Charities and NGOs Week: 30^th January – 2^nd February 2017

Though important, there is so much more to working in the charities and NGOs sector than shaking a tin, volunteering or delivering aid to those in need on the frontline.  Many charities and NGOs are run as professional businesses that carry out functions such as research and lobbying, as well as raising and redistributing funds.  In the pursuit of addressing human or environmental needs, the sector can be intensely competitive in terms of attracting media attention, funding and other resources.  Most non-profit organisations rely on paid staff as well as volunteers and the sector attracts intelligent people with a passion for their work.

UCL Careers Charities & NGOs Week 2017 aims to dispel some of the myths that surround working within this sector.  Through a series of four events, this themed week will provide students with an opportunity to gain a deeper insight into the diverse range of roles available to them, from campaigning and policy work to international development and disaster relief.  The employer-led insight and applications session will help prepare students to demonstrate their motivation and enthusiasm and ultimately increase their chances of job success.  The final event in the series will provide an excellent opportunity for students to link up with employers, be inspired and pick up some top tips from the experts, who are currently working in the sector.

Charities attending include:

Oxfam
Greenpeace
MacMillan Cancer Support
Save the Children
Sustrans
The Wellcome Trust
Islamic Relief
and more…

For further details about UCL Careers Charities & NGOs Week 2017 including how to book:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/careers/events/getinto/charitiesandngos

#AskUCLAlumni about Working in the US – with UCL alumni working at Cisco

On Wednesday 7^th December 5.30pm-6.30pm we’ll be holding a Facebook Q&A on working in the US. Two UCL alumni, Aris Iliopoulos and Iman Diarra (full profiles below), who worked on the Cisco International Internship Program, will be at their computers ready and willing to answer your questions. If you’re curious to know how to appeal to US recruiters, how to navigate moving to and working in a new country, how the US work environment compares to the UK, or more about the Cisco International Internship Program, this is the livechat for you! Leave a comment on the UCL Careers Facebook page thread right now, or on the day and Aris and Iman will get back to you on Wednesday 7^th. You can also submit your question in advance by emailing it to careers@ucl.ac.uk with the subject heading “#AskUCLAlumni”. It will be answered during the livechat session, and you can visit the Facebook thread afterwards to find your answer.

Meet the alumni

Aris Iliopoulos 

 “I graduated from UCL in 2013 with a Bachelor’s in Information Management for Business. Right after graduating, I moved to the US for Cisco’s International Internship Program (CIIP) which is a year-long internship in Silicon Valley. Throughout that year I met students from all around the world who share the same passion for technology as I have. One sentence to describe my first year in the US would be: “The best year of my life”. I am currently a Software Engineer @ Cisco, working for the Chief Technology and Architecture Office in San Jose, California.”

Iman Diarra

 “I did my primary and secondary school in France and Belgium, and then studied Information Management for Business at UCL. After several internships in Marketing and PR within the luxury industry, I felt it was not the right fit for me and decided to consider a career in IT. Right after graduating in 2015, I moved to the Silicon Valley to intern at Cisco San Jose for a year. I spent that year learning user experience design, making life-long friends, travelling around the US – basically having the time of my life. I was hired in the UK after my internship, and I now design user experience at Cisco London!”

Ask Aris and Iman about working in the US via our Facebook page thread or by emailing it to careers@ucl.ac.uk right now.

Are you an undergraduate or master’s degree student who would like to know more about the PhD application process and what studying a PhD is like? Then sign up to attend ‘Applying for a PhD’! The event will take place on 8th December from 13:00 to 14:00 and will give you the chance to hear 5 UCL researchers answer questions about how they applied for a PhD and what life as a PhD student is like. The speakers will be a mixture of current PhD students and PhD graduates sitting on a panel and will answer a variety of questions on topics such as PhD funding, finding a supervisor as well as how they found the transition from an undergraduate/masters degree to PhD.

