Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

I am chiefly responsible for lecture and seminar session delivery (both undergraduate and postgraduate), development and review of course related materials and assessment packages, supervision of student-led research and consultancy projects, dissertation supervision and academic and professional advisor duties. A personal highlight is my role as Placement & Employability Tutor which involves aiding our postgraduate students in their search for a year-long work placement. This requires me to liaise with our network of international placement providers, manage student expectations and develop new placement opportunities.

Everyday is completely different which is one of the advantages of this line of work. The academic year briefly involves two twelve week periods of teaching in the Autumn and the Spring followed by two intense periods of marking in January and May. The summer period is typically spent developing and reviewing teaching materials and assessment packages for the following year as well as used to further personal research projects. In my case, this pertains to writing up my doctoral thesis due for submission in early 2017.

Teaching is ultimately a people oriented task and in this sense there are many parallels with the ten years that I spent working in the hospitality industry. With the UK higher education context meaning that students are now faced with higher levels of tuition fees, creating a memorable student experience is paramount like never before and the challenge of meeting and exceeding our students' expectations is the element of the job which I find the most rewarding.

Our international students often arrive with varied levels of work experience and are accustomed to different cultural approaches to job hunting. This can often present challenges in attempting to secure them a work placement with an employer. However, when the challenges are great, so too are the rewards. This year witnessed 17 out of 19 postgraduate students secure placements in the UK and overseas with high profile brands such as IHG, Hilton Worldwide and Marriott.

It was never my ambition to become an academic. However, as I continued my education to Master's level I proved to be gifted at academic writing and was encouraged by many of the academic staff to pursue doctoral study. It was during my first year of doctoral study that I was afforded the opportunity to get involved with teaching and the rest - as they say - is history.

The BA Management I completed at University of Sheffield provided me with a solid grounding in business awareness which has proved invaluable in my chosen career. My industry experience allows me to present myself as a credible source of knowledge for our students and the research that I have conducted in the restaurant industry is often built into my teaching. In terms of transferable skills, I would argue that organisation, communication, interpersonal and time management skills are among those needed for academic staff with varied commitments and a busy workload.

I recently completed a PGCert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education to support my teaching duties. Other training can be as varied as fire safety and risk assessment training (to support my placement role) to training of specific software packages such as NVivo (for qualitative data analysis)

PhD Organisation and Management (2017)

PgCert Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (2015)

MSc International Hospitality Management (2011)

Member of Institute of Hospitality (since 2011)

Fellow of Higher Education Academy (since 2015)

I particularly enjoy the student facing aspect of the job and therefore see myself progressing into a role which contains a pastoral element. Furthermore, I look forward to building my international teaching experience at some of our partner institutions overseas as well as developing my research publications.

A PhD is fast becoming the pre-requisite for a career in higher education so this would be a good starting point for those interested. Strong academic writing skills and a curious disposition would also further your cause.

Ria  BSc Biomedical Science (2009)
Physician Associate  (Health, social care and psychology)

Accepts questions from students about their career