Your Geography dissertation and how it can help your employability

Your Geography dissertation and how it can help your employability

Ian Hodges

Careers Consultant

Employability and Graduate

Development

Content

• What does the Geography department say?

• What is the dissertation about?

• Examples of dissertation topics

• What will the dissertation give you? Understanding of yourself

Skills

Access to the workplace

Access to information and people

• Relevance to the job/course application process

• Anecdotes

What does the Geography department say?

The aims of the dissertation are for you to develop:

• knowledge of a specific geographical topic, of relevance to the Geography programmes;

• an understanding of the challenges of empirical geographical research, and the ability to deal with practical research

problems (eg, collecting, manipulating and analysing data);

• skills in designing a project and linking its subject-matter to other bodies of geographical knowledge;

• skills in dealing with the complex inter-relationships of real- world processes;

• transferable skills in inter-personal communication, data

collection and analysis, report writing and effective time

management.

What is the dissertation all about?

• It is probably the longest piece of academic work you will complete

• It will require effective project management, research, academic writing and data collation and analysis skills to complete on time

• It is the one piece of work that is truly your own – ie.

you choose the topic; you formulate the research question; you design the research

• It will help you develop an in-depth understanding of a

particular geographical issue and may also involve you

Exeter Geography dissertation titles (BA)

• High Bickington: An Investigation into the advances of Community-Led Planning in rural areas

• Better by Bike: A lesson on travel behaviour for the Bristol Cycling City Scheme.

• 'Going beyond the label': Research on the South

African Wine of Origin Seal, transparency and

cultural activism

Dissertation titles (BSc)

• An investigation of the relationship between bedload transport, erosion and channel morphology through the use of an experimental bedrock flume.pdf

• The spatial and temporal effects of two intensive land-use practices on the compaction of a medium silty loam soil in South East Cornwall.pdf

• Glacial advance in the Southern Patagonian Icefield

and its relationship to climatic variability.pdf

Awards for study

• Emma will use the award to help with costs for travel to Sierra Leone to take part in an eco-tourism project to provide context for her dissertation on

sustainability.

• Rachel Watson will use the award money to help fund her trip to the Athabasca glacier in Alberta,

Canada to study the extent and rate of retreat of the

glacier.

Exercise

Working in pairs, list everything you might gain

from researching into one of the dissertations

on the sheet or from your own dissertation.

What will the dissertation give you?

• knowledge of a specific geographical topic, of relevance to the Geography programmes;

• an understanding of the challenges of empirical

geographical research, and the ability to deal with practical research problems (eg, collecting, manipulating and

analysing data);

• skills in designing a project and linking its subject-matter to other bodies of geographical knowledge;

• skills in dealing with the complex inter-relationships of real- world processes;

• transferable skills in inter-personal communication, data

collection and analysis, report writing, and effective time

management.

Understanding of yourself

• What makes you tick?

• What really interests you?

• How committed are you?

• How much perseverance and self motivation do you have?

• Are you prepared to leave your ‘comfort zone’?

• Do you want a future in research / academia?

Skills

• independent study

• research

• project management

• report writing

• written communication

• verbal communication (including oral exam / viva)

• initiative

Skills (continued)

• critical thinking

• quantative and / or qualitative techniques

• IT

• planning

• time management

• Judgement

• bidding for funds

Skills required by IBM

Adaptability

How do you cope with changing demands and stress? Are you flexible? Have you successfully completed several projects with competing deadlines?

Communication

Do you present information clearly, precisely and succinctly? Adapt the way you communicate to your audience? And listen to others?

Client focus

Can you see a situation from a client’s viewpoint, whether that’s colleagues or customers? Can you anticipate their needs?

Creative problem solving

Do you use ingenuity, supported by logical methods and analysis, to propose solutions? Can you anticipate problems? Do you put forward innovative ideas?

Skills required by IBM

Drive

Will you proactively learn new skills – even if they’re beyond the scope of your current job? Will you put in the time and energy needed to achieve results?

Teamwork

How do you work with others to achieve shared goals? Do you easily build relationships with others? Are you a team player?

Passion for IBM

Do you know what IBM does and what our most recent achievements are?

Are you up to speed with the latest trends in our industry? What are the biggest challenges we face? You’ll need the facts at your fingertips and the enthusiasm to match.

Taking ownership

Do you take responsibility for tasks/decisions? And implement decisions with

Access to the workplace

• Choose your topic to fit your career ambitions?

• Academic study / project will open doors

• Spent time with professionals in the environment where you would like to work

• Gain an insider view of an occupation

• Gain an insider view of an employer

• Funding may be available via ‘Access to Internships’

scheme

• Route to a PhD?

Access to information and people

• Surveys

• Information gathering meetings

• Requests for quotes or background information

• These contacts could turn into mentors or become

part of your network for jobs or further study

Relevance to job/course application process

• Useful for CVs, application forms and

interviews ‘Give an example of when you...’

– Managed a project

– Solved a difficult problem – Demonstrated initiative – Showed creativity

• ‘Non threatening’ talking point at interview

Recording what you learn

• When planning your dissertation you should consider – how to record the skills and qualities you are

developing (use ePDP portfolio or similar)

– how you might articulate these skills to employers or course providers.

• Once you are confident in articulating your skills you should reference your dissertation in your

applications

Anecdotes

‘Last year one of the students I supervised was offered a job following an impressive display during the

job interview. The first role of her graduate scheme was in the employee motivation department of a leading marketing services agency. The student had done her dissertation on motivation to attend events and this enabled her to talk about it during the

interview.

and according to the student...

“I also found a few of the [motivation] theories were

used in my company which I already knew about which

was great and meant that I could contribute”.

Anecdotes

‘My dissertation enabled me to secure a job with (…).

They are a large FTSE 250 company just off Oxford Street in London. I will be running conferences for them.

I had written on my CV that I presented my dissertation at a conference [the BCUR - British Conference of

Undergraduate Research] and both my interviewers

had been to Uni – one is currently doing a masters! So

they were really interested and much of my interview

was spent discussing each other’s dissertations which I

Anecdotes

‘A well-researched piece of "quantitative

analysis" shows commitment, perseverance,

self motivation, independent study, initiative

and critical thinking; surely all the essential

elements to establishing your competency as

a viable candidate for any graduate position’.

Questions