Book now using your My UCL Careers account

Panel of speakers:

Jiawei Li – 3^rd year PhD student in Liver and Digestive Medicine

Jiawei is intercalating a PhD research degree in the middle of her medical study. Her PhD project is funded by the UCL Grand Challenges, working to investigate the immune mechanism involved in the developmental programming of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. She is currently at her 3rd year of PhD, and will re-join the medical school upon completion. Over the three years, she has published several research articles and book chapters. Besides academic research, Jiawei is also actively involved in committee works. She has previously been involved in the UCL Leading Women Society, and mentored undergraduate students. Jiawei now sits on the committee of Obesity Action, a charity which promotes the awareness of obesity and obesity related conditions. She believes that the PhD has been a great learning experience, and would like to share her experience with other people.

Domenico Macri – 3^rd year PhD student in Chemical Engineering

Domenico Macri’ received both the bachelor degree and MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calabria (Italy) in 2011 and 2014, respectively. His final year research project was based on the thermodynamic modelling and the experimental analysis of biomass gasification with supercritical water. He is currently a third year PhD student in chemical engineering at the University College London and his main research interests focus on the effect of temperature on the defluidization and sintering of industrial reactive powders.

Dr Anna Mazenod – Research Associate at UCL Institute of Education’s Department for Education, Practice and Society (completed Doctor in Education)

Dr Anna Mazenod is a Research Associate at UCL Institute of Education’s Department for Education, Practice and Society. Anna’s undergraduate degree was in Economics and Sociology, followed by an MA in applied Economics and Sociology. She then worked over eight years in the education sector as a manager and a policy practitioner, and completed her Doctor in Education (EdD) studies part-time at the Institute of Education. Following the award of her doctorate she has worked as a contract researcher in two different universities and taught on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Anna is currently working on the ‘Best Practice in Grouping Students’ project, a large scale mixed-methods research project. The project develops and tests best practice in how secondary school students are grouped in English and Mathematics, with a particular focus on improving academic attainment, self-confidence and experiences for low attaining students.

Dr Andrew Tosolini – Research Associate at Institute of Neurology (completed PhD in Anatomy)

Dr Andrew Tosolini is postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute of Neurology, UCL under the guidance of Professor Giampietro Schiavo. His current project focuses on the cell biology of motor neurons in health and disease. In particular, he is focused on understanding the mechanisms governing axonal transport as well as further understanding spinal cord circuitry in motor neuron disease/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

He completed a Bachelor of Medical Science with Honours in Neuroscience (2010) and a PhD in Anatomy (2015) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. His PhD project focused on characterising the spatial organisation between skeletal muscle and the innervating motor neurons. This analysis served as a critical tool to virally deliver therapeutic genes for the treatment of spinal cord injury. In addition, he was awarded the Dean’s Merit List for his outstanding contribution to research as a postgraduate student from the Faculty of Medicine.

Simone Webb – 1^st year PhD student in Gender Studies

Simone Webb studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford, going immediately into a year long Master’s degree in Women’s Studies, also at Oxford. Her MSt dissertation was on feminist interpretations of the work of Anne Conway, a seventeenth-century philosopher. She then took a year’s break from academia and applied for PhDs. She’s now a first-year research student for the Gender Studies PhD at UCL, in the Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry. Her project is on the use of genre and literary form in the texts of British seventeenth-century women philosophers – how the use of genre might relate to the philosophical content embodied in those texts, and further how it could relate to the gendered positions of their authors.

UCL Careers’ Media Week begins on Monday 28th November, and all events are now open for booking.

Media has been continuously, well…in the media(!) over the past year with stories such as press freedom/regulation, the future of the BBC, the rise of online journalism and related struggles of the printed broadsheets and, more recently, criticism of tabloid coverage of the Brexit High Court ruling (see The Independent’s and The Telegraph’s take), and Facebook announcing a crackdown on “fake news” (Sky and the BBC giving their views here).

