On Tuesday 19 November, five year 12 students from the Sixth Form attended the Monster Confidence boot camp in London. This is an annual event held by Stemettes, which means women in STEM, in partnership with Monster.

They had the opportunity to listen to various inspirational talks by women in STEM careers. Some of the companies at the event were: Digi Fairies, GCHQ, Westfield and G-Research. The girls got to practice their interview skills and the STEM volunteers held mock interviews with the girls to see how they could think on the spot. After the interviews, feedback was given on how to improve. One of the workshops focused on CV, profile confidence and the importance of online presence. Did you know that 35% of employers said they were less likely to interview a candidate they couldn’t find online?   

The penultimate activity was a panel and speed networking event. Some of the panellists were: Jenny from Westfield, Professor Kerensa from the Institute of Computing, Alice from UCL, Arabella from G- Research and Beth from GCHQ. The host asked various questions such as, what does confidence mean to you? Then, the question were opened out to the groups to discuss with their STEM volunteers. Something that stuck with the girls was that confidence is like a muscle, unless you exercise it, you won’t know how strong you really are.   

To close the event, we had a competition which tested lots of things we had learned throughout the day. Maddie and Shona are so excited to have won that challenge. Not only did they win the challenge, but their prize is a one-day experience at GCHQ. They also have a headquarters in London, but this location is kept private. They are looking forward to going to GCHQ next year and becoming spies for a day!