"Many interview questions are competency related, so when asked about challenges I refer to my work with Project Wildlife. I am able to talk about difficulties I’ve overcome such as attracting potential volunteers and arranging volunteer shifts around students' academic schedules. Interviewers are genuinely intrigued that I was able to find this type of opportunity at university."
Ken Hy, MEng Civil Engineering 2015, Graduate Civil Engineer at Jacobs Engineering Group
I learned a variety of skills running Project Wildlife including budget management, outdoor skills such as tree felling, and river and wildlife treatment procedures. These skills can only be learned outside the classroom. Most importantly, these projects are genuinely a fun way to meet other people with a great outcome at the end of the day. For our river restoration project (done alongside London Wildlife trust), the organiser said that the amount of work we did in that one day, with just 12 volunteers, would normally have taken them 2 to 3 weeks to complete.
Managing a volunteering project alongside my studies showed a host of skills including time management, organisation, people skills, and imagination. More importantly, it showed a desire to get things done. It can be easy to talk about doing things, but when the work was actually done, there was a real sense of collective achievement. On top of that, many engineering companies emphasise sustainability and the environment, so this was an opportunity to demonstrate a mutual desire for a more sustainable future.
For Project Wildlife to work, I had to build and maintain relationships with relevant organisations to find suitable and interesting projects. Doing this, I developed genuine partnerships and am sure that I will work with some of them again, possibly this summer.
When it comes to job interviews, I realised they are less about academic achievement and more about extracurricular activities and the ability to demonstrate essential life and people skills. Many interview questions are competency related, so when asked about challenges I refer to my work with Project Wildlife. I am able to talk about difficulties I’ve overcome, such as attracting potential volunteers and arranging volunteer shifts around students' academic schedules. Interviewers are genuinely intrigued that I was able to find this type of opportunity at university.
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