Media accounts for so much more now in terms of career options than just TV, radio and print, and our week reflects that with an event looking at digital media, alongside more traditional forms. As usual you can expect to hear from experts, many of them UCL alumni, from a wide variety of organisations and sectors, who will tell you about their careers to date and advise you on how to get a foot in the door. You will have the chance to ask your own questions, as well as meet the speakers informally.

The week begins, on Monday 28th November at 5.30pm, with our Careers in Publishing panel discussion, featuring representatives from trade, academic, business and freelance publishing, and chaired by a representative from UCL’s own MA in Publishing.

On Tuesday 29th November at 5.30pm we have our Get into Digital Media session where you can hear more about this rapidly expanding sector from some of the key industry players.

On Wednesday 30th November at 6pm we feature Marketing, PR and Advertising, with professionals talking about these different career paths and how to access them and build your career.

Thursday 1st December sees 2 very different sessions:

At 1pm, News Associates will be running a highly practical, interactive Journalism Workshop, in which you will craft your own article.

Finally, at 5.30pm, we close the week with our Get into Broadcasting: TV; Film and Radio event, which will allow you to meet a range of professionals- from independent film makers, to broadcast journalists, to assistant producers- and hear more about their roles. The event is chaired by the Manager of the Open City Docs School at UCL. This event will also feature Creative Access, who are a charity dedicated to finding paid internships for black/ethnic minority individuals.

These events are likely to be heavily oversubscribed and we ask you to sign up in advance in order to be sure of a place. For more information and to book on to any of the above sessions, please go to http://www.ucl.ac.uk/careers/events/getinto/media.

So you think you might be interested in working in museums, cultural heritage or the arts but aren’t quite sure where to start? You’re probably not alone. Whilst there are broadly four types of museums and galleries in the UK – national, regional and local, university and independent  – these represent a vast array of collections, artefacts, objects, specimens and homes. From well-known and established collections to the history of anaesthesia it could seem a daunting task to know where to start.

In addition, unlike other sectors, there is no clear pathway for starting out your career, such as through a graduate scheme for example. Volunteering remains an important way to develop your interests and skills, though opportunities for paid work do exist. The good news is the sector requires people with diverse skills to thrive including education, programme, science, history, business, marketing, finance, and digital to name a few. And while funding cuts have meant that museums have to rethink the ways in which they operate, this also means that there can be lots of opportunity for those with creative ideas and an interest in innovating.

However, the sector remains competitive. Jobs in museums, galleries and libraries made up just 5% of jobs in the creative industries in the UK last year, a 6% increase since 2011 (Creative Industries: Focus on Employment June 2016). So being proactive, gaining valuable experience and making contacts is crucial.

London is an exceptional city in which to launch your career in this industry. With over 278 of the 2,500 museums in the UK located in London alone (Museums Association; Londonist) this city hosts a diversity of cultural places to work right on your doorstep. To help you explore the many options and opportunities for work in this sector, UCL Careers has organised a programme of panel events for Museums & Cultural Heritage Week beginning Monday 14 November: Museums Forum, Cultural Heritage Forum and Working in the Arts. A Museums & Heritage Volunteering Fair will also take place during the week.

Each panel event will feature expert speakers who will provide insight on the sector by sharing their own career journeys, their perspectives on what is currently driving the sector and what keeps them excited about this field. They will also offer valuable advice for those looking to get a foot in the door.

Kicking off the series is the Museums Forum featuring speakers from the Grant Museum, the Museum of London and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Panellists for this event include:

Jack Ashby, Manager of the Grant Museum and former head of Learning and Access for all UCL Museums and Collections for a period over 2009 and 2010. Jack has interests in scientific communications and evolutionary biology.

Jackie Kiely, Curator in the Department of Archaeology Collections at the Museum of London. Jackie has published widely on Roman artefacts.

Danielle Thom, Assistant Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Danielle specialises in 18^th century art and co-curated the exhibition A World of Fragile Parts a special project exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale running until 27 November.

