The school to work transition Stakeholder:

Deirdre, Chemical Engineering Graduate

Portrait of shy woman over grey

background

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The Problem Statement

• Deirdre needs a way to build on her confidence in advance of employment after a difficult learning experience in college.

Insight

• Deirdre believes she is weak at the technical side of her job and yet she received an honours degree from a top university.

Say

• My summer jobs didn’t have much responsibility whereas the interview for my graduate job was about ‘what I was going to bring to the company.’

• I believe I got the job because my boss got a good reference from a summer internship. I think I answered the technical questions satisfactorily in the interview. There are people who are technically good and very hard working, then some people who were highly technical but socially inept. But I can now see how other skills are important to get a job done. You need a balance.

• College is too technical, explained by lecturers so engrossed in the subject they can’t dumb it down. • In college I got a book that was just formulas, just formulas!• What I do now in work if I don’t fully understand it is watch youtube videos. You see it explained visually.

Some people are probably more visual like me. I need examples to understand and remember it. • College knocked my confidence as I failed two subjects in first year and passed by compensation in

second year. In school I understood it all and was getting A’s in math's and science. • Its just about getting through. In college I didn’t think about work, I was focused purely on getting through.• Over the first year of working with a patient supervisor who would have mentored me a lot my confidence

improved.• I am the type of person that likes recognition for things. It makes me feel good. It is important to feel

accepted.• I like challenging myself, taking on a new type of dancing in the gym. What I find very hard is doing

something new in work because of my confidence issues. But sometimes I would love to be more confident.

• In my spare time it is always stuff that doesn’t relate to my job that I do. I do volunteer work but I don’t do an engineering masters. Sometimes I wonder will I stay at engineering.

• I recently enjoyed organizing my boyfriends 30th, the fact that everybody enjoyed it was important to me.

Do

Think• College needs to connect better to the real world in teaching subjects. Applied teaching is

important in chemical engineering in order to relate it to the real world of practice. • Believes that a good reference from a previous summer internship was very influential in getting

her graduate job. Interestingly does not accredit herself for having received a good reference. • Had mentality of ‘I need to pass’ through college which is not ideal for understanding your

subjects sufficiently.• Confidence was unnecessarily knocked due to poor teaching style, missing practical examples

and real world application context.

Feel• Not very confident at the technical aspects of her subject. • Likes recognition and acceptance• Feels she cannot be great in this line of work. Lacks real passion or interest for her college

course as she struggled through it. • Feels some solace for doing well in activities outside of work college. “I am more balanced now in

what I like to do.”

Insights• Believes she is weak at the technical side of her job and yet she received an honors degree from

a top university. • Has low confidence which set after failing subjects in her first year of college, something she

wasn’t use to. • Subjects that she excelled at in school she struggled with in college. This sharp contrast seems

to have made her question her ability. Possibly allowed doubt to set in and effect her confidence.• Responds well to patient and supportive mentorship

• Benefits from tangible examples• Now believes her work/life balance is important to maintain mental health. Her general happiness

seems to have benefited when she upped her involvement in different activities outside of work/study