Looking for part-time work
When I first started my degree at Durham, I knew that part-time work was something that I wanted to continue. When I came here in my first year, however and found myself endlessly scrolling through job websites with little success, I never could have imagined that an opportunity would pop up that was so relevant, and still within the university realm.
The job opportunity first came up in October of my second year, as Dr Kathleen Vancleef and her research team were looking for video creators, graphic designers, and web developers to help promote the Oxford Visual Perception Screen (OxVPS), a tool to help identify visual perception difficulties after brain injury. At this point, I did not think too much about the actual psychology behind it all and was much more intrigued by the creative element.
The graphic design role was something that I loved, and when helping to promote the OxVPS tool, I was involved with social media posts, helping produce a promotional video and, later, other things such as a booklet and leaflet with information about the types of visual perception problems people can have after stroke.
Summer internship
Around March, I finished with my designer job, and it was not until May that the opportunity for a summer internship with the research team came up. Since I had already been a part of the lab meetings for a few months, I had seen how interesting the research side of OxVPS could also be. Whilst before I was anxious about my lack of knowledge or confidence in doing research, I found that when this opportunity came up, I was much more willing and ready to challenge myself.
During my internship, I learned so much more than I predicted at the beginning of my journey. I was able to help with the data cleaning process, which helped massively grow my confidence when using programmes such as RStudio. I also got to prepare a survey for collecting new data and managed to experience some qualitative research through shadowing interviews. All of these skills were ones that I had yet to practice in my degree, and so I was happy to be able to have the opportunity to do this.
Gaining valuable skills
There were also non-practical skills that I gained which were hugely beneficial, such as independence and decision making, time management and communication. Now on a placement year, I can recognise how much I utilise the skills that I learned and developed through the internship, and how applicable they are to different areas of my life.
One of my favourite things about the experience was the actual OxVPS team, and the individuals involved. It was super rewarding to experience a space outside of lectures or seminars to reflect on relevant concepts in psychology with people at all different stages of academia. A final thing is that it was lovely to, as a student, be making decisions and contributing to research that, in my opinion, is hugely interesting, relevant, and valuable.
My advice
It’s been over a year now since I went for the internship opportunity, and having been provided this space to reflect on my time as part of the OxVPS team, I still can’t quite believe some of the things I managed to achieve.
If you are considering applying for any internships or part-time work within the university, just go for it!! You never know who you might meet, what opportunities you might have and everything that you could achieve.
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