifting to hear that some of the speakers didn’t know what they wanted to do in their career and others succeeded despite almost failing their degree.

I believe this will help me with my career plan as we were given more information about interviews and advise about what to do next.

It all boils down to how you present yourself – so polish your shoes and knock ’em dead!

What is an assessment centre?

An assessment centre is where job candidates are observed from the moment they walk in, to the second they’re out of sight.

Tasks are set such as lining up in surname order without talking or, my favourite, told they have unlimited, free access to alcohol.

In Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve Rogers kept asking “Is this a test?” Our whole afternoon was a test and we didn’t know until it was announced that several people had the chance to attend a seminar with guest speaker Ross Piper.

In 2015 Ross was awarded Bangor University Alumnus of the Year Award.

The interview

We were sorted into groups of five and told to interview each other – my worst nightmare! I had no time to prepare and public speaking is not my thing.

Despite the nervous sweats I persevered, and to my surprise it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It flew by!

At first I was unsure what to say. Why did I study Zoology? What is an example of when I showed initiative? Then they asked about my dissertation and I could talk for hours about dog poo – yes, I said dog poo!

The feedback I received from the group was also a lot better than I thought. One of the few things to improve was to expand my answers, which I probably could have done had I been able to prepare.

Personality quiz

Anyone who has worked with other people will understand the struggle of teamwork.

The next step of our workshop was to find out what role we play in a team. This was to teach us that the most successful team has a balanced spread of skills.

This was calculated by a psychometric test. Some companies ask potential employees to complete one to back up interviews.

“I am batman. That’s who I am, who are you?” – Lewis Black

Many people got mixed results but you don’t always have to agree, it could be biased and give the wrong results.

Having said that I 100% recommend doing this. It doesn’t take long and it may suggest skills to talk about which you hadn’t previously thought of.

The last task!

To demonstrate our new awareness of successful teamwork, we were asked to prioritize emails.

Seven emails were distributed, all addressed to a member of the Human Resources Department in a fictional company.

The task was completed fairly quickly and we were all happy about a job well done.

So what?!

I found the workshop was surprisingly enjoyable. Students don’t want to spend four hours working with strangers, but having never heard of assessment centres before it was useful for all of our future career choices.

I hope this blog post was useful for you too. Take my experiences and think about how you could incorporate these skills into your life. It’s easier than you think!

Can we improve conservation?

With climate change and growing human populations, conservation is highly important – are we doing it right?

Susanne Shultz came from Manchester University to talk about two case studies where conservation may not be as efficient as it could be.

Nature reserves for ‘management’

Nature reserves are fenced off areas of land and rangers deter poachers to protect animals inside.

This would be great, if the parks were in the right areas.

Think about the areas of purely natural land that we have left in the world, where there is minimal human impact.

Kruger National Park, South Africa, during a drought on my last visit in 2016.

If you’re thinking about places like the Sahara desert or Antarctica then you’re on the right lines. These places are only natural because we, as humans, don’t want to be there, and unsurprisingly, neither does the majority of the animal kingdom.

When conservationists ask ‘where can we put the next nature reserve?’, there aren’t many places left with high biodiversity, that aren’t effected by agriculture or deforestation. As a result many reserves aren’t ‘in the right place’ for the animal’s needs.

Another way of protecting populations, is to find them and put a fence around them, much like our first example.

European bison

What is a bison? It’s sort of like a cow on steroids, right? So what is a cow in terms of anatomy? It’s a ruminant – meaning they primarily eat grass.

The only confusing thing about this is that they are managed in forests where grass is minimal – as the largest herbivore in Europe, we are left wondering why?!

Some say this is because they were found in the forests before conservation efforts begun, so surely they should be thriving in forests.

Shultz suggested that they were driven away from grasslands through hunting, which is why we find them in forests.

What if conservation were to happen in areas where bison were more likely to thrive?

Cape Mountain Zebra

Much the same as the bison, these zebras were most likely pushed out of their favoured habitat, in this case due to farming.

At their lowest, there were 80 left in the wild, due to conservation efforts there are now around 4,800 roaming the southern parts of the continent.

While conservation is obviously working, we can’t help but wonder how it could be improved.

 

Rather than looking at where the animals are found and protecting them there, go back to basics and think about where they would most likely survive.

My review of Susanne’s talk

It was heartbreaking to hear that conservation isn’t working in the way’s it should, mainly due to our greed and growing population, however to think that there are people researching how to make conservation more effective, and realising that there are things we could do to help is so inspiring.

Having said this I don’t believe her talk has changed my desired career plan but I am more inclined to do voluntary conservation work to help where I can.

Writing your CV

Growing up, we are taught not to brag so selling ourselves to potential employers goes against our nature, unfortunately it’s one of the most important processes we have to go through to become employed.

Your CV is the employer’s first impression of you and it’s your best chance of getting an interview, so here are some tips for CV writing.

Need help writing your CV? These tips and tricks could get you one step further to getting your dream job!

What should a good CV look like?

• Good structure – simplify it with clear headings.
• Relevant to the application (yes, this means you have to write more than one CV to target each application)
• Reverse chronological order – start off with your recent achievements, then go backwards!

Targeting your CV

Research the business you’re trying to join and pay close attention to the job advertisement.

A generic CV won’t look good to them, compared to a CV that shows you’ve done your homework!

What should you include?

• Personal details – Name and contact information.
• Academic education and qualifications – Dates, optional modules within your course, grades (you don’t have to include the bad ones – just say you got ’10 GCSE’s including an A* in maths…’), maybe even a summary of your dissertation!
• Employment, work experience and voluntary work – Dates and 2-3 bullet points explaining what you did.
• Additional information – Skills, society memberships, or even a hobby. Also include other achievements, such as ‘Clean driving licence since…’ or ‘First aid trained’.
• Referees – Contact details, who they are to you (e.g. ‘boss at…’).

A profile could be used when there is no option to upload a cover letter but keep it brief and relevant.

What not to do!

• Spelling or grammatical mistakes.
• An unclear understanding of the job role you’re applying for.
• Your relationship status or hobbies which don’t show any skill (e.g. going to the cinema or playing with your pet cat!)
• No covering letter.
• Beg!

Cover letters

A CV could be seen as a list of skills, whereas a cover letter is more of an actual letter.

Firstly, your cover letter will improve if you know the name of whoever you’re sending your application to, rather than addressing it to ‘Sir or Madam’.

Your letter is where you can show a better understanding of the organisation, what the company is looking for and explain what you could bring to the job role, but try not to repeat what you wrote for your CV.

1. Introduce yourself – mention that you’re applying for a job and include where you saw the job advertisement.
2. Express why you should get the job.
3. Emphasise why you want to work at that company.
4. End with an enthusiastic conclusion!

How has this helped me?!

The lecture in which I was told all of this was really eye-opening. I thought I already had a good CV but there are some tricks, like displaying events in reverse order, which I had no idea would improve my chances of getting a job.

Safe to say this will help me with my future career and I hope it will help you too!

Good luck with the job hunt!