by Emily Cons

NTU psychology graduate, Emily Cons, shares her experience of the NTU Future You internship with us, how it shaped her career aspirations and provided experience (and confidence) to help with those next steps. It’s a really nice example that shows the value of being open to opportunities like this, and staying in touch with the NTU Employability Team after you complete your studies. It also links nicely to our previous article, showing that you don’t have to have your career all figured out as an undergraduate, as well as illustrating just some of the many useful transferrable skills psych graduates possess.

My name is Emily Cons and I have just finished a six-week “Future You” internship within the NTU Psychology department. I am writing this post with the aim that anyone who is struggling to find a career path will take some inspiration from my experiences and consider taking part in an internship.

For context, I completed my undergraduate Psychology degree at NTU in 2020, then went on to an MSc at the University of Nottingham in Mental Health. While I was completing the MSc, I constantly questioned where I wanted to take my career and as I came towards the end of the course I began searching for various jobs. Although I found a few different roles that seemed exciting I noticed I was often short of experience for them. Additionally, my horizons still seemed too broad; I was undecided between different areas and still struggling to decide which pathway I preferred. So, I began looking at ways that I could gain some more insight and experience in a particular career.

Keep in touch with the NTU Employability Team & online Employability hub

If I am being completely honest, I hadn’t even considered the NTU internships before, so when I saw an email about them pop up, the opportunities on offer really surprised me. They had tons of different internships available, typically lasting six weeks and were all paid roles, so I felt there was no harm in applying just in case there was something available. While the application process was quite lengthy, after that everything moved fast. I first received an email saying my application was successful then had a meeting with a member of the NTU Employability Team, who talked through some options. I decided on the role of a Research Assistant (RA) within the NTU Psychology department.

The role entailed working with a research team (with Dr Emma Vardy and Dr Loren Abell)  to facilitate the design of a study looking at university feedback practices and how they impact the mental health and wellbeing of students. Throughout the internship, I took on multiple different responsibilities with guidance from my two hosts.

To begin with, I conducted a systematic literature search. At first, I was slightly concerned about this task, as I felt it may be long-winded and something I would tire of quickly. However, to my surprise, the opposite happened! I found myself getting immersed in all the papers and feeling excited when I came across new, relevant information and actually losing track of time while reading around the subject. Alongside this, it gave me great experience in appraising studies and reading large amounts of research in a fast but effective manner. While carrying this out, I had multiple meetings with the research team to discuss my discoveries, which led to the focus of the research changing slightly. For me, this was a great confidence boost, as I felt that the time I was putting in was being appreciated and really making a difference to the research.

The responsibilities I had included supporting the creation of the survey, writing of the ethics application, and drafting the literature review for the studies introduction. These different tasks gave me invaluable insight into the types of responsibilities I would have in a full-time research position, so not only did I enjoy the process, but I gained experience and understanding of what a career in research would look like.

Throughout the internship, I kept my career in mind. I started leaning towards the possibility of pursuing this path, every task I undertook validated that I enjoyed the process and felt passionate towards creating research that can lead to increasing our understanding of mental health. I discussed this with my hosts, who were eager to help. They provided me with information about different routes into the career, sent me different opportunities and gave me interview and application advice.

After completing a few applications, I got invited for an interview for a Research Associate role in an area that I was really excited about. To cut a long story short, I got offered the position, and I start in the next few weeks. It goes without saying, that if I hadn’t undertaken an internship, I would not have discovered how much I enjoy working in research and wouldn’t have applied for the job. Also, I probably wouldn’t have got past the application stage if it wasn’t for the experience I gained, because I drew upon the role repeatedly during the application and interview.

I wrote this post because I wanted to share how advantageous this internship was for me, with the hope that anyone who may be struggling with a career path will feel inspired to look at undertaking one. Specifically, the NTU Internships are an incredible opportunity and can help give you great insight into a job role you may be interested in. Finally, I hope my experience has resonated with some people and gives you the confidence to put yourself forward for different opportunities, you never know what can come from it. Good luck!

If you’ve been inspired by Emily’s experience, make sure you keep a look out for the emails from the NTU Employability Team – they regularly share the latest opportunities – and keep checking in with the online Employability hub.

Read more posts about job searching, career confusion, and getting the most from your degree…👇