The panel will also feature a current student who held a summer internship at the British Museum.

Register to attend this and the other events online via your ‘My UCL Careers’ account.

UCL Careers Museums & Cultural Heritage Week is part of the #UCLInspireMe series.

Other events in this series:

• Museums & Heritage Volunteering Fair, 15 November @ 17:00
• Cultural Heritage Forum, Tuesday 15 November @ 18:30
• Working in the Arts, Wednesday 16 November @ 17:30

Source: Walt Disney – Donald Duck – Modern Inventions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSohVE6Zmjc)

A series of lunchtime talks and experiential workshops providing insight, advice and interactive opportunities to engage with all aspects of careers management and navigating selection processes no matter where you are in your careers thinking.

From understanding the graduate job market to career decision-making; mock aptitude tests to interview success; finding and funding a PHD to getting to grips with Linkedin and social media – the programme aims to equip you with the essential know-how to begin to move forward and engage more confidently with ‘Finding your Future’.

Talks and workshops titles will be repeated on a regular basis in the Autumn, Spring and post-exam season. Please register to attend using the links below. For more information and to register to attend – http://www.ucl.ac.uk/careers/events/essentials

Essentials Programme

Improve your CV
7th November 1-2pm, repeated 21st November 1-2pm

Did you know that the average employer can spend less than 30 seconds assessing a CV? Is it true that some employers ignore personal profiles? Should a CV be more than just a life history of everything you’ve ever done?

Find out how to market yourself effectively in a UK CV in this interactive session. We’ll simulate a CV sifting exercise allowing you to ‘sit in the recruiter’s shoes’ and assess multiple CVs under time pressure. Understand how to create a strong first impression, keep the reader’s interest and make your evidence ‘relevant’.
Book Now

Application forms, cover letters and supporting statements
10th November 1-2pm, repeated 22nd November 1-2pm

Do companies use ‘killer questions’ to sift out weaker candidates in application forms? Does a recruiter pay more attention to a CV or cover letter? What’s the difference between a ‘functional’ and a ‘narrative’ personal statement?

In this interactive session, we’ll review motivation and competency-based application answers, assess sample cover letters and personal statements and get an insider’s view on what recruiters are really looking for.
Book Now

Succeeding at interviews
17th November 1-2pm

Did you know that most interview questions are predictable or that what you say can be less important than how you say it?

If you’ve been invited to an interview, you’ve already impressed but for most, interviewing is a daunting experience – so how can you navigate interviews successfully?

Find out how to prepare ahead for the types of questions you can expect, create a strong first impression and learn answering strategies for motivational, competency and strength-based questions. We’ll critique videos of graduate-level interviews and get inside the recruiter’s head to understand what they’re really looking for.
Book Now

To register and find out about future Careers Essential events – http://www.ucl.ac.uk/careers/events/essentials UCL Careers

In its third year running, the UCL Careers in Government and Policy Themed Week has arrived!

Below you will find a run down of the range of events organised to inspire and engage those who are interested in a career within the public sector, as well as those who are yet undecided. This is your chance to meet with organisations in this sector – to hear from and network with a range of guests from recent graduates to senior officials.

The events below are open to students and recent graduates from all degree disciplines and all of the events below are now bookable through your ‘My UCL Careers’ account.

Panel Discussion: Careers that Make a Difference: Leadership Roles
Monday 24th October 2016 | 12 noon – 2pm
Come and meet representatives from a range of prominent public sector graduate schemes. This event is in the format of a panel and Q&A on their leadership roles in the public sector.

