PCAPS at the University of Oslo’s Geosciences Career Day 2025
On 12 February, 2025, the Department of Geosciences at the University of Oslo (UiO) hosted its annual career day for geoscience students. It provides an opportunity for students to learn about and explore career paths as they near the end of their studies, while also allowing companies and projects to showcase their work. PCAPS Communications Fellows Amanda Skogjordet and Linn Bolin Haakenstad presented about PCAPS during the UiO Career Day, sharing their experiences with UiO students regarding their own early career engagement work.
Amanda and Linn presenting PCAPS at the 2025 UiO Geoscience Career Day. Photo credit: Hilