Research IT

Photo of a group of young college students from behind looking at a teacher

Creating the Next Generation of Research Software Engineers

Andrew Gait from the Research Software Engineering team recently spoke at a local Manchester college careers day about his experience of working as a Research Software Engineer.

Recently I was invited to speak at Xaverian College’s Post-18 Pathways’ Day. This event takes place yearly at the college, which is one of the largest providers of post-16 education in Greater Manchester with around 3000 students. The event attracts a number of potential employers, both multinational and local, and further and higher education providers – over 60 businesses/institutions at this most recent event.

I was invited by the careers team at the college to speak about “Computing Research”, which I used as an opportunity to speak about Research Software Engineering and my career to this point, to tell the students what it’s like to work in research as a software engineer. I talked mainly about what it’s like to work in Manchester both in research teams and now in the RSE team, but also mentioned how different universities have different approaches to how and where RSEs are employed.

I started my time there by meeting the careers team at the college and then getting to know a few of the other invited speakers over coffee while we waited to be chaperoned to our talk locations across the college. I only talked to a few people of the dozens invited to speak during the opening coffee, but the variety of organisations was evident – one person from the National Trust who worked at Quarry Bank Mill in their Youth Events team; another person there from Speakers for Schools observing the event; further people who were freelance motivational speakers / coaches.

I was then introduced to one of the BTEC Business teachers, Yaseen Choudhury, who took me over to the classroom where I was due to present. Due to the size of the room and the number of talks being given I was asked to do the same 20-25 minute presentation twice in succession to give more students a chance to attend multiple talks.

Andrew G RSE careers

I presented to a small but engaged group of students with only a short time at the end for questions due to the tight schedule, which were mainly based around the breadth of projects that we work on in the RSE department. My impression was that the students enjoyed listening and seemed interested in the subject.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and I/we have been invited back again next year.  We may increase the number of speakers from the Research IT team and I am keen for suggestions as to what we could cover in the future.  I would be happy to increase our input (e.g. we could have a stall at the event at lunchtime / afternoon, and consider getting in touch with other local colleges) if there is enough interest. You can find my presentation on the Careers fair talks about RSE / Outreach issue on the RSE Team LUP GitHub repository.  Opinions and comments are welcome!

If you are interested in having a member of Research IT presenting at your careers fair / event then please get in touch.