Confirmed speakers include:
· NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme – Andy Williamson – scheme graduate
· National Graduate Development Programme (Local Government Association) – Catharine Kew – National Management Trainee – Housing Operations
· Think Ahead – Ivan Wise – Recruitment Director
· Frontline – Johnson Adeyanju – Recruitment Officer – London and South East

Civil Service Guest Lecture
Monday 24th October 2016 | 5:30 – 7:30pm
Hear from Alex Aiken, the Executive Director for Government Communications. Alex will speak about his career, and there will be the opportunity to ask questions.
https://www.gov.uk/government/people/alex-aiken

This event is intended to be primarily educational in nature. If you have questions about the applications process for the Civil Service, there will be some Fast Stream Graduates on hand to speak to about these at the end.

Panel Discussion: Careers at the Heart of Government
Tuesday 25th October 2016 | 5:30 – 7:30pm
Hear from speakers working at the heart of government. Learn about alternative, non-Fast Stream, career paths into government roles.

Confirmed speakers include:
· Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) – Jamie Frew – Deputy Team Leader China External and Taiwan Team, China Department, Asia Pacific Directorate
· HM Treasury – Alistair Lobo – Policy Advisor, G20/G7, International Institutions and Policy, International and EU Group

This event will include Q&A and a networking opportunity.

Workshop: “Angell Town” – a case study exercise created and led by a team from the Civil Service Fast Stream Graduate Programme.
Wednesday26th October 2016 | 2pm – 4pm
Are you interested in a challenging and strategic job that makes a difference to others? This interactive exercise will see you tackling the real –life challenges that people in our city face. You’ll develop awareness of your team-working skills, communication and problem solving abilities, whilst learning what it’s like to tackle complex public policy scenarios where your decisions have a huge impact on the lives of others. We highly recommend this workshop for anyone interested in civil service roles or with an interest in public policy.

Booking is essential for this workshop as spaces are limited and reading material will be sent to registrants prior to the day.

Panel Discussion: Influencing Policy
Thursday 27th October | 12 noon – 2pm
Hear from representatives of some of the leading shapers of public policy.

Confirmed speakers include:
• Chatham House – Rory Kinane – Programme Manager , US and the Americas Programme
• Transparency International – Rachel Davies Teka – Senior Advocacy Manager
• Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA) – Oliver Bubb Humfryes – Economist

Skills4Work: 1-1 Interview Coaching with Civil Service Fast Stream
Friday 28th October. Slots available between 9:45am and 12:45pm
The face-to-face interview is a process that practically every student will go through at some point in his or her career. Even if you are not expecting to attend an interview in the near future, this 30-minute role-play exercise with a Graduate Recruiter will help you practice typical interview questions for graduate schemes and internships. You will receive feedback on your performance during the session and have chance to address any other concerns you have about the interview process.

Please note, the aim of these interviews is to give you a chance to experience a graduate level interview first-hand and practice your general interview skills so the interview won’t be based on questions about specific roles or the company themselves but will instead focus on typical interview questions/scenarios common to the sector that each employer works in.

The interview practice will therefore be useful even if you are not applying to the employer who is running the session.

Skills4Work: 1-1 CV/Application Coaching with Civil Service Fast Stream and Frontline.
Friday 28th October. Slots available between 2pm and 4:30pm
Through the Skills4Work programme, a range of graduate recruiters have volunteered to offer 1-1 coaching on writing CVs, cover letters, personal statements and/or application forms.

Even if you are not applying to their company, you can get a recruiter’s view on any application you have written and they will suggest tips for improvement in terms of what recruiters generally look for in applications, and what will make yours stand out from the crowd.

***

*The above events are on a first come first serve basis so please book early to guarantee a place and to see location details.*
Please note that in order to book a slot for Skills4Work sessions, you will need to pay a deposit for your place, which is refundable upon your attendance on the day.

Events are bookable through ‘My UCL Careers’

Photo from Ruben Ulset

At the beginning of the year I wrote a blog about how valuable the online-learning platform Coursera can be for your career. And now for what might be an even bigger love-in: Lynda.

Oh, Lynda. How did I ignore you for so long? I guess I was too busy, too caught up in my own world. But then right when I needed you, you were there.

