Monster Confidence has been partnered with ‘Stemettes’ since 2016, helping inspire and support young woman into STEM related careers.
On Tuesday 19th November, Monster Confidence and Stemettes hosted a one-day boot-camp for young women looking towards a STEM career. The day started off on key presentation skills – an enriching talk by Head Stemette Dr Anne-Marie. The presentation enlightened us to the main points for successful presentations with the note-worthy 7P’s of presentation: prepare, passion, purpose, plan, pictures, practice and power pose. This combined with Anne-Marie’s warm, bubbly personality helped me learn so much about presentations and improve my confidence for public speaking – I could practically feel the confidence radiating from our presenter with her power posing!
Interviews are the beginning of most of our careers and perhaps the most nail-biting. As a result, the next part of our day focused on preparing us for interviews. We were given a massive helping hand with all the processes leading up to interviews, through them and dealing with the aftermath by professionals from prestigious backgrounds. Soon we no longer became passive listeners soaking in information: and instead turned into interviewees, answering questions from volunteers. This not only helped us gain some experience on the sorts of questions interviewers could throw at us, but we were also treated to embarrassing stories of the volunteers’ first interviewers – not all of them go perfect!
We ended the day with a question and answer session from a panel of influential women from STEM careers. They shared stories about their journeys to their present careers, their favourite cheese and some advice to help on their way those looking towards a STEM career. Volunteers filled in the minutes with motivating stories on their fight for confidence and standing up to (generally male) disbelievers. Ishani Mazumder, a student from Bancroft’s School, described the experience as: “absolutely eye-opening and a whole new perspective on STEM careers.” I found this day thoroughly inspirational (already eager for a career in STEM) and am also fascinated by the useful insight into what it means to be a woman in working society today.
