Taking an active role in student life, such as organising events and conferences, involving yourself in institute/university events, and attending courses and lectures all make you look like a more rounded person and show enthusiasm for research.
They can be especially useful if you do not plan to follow a straight academic career by providing transferable skills that are relevant to other jobs.
Get Practical TipsPractical Tips:
- Building a network of friends and colleagues through attending events can help you find jobs simply by knowing more people who know about jobs, but it can also be a good introduction to the people offering them.
- Being involved in committees and organising events shows managerial skills, which are important to many jobs on the non-academic side of research.
- If you keep to your own lab, work hard, obtain lots of lab skills, and publish high then you will probably be fine. However, if things don’t work out as you intended then you may have very little to show for your time. A few extracurricular activities, if nothing else, can be a failsafe against disaster.
Read Personal PerspectivePersonal Perspective:
I got involved in several activities during my degree, including an educational game and student welfare committee, and went to several of the university talks and events meeting many interesting people. Not only did I enjoy all these things, but it made my CV more impressive, and provided me with experiences to discuss in answer to some of the questions I got asked in interviews.
