The resume of Anna Gradoboeva paints a picture of a woman who really cares about people and who is dedicated to helping them find a career in STEM. For the last three years, she’s been fulfilling that mission as a Recruitment Manager specializing in the STEM field for PERSOLKELLY, – Programmed’s specialist recruitment team.
Finding her own path to STEM
Anna’s career has spanned the globe and seen her work in Russia and the USA, but she and her Siberian Berry cat have called Melbourne home for the last seven years.
When she first moved here, she was working as a project manager for an IT company, but when she saw the role come up at PERSOLKELLY, she jumped at the chance to dive back into the STEM field.
“I’ve always been really interested in scientific skills and kept up with science articles.”
From very early on, the values and work ethic of the company told her she was in the right place.
What it takes to start a career in STEM
In the STEM sector, PERSOLKELLY is especially committed to increasing the professional opportunities for women at all levels and improving the gender balance across businesses and the broader industry. As part of her role, Anna helps with the recruitment of many different STEM roles: entry-level to leadership roles, lab-technicians to food scientists.
“Every role that requires a scientific degree. Right now, for instance, I’m interviewing for Senior Scientist.”
Anna is especially proud of the improvements she’s seen towards the attitudes for women in STEM, noting the transparency and equal opportunities on offer these days.
“There are so many opportunities for women in STEM now. In my opinion there’s actually less discrimination than other fields, as recruitment is more qualification based.”
While Anna believes the scientific field may be more open to changes and diversity than other industries, she still thinks there’s room for improvement.
“People are working hard, really hard at what they do, and it’s manifesting in mental health issues. There’s definitely room for improvement to help prevent this.”
“I’m proud to help people on a daily basis”
There are many reasons why Anna loves her job, but the thing that makes her most proud is the knowledge she’s helping people on a daily basis.
“I’m helping all kinds of people find roles. Recruiters provide advice, a little tweaking of profiles here, interview advice there. It’s about understanding people and helping them. I’m also really proud of our Future Scientist Award and how it helps scientific students reach their goals.”
In 2016 PERSOLKELLY launched the Future Scientists Awards to help give science graduates the opportunity to showcase themselves to employers from Australia’s leading scientific companies. Anna’s involvement with the awards also includes offering its graduate entrants advice on how to present and prepare for interviews.
Previous winners of the Future Scientist Award have been grateful for the head start the event gave to their careers, some even getting offers of employment right there on the day. For those that don’t get immediate offers, or those not eligible for the awards, but still interested in applying for STEM roles, Anna shared her inside tips on what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for:
- Academic research experience: “This experience is highly prized. Any projects you’ve worked on, or the research you’ve done for your masters, add it into your work description.”
- Match your CV to the job advertisement: “So many CVs I read forget to add role descriptions of how their research fellows align with job role tasks.”
- Save the soft skills for the interview: “So often I see copy-pasted paragraphs on soft skills; these are more important to prove in action rather than words.”
- Share your achievements: “Include any achievements, awards, presentations or articles you’ve published.”
The future of STEM
For her final insight, Anna shared what scientific fields will be offering the most opportunity in the future.
“Pharmaceutical is a big one of course. There have already been lots of biotech start-ups in Australia, and this field will continue to be very big in the future. Food and beverage is also on a similar scale, along with environmentally focused businesses. Especially those involved in analytics and prediction forecasting. That’s where the world’s issues are, these are the problems we need to solve as soon as possible.”
More importantly, Anna wants the future to hold more opportunities for everyone. More scholarships, more jobs, and most importantly, more equal opportunities for everyone.
