AFBI Professor addresses QUB Postgraduate Students

Professor Jim McAdam (Head of Grassland and Plant Sciences Branch) recently gave a presentation to Postgraduate students at Queen’s University Belfast in their ‘Future Ready Programme – Employer Networking event”.

In the workshops Queens’ aims to prepare its post-grads in the final year for the job market and how to sell themselves and their skills base.  AFBI and Randox were the two potential employers presenting their cases.  Jim gave an overview of AFBI, what we do and the type of graduates we are recruiting.  He then covered some principles of CV preparation and interview techniques (with acknowledgement to Amy Gilbride, Deputy Head of AFBI Human Resources for her assistance).

From his experience of interviewing young graduates, Jim was aware that they often do not understand Criterion Based Interviewing and they do not always present themselves well at interview.  Jim covered the principles of the Criterion Based Interview and, using examples from recent AFBI Candidate Information Booklets, was able to fully explain and illustrate the process and how to prepare for interview.

In the later sessions, students had a 5 minute pitch, to sell themselves.  Jim was asked to critically appraise these.  Overall, the process was very worthwhile and Queens were grateful for the input from an organisation which will be a potential recruiter of science graduates.

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