Ok. I’m getting ahead of myself. Who or what is Lynda? Lynda is a website containing online tutorials from experts in lots of useful stuff – especially, but not limited to, software skills. UCL has bought a subscription to it, so anyone with a UCL login is able to access the site.

I’ve recently started working through some Lynda tutorials myself, and they’re great! So practical and well made, and each session is broken into bite-size chunks to make them easier to follow.

In terms of up-skilling to further your career, Lynda is a wonderful tool to have. Employers are often keen that their new recruits can hit the ground running. So if you think your target job will require skills you’re currently lacking – maybe coding skills, Photoshop skills, or anything really – Lynda may be able to help you fill those gaps. And even employers who are ready and willing to train you up from scratch will appreciate the motivation demonstrated by starting your learning early.

But what if you’re not sure which skills you’ll need? Lynda has created ‘learning paths’ for different roles. These are playlists of tutorials to work through, starting from the basics upwards. So whether you want to become an Agile project manager or a music producer, it’s worth seeing if Lynda can help you get there.

You can even put together your own learning lists. Handily, UCL’s digital education team have already made some for you, including this fab one on careers skills, ranging from CV-writing, to pitching projects and products. So if you’ve got some spare time over the summer, why not check them out, and see if you love Lynda as much as I do!

Image taken from russellstreet

It’s June. By now most of you will know whether or not you bagged that elusive grad scheme place. If you did, congrats, because grad schemes are notoriously competitive, and they’re pretty cool in many ways; you’ll get a set training scheme with lots of institutional support, you’ll have a big company’s name on your CV, and you’ll probably be paid a little more than the average grad.

But if you didn’t make it through the gruelling application process, or if you hadn’t even heard of a grad scheme until it was too late to apply (or maybe until right now?), worry not, because you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in the majority. Only 16% of graduate-level jobs (i.e. jobs meant for grads) are grad schemes. So here are a few things you 84% could do instead:

Try working for an SME

What the flip’s an SME, I hear you cry? It’s a ‘small or medium sized enterprise’, which is basically any company with fewer than 250 employees. You’re unlikely to have heard of a lot of SMEs as they don’t have the capacity to run huge training schemes, and they often don’t have the resources or the inclination to come onto campus for university careers fairs.

But one thing they do have is jobs. Lots and lots of jobs. SMEs make up 99.9% of UK businesses, they account for almost half of the UK’s GDP and between them they employ 60% of the UK workforce, and 50% of new graduates.

Although big training schemes can seem very attractive, working for an SME has its benefits. Smaller companies are likely to give you more responsibility earlier, a more varied workload, closer contact with senior managers, and you’ll more easily see the impact of your work.

Vacancies at SMEs come up as and when the business requires, so you don’t have to worry that you’ve missed the boat. Jobs boards like JobOnline, UCL TalentBank, and recruitment agencies can be great ways to find SME job adverts. But why not be proactive and contact businesses that interest you? Small start-ups may not have the time or money to advertise entry level roles, so well-timed speculative applications can be successful. UCL Advances has a list of SMEs to start to you thinking about whom to approach, and there are plenty of other SME lists out there (e.g. this London Stock Exchange, this Times, or this UKSBD one) to help you identify target employers.

Try being more committed

One of the nice things about large graduate schemes is the chance to rotate across different departments within the same organisation. The aim is to help you decide which role and department is right for you.

But what if you already know what’s right for you? Why bother with all of that? If a company, whether large or small, is advertising a permanent role in your area of interest, why not apply directly? Even some of those employers offering large graduate schemes tell us that if grads know which team they belong in, direct entry might be a better bet than a rotational training scheme. And depending upon the role, direct entry can be less competitive and involve fewer arduous applications stages than graduate schemes.

Plus, if your grades fall below the grad scheme thresholds (often 2.1 and above), applying directly for lower-level roles can be a great way to get into your target organisation. From there you can work your way up, and we’ve seen examples of graduates (and even some non-graduates who didn’t complete their degree) using this route to get onto their target graduate scheme from within.

