Meet the Graduates 12.30pm, Wed 23rd Sept, Informatics Forum

This is a unique opportunity for UG3 & UG4 students to meet informally with a number of Edinburgh Informatics graduates who have kindly offered to discuss their personal career experiences since graduating with you.

This event will commence with the graduates attending, who mainly graduated within the last 5 years, giving a brief overview of their career to date. This will be followed by a networking lunch when you can ask individuals more about their careers to date and ask for them for some advice on yours. The graduates will be keen to answer your questions.

You may have lots of questions to ask them but just in case you need any inspiration, here are a few ideas:

• What attracted you to this company, and your job?
• How has your career developed since you graduated?
• What sorts of projects have you worked on?
• What technologies do you use?
• What skills/abilities are most important in your job?
• How do you keep skills current? What do you read? What professional associations do you belong to? What seminars or continuing education do you consider useful?
• What are your primary responsibilities? How do you spend your time?
• What do you do in a typical day or week? How much time are you in meetings, on the phone, on the road, and working in teams versus working independently?
• What experience from university has helped you most?
• What are the most satisfying/frustrating parts of your role?
• What is your organisation like to work for?
• What has helped you to progress in your career?
• What do you see as possible next steps for you? What career expectations do you have in the short and long term?
• What are you most excited or concerned about for this industry/company/career path in the future?
• What advice could you give me if I wish to enter this field?
• What would you say is the best path to this career?
• What type of training could a new graduate in this field expect?

Some additional ideas of possible questions to ask can be found at:
http://www.careers.ed.ac.uk/Business_Awareness/SuggestedQuestions.doc

Please note that this is not a recruitment event, unlike other employer events this semester, and so it is an ideal opportunity to ask your questions freely.

Carol MacDonald
Careers Service