Physics Alumni Event on Employment Skills and the Learner Experience

Alumni Panel 2023, left: Danny Ribeiro, centre left: Tom Wren, centre: Harriet van der Vliet, centre right: Ricardo Mighty, right: Tim Varkalis

This year's alumni panel is comprised of Danny Ribeiro, Business and Strategy Manager at Schroders; Tom Wren, Internal Consultant at Ab Initio; Harriet van der Vliet, Product Segment Manager at Oxford Instruments; Ricardo Mighty, Director at Mighty Capital Software Consultancy; and Tim Varkalis, Cyber Security Consultant at AXA.

Our alumni panel did a brilliant job in fielding questions from students on their employment journeys and what tips could be shared to prepare our students for their future careers.

The focus of the event was on career advice, with the panel being asked questions from the moderator, Jana Checkley, SEPnet Employability Advisor, and from the audience. The panel fielded questions from if they knew their current job excited while in studying at RHUL, to their experiences as women, POC, and neuro-divergent persons in industry. The questions sparked further interest in the students to know more about what jobs are available and how to prepare for employment. The students took the opportunity to further ask questions to the panel at the networking event following the panel.

There were over 20 alumni, across various industries, in attendance. The networking event gave the students the chance to reach out to our alumni to get a better understanding of industry and employment experiences.

The Alumni Event is an important part of the employability strategy of the Physics department and SEPnet, and they continue to work together to bring alumni and students chances to learn and grow opportunities for future employment.