Try being less committed

Saying that, 1-3 year graduate schemes require a lot of commitment. It can be an appealing idea to know where you’ll be in a few years, but it can also be somewhat restricting. Shorter internships and placements are a fab way to try out different sectors and organisations, build your networks, and learn about your work preferences, without making a long-term commitment to one organisation. This sort of experimentation could be perfect if you’re not quite sure which route is right for you yet. And if you’re still set on the grad scheme path, the experience you pick up on the way will make your applications stronger in the following years.

And although graduate schemes promise to fast-track you, their regimented nature means that their pace may be too slow for the really ambitious among you. By contrast, regular graduate roles give you the freedom to apply for new higher-level positions whenever they come up and you feel ready, without tying you to a set training path.

Guest blog post by Stuart McClure.

Securing an internship at an up and coming start-up is a tried and tested way of getting some excellent experience on your CV. Many of you will be applying furiously to get an interview or seat on an open day for the best spots.

At www.lovethesales.com we hold an open day for interns. We thought hearing it from our perspective might be useful for the next time you are in the hot seat.

Firstly, it’s worth pointing out that there are many ways to interview people and see who is going to get a role. So, this piece is going to focus more on the mindset and attributes we look for and tease out when we are hiring interns, as opposed to the process.

Our day will normally have a variety of things in it – some in a group, some in pairs, maybe on your own etc. Why? We are looking for attributes that make you stand out.

Let’s say we have a group activity. We want to see which people stand out in this setting. Does someone stand out as a leader? If they do lead, are they bullish or do they consider others opinions. Do they railroad or do they bring a team together?

We also look for those who are more introverted in these situations. Being introverted has no reflection on a person’s intelligence or ability, so we note those that sit back and keep an eye on their performance. Are they contributing quietly or are they unable to be heard. Are they making intelligent contributions that add to the team’s’ goal?

As you can see, we are looking to find out about people’s personalities. We are not looking to judge; we are simply trying to unearth the base attributes that make up the individuals. Once we have an idea of these we can drive the rest of the day forward to challenge each of these people and the positive or negative attributes we have spotted.

Let’s take a character and look at that. Imagine we spotted someone who stepped up as a natural leader, but they were too bullish in the group and overrode everyone’s input – on paper, that’s not a great candidate. However, exuberance could have got the better of them so we want to challenge this attribute. We may put them in a pair / team where someone else is told to take the lead. You may see this candidate suddenly become exceptionally helpful and supportive of the leader. Maybe not. Maybe they will still railroad the decision making. Whatever happens, it helps us judge the people in the room.

What’s the point of unearthing these attributes, you may ask? Well, we want a certain type of person joining our organisation. We look for the following key attributes:

• Judgement – wise and considered decisions
• Communication – able to listen and articulate
• Curiosity – eager to learn and understand
• Courage – happy to challenge opinions and make decisions
• Passion – keen to succeed and inspire others
• Selflessness – work for the team, not yourself

We believe these are the key makings of an intelligent employee. If you have this make up in your DNA, the chances are you will put yourself on the right track for the start of your career. We don’t look for experience, or grades, or how loud you are. We look for intelligence – demonstrated by those behaviours.

I guess the one caveat to this process is that not all companies will work the same way we do, but in my experience most companies, start-ups especially, look for these qualities and have these considerations when hiring. It may simply be that they do not realise they are looking for them, or that they perceive them in a different way.

Ultimately though, my advice would be to consider what we look for. How do you stack up against them? Try and inwardly observe yourself next time you are working in a group or with someone else. Are you a natural leader? Do you shut others down? Could you speak up more? Have you considered what you’re about to say?

Stuart McClure is Founder & CMO of Love the Sales, a tech business that aggregates all sale products from 100’s of retailers and 1,000’s of brands into one website for users to shop.