Online job simulations: Online courses explaining industry roles
Job simulations can help you better understand what you might do when working in roles or within a specific industry. Sometimes called Virtual work experiences, organisations develop an online learning experience which you enrol in and complete. Due to the high cost of creating and running these simulations, generally it is large multinational organisations that support them however there a range of jobs covered. You can find job simulations on The Forage and SpringPod.
Rhiannon: Job simulations
Rhiannon is doing a master’s and is under pressure to continue into a PhD. She knows she doesn’t want this but doesn’t really see herself in any of the roles that a graduate might typically do from her programme. She went to the Careers Service and they suggested online job simulations.
Using The Forage, she did their quiz and selected ‘life sciences’ design and consulting as career areas and consulting, science, social impact as areas of interest
She did not specify a company
The site suggested she did some simulations from Accenture, BCG, and LifeArc.
They take quite a bit of time, so she chose LifeArc: Life Sciences: Biology Research because it fits with her course. As she worked through the programme, she realised that she wanted her role to be more creative.
To explore a different range of experiences, she then went to Springpod and searched by ‘communciation’ which is another skill she enjoys. She tried the Genomic Futures simulation, and she really enjoyed the module on non-science jobs. Taking this she decided to explore further and found an interesting article on propsects about science related jobs which eventually lead her to a job at Sciad, a science marketing and PR company.