HDR UK’s Alumni Network recently ran its first ever event, an online CV workshop followed by one-to-one advice clinics.

The workshop and clinics were led by Sarah Hodgkins of Creating the Edge Limited who is a career coach with wide cross‐sector experience. Her speciality is in helping people focus on identifying their strengths and achieving their goals.

James Godwin, Alumni Network joint co-ordinator, said feedback from the 20 workshop participants was excellent, with people feeling that Sarah had done a great job of addressing the issues that mattered most to them.

This included the best format for a CV, what to include, and the best techniques to make your application get noticed.

James said: “It went really well and everyone said they felt more confident about submitting their CV for a job in the future. The one-to-one sessions were heavily oversubscribed – so there seems to be an appetite for more in the future.

“Right now we are planning other Alumni Network events and initiatives, including a workshop with a recruiter that will look at things like making the right first impression and the employment rules for overseas students studying in the UK.”

In the longer term the network hopes to establish a mentorship programme to train people from the HDR UK network to support young health data scientists and support them in their professional development.

The network is a LinkedIn-based group which aims to provide a free, member-led forum to share ideas, opportunities and information. Anyone who has been part of one of HDR UK’s internships, post-graduate degrees, or fellowships is eligible to join – along with early career health data scientists who are part of our research community.

Visit the web page and find out more about some of our amazing alumni including Fewa Laleye and Claire Coffey.