This online course is run by the Researcher Academy as part of the Faculty of Engineering Training Programme

Target Audience: Engineering PhD students and Post Graduate Researchers or Early Career Researchers

Description: 

Do you need to update your CV or want to draft a job application, but never seem to find the time to dedicate? This 1 day writing retreat is offered as a professional development opportunity for PGRs and ECRs in the Engineering Faculty. The programme will provide the opportunity to dedicate the time to writing and updating your CV or job application content, but also to hear from Careers Consultants on how to prepare a CV and how best to present your skills to future employees and funders in addition to hearing where life after PhD career tracks took some of our previous students and alumni.

This session should be considered as professional development.

The Programme Overview:

• Preparing to attend – pre-requisite task
• Session orientation, plenary talk (title tbc) focusing on CVs and presenting your skill set succinctly and tailoring to the sector 
• Writing block 1*
• Writing block 2*
• Round table' focused discussion and Q&A on the topic of 'Converting your academic CV to an industry/business context' (optional)

Lunch

• Round table ‘Life after PhD’ comprising short presentations from previous PhD students and alumni of UoN
• Writing block 3*:
• Goal checks and next steps (plenary, required)

Please note that careers advisor appointments are available throughout the year by contacting the Careers and Employability Service. 

The Process:

This one-day online bootcamp will be held over Teams with talks and roundtable discussions from/with Career advisors and previous PhD students. This event will also include dedicated writing blocks offering two different writing environments to suit personal preferences. There will be the option to join a breakout space to follow pre-determined timed writing sessions to assist productivity/provide structure. These sessions provide dedicated space and time for you to focus quietly on your own writing. Some breakout spaces will comprise strictly timed and structured writing blocks split into x cycles of 30 minutes (25 min writing plus 5 mins break), other breakout spaces place you in a writing environment  where there is no specific structure, other than recommended break/lunch notifications.

Resources will be available once you have joined the Teams group.

You can Click Here request to join the Team site and then again to access the Team once approval has been granted. Your request will remain pending until approved by the course convenor and will be approved one week before the session takes place.

During writing blocks participants must bring their own CV or application content to work on and can chose whether to keep their webcams on throughout the day, but as a minimum should have the chat box open to receive updates.

Your Commitment:

Ideally, by registering for the retreat you are committing to attend for the full day. However, if there is a small portion (<10%) of this time where you would be unavailable but still wish to attend please email the retreat organiser, Alison Johnson before booking your place to discuss.

Participants should have all their own resources for writing. You will ideally have a good internet connection and should recognise that this boot camp will require you to be online for the duration of the day. 


Course Accessibility

The following table shows a summary of what is needed to participate in the course. 

If you feel you will experience any difficulties participating, please let us know via the ‘special requirements’ tab, providing as much information as possible. The special requirements tab can be completed when you book your place. Alternatively, you can contact us directly at ra-training@nottingham.ac.uk.

Course open throughout the year
Engage with pre-retreat course tasks and before attending
Access MS Teams
Attend the Q&A session at a specified date and time
Use MS Teams chat box function
Engage with online materials
Watch and listen to the course tutor(s) and/or other attendees
Attend whole event (to be marked as attended)

Booking Conditions 

Our webinars/ online courses are very popular, especially in the current period and we are experiencing large volumes of people on our waiting lists.  

Please do let us know if you would like to cancel your place on this course so we can offer your place to another delegate. 

Please note, attendances for webinars/ online courses will still be recorded.   

Pre-Requisites

Pre-requisite Task:

The Bootcamp is best approached with a good plan of what you wish to achieve and the timeframe it will take you to achieve this. Therefore a pre-requisite task has been set prior to attendance to help you prepare the resources you will need and other preparations for attendance including setting your own objectives for the day.

This pre-task aims to help you get the most out of the session and should take you no-longer than an hour.

Further information is available via the course’s dedicated Teams site (see above for information on how to access this).

Webinar Access Instructions 

This is an online session within Microsoft Teams. On the day of the session please use the link in this email to join the meeting. Please do not click the link in this email until the day of the session.  

You will need a headset or speakers for the webinar and we recommend that you join 10 minutes before the webinar is due to start so that you can test them. Please mute your microphone, switch off your webcam and open the chat box function as you join the Teams meeting. Any questions can be asked via the chat box.