Event review – STEM Women Virtual Graduate Careers Event, 5th March 2025

Event review – STEM Women Virtual Graduate Careers Event, 5th March 2025

Warm welcome

STEM Women were thrilled to host their first virtual event of the year this month. We had 319 attendees visiting 9 virtual employer booths, applying for jobs on our virtual platform, chatting to employers through the chats platform, and watching live talks form 3 employer representatives followed by a panel discussion.

STEM Women’s Marketing Director, Sophie Chadwick opened the event with a welcome talk, helping the student and graduate attendees navigate through the virtual event platform and encouraging them to consider all of the opportunities that present themselves and to be open to opportunities that they might not have considered before.

Inspiring employer talks

Employer representatives from Admiral Group PLC, The European Space Agency, and PwC shared with the attendees their stories, career journeys, and the opportunities and paths available to them at their companies. 

Sophie Angel Heath from Admiral Group PLC shared her insightful career journey after completing a Mathematics degree in 2011. She talked about how she felt unsure about career options and felt that the amount of open doors and paths was actually quite overwhelming, after spending a few years trying to find a path, she was able to rule out what she didnt want from her career while learning a lot of core skills such communication and  team work that she would carry further and gained insights about workplace environments. At Admiral Group PLC she was able to find strengths in people management alongside her role in data and experience leading a team of product owners working alongside her, engaged herself in technicalities of data and analytics and pushed herself when she was ready to take on more. She is now Head of Data & AI Academy. During her insightful talk, she stressed the importance of mentorship and informed a new perspective that growth is not always linear. A key point that she has learned from finding out what she did and didn’t want in her early experience is that it is important to enjoy what you do in order to do your job well.

Lucy Van Der Tas, Head of Talent Acquisition at The European Space Agency (ESA) shared with attendees about the ESA and what they do, with 85% of their budget assigned to the European space industry building satellites and research and development. ESA recruit astronauts and were excited to show some of the first Europeans that will possibly step foot on the moon. Lucy shared that 31% of the ESA are now women, with female representation being lowest in engineering disciplines, however, they have a 50/50 split in their business services. Available opportunities such as entry-level and research programmes were also shared with the attendees!

Fareeha Adnan from PwC Student Recruitment (Senior Associate) also shared background on PwC. As a professional services firm they help over 25,000 UK clients with 328,000 employees around the world in 152 countries. Ranking as theUK’s  top graduate employer in The Times Top 100 Graduate UK Graduate Employer survey, PwC demonstrated ‘The New Equation’: they understand the importance of technology, but believe that the human element is what is so important in their work. As a professional services firm, they help solve financial problems, consulting issues, financial crime, cybersecurity issues, supply chain efficiency and much more for their clients across the UK and the rest of the world.

Panel discussion

The panel discussion was filled with useful questions from the listeners to which the speakers Abbie Horton (PwC), Sophie Angel-Heath (Admiral Group) and Kate Isaak (ESA) gave some insightful and inspiring answers. Sophie Angel-Heath stressed the massive impact that mentorship has in early careers and how it can help with decision making, role moves, feeling confident, feeling supported and gaining insight from more experienced peers.

When asked about imposter syndrome, Kate Isaak from ESA discussed that many people face this challenge when starting a new job or leaving their comfort zone, but it’s always useful to provide evidence for yourself against negative thoughts, face the facts that you were successful in the recruitment process for a reason, you were successful in your interviews for a reason, and you got hired for a reason. Abbie expanded, sharing that it is okay to feel out of place when learning something new and that learning is a good thing when you bring your key skills with you to apply. It was agreed amongst the panel that working as a team and having strong communication skills are some of the most important soft skills. 

An inspiring message from Kate Isaak that resonated through her discussions was “nothing ventured, nothing gained”. She advised not to be afraid of trying something new and that it’s important to have faith in oneself. The panel also shared some great tips on gaining experience for those who are just leaving university and looking for their first opportunity. With open days, shorts, taster days and making connections at such events there are many ways that graduates can seek opportunities.

The final messages from the panelists ended on what they would tell themselves at the start of their careers, for Kate Isaak, this was to just go for it because nothing is gained with nothing ventured. Sophie Angel-Heath highlighted the importance of surrounding yourself with enthusiastic people who push you in the right direction. Abbie reminded listeners of the importance of being your authentic self while pushing yourself onto more. The main message from the panel: just go and do it!

Missed this one?

Not to worry, we’re excited to see even more of you for our next Virtual Events: 

Virtual STEM Women Engineering Graduate Careers Event (UK Wide)

Virtual STEM Women Tech & Consultancy Graduate Careers Event (UK Wide)

STEM Women also host in-person recruitment and networking events year-round. So, if you’re a student ready to explore careers in STEM, a recent graduate ready to make your move into industry, or an employer eager to tap into top talent, check out our upcoming event dates and locations.

Join us next time for an unmissable experience!

Visit our job board

Looking for more from STEM Women? Check out our job board to find recent job openings in science, technology, engineering and mathematics industries. We list jobs that come directly from employers that are looking for you!

Written by: Milly Cooke, Marketing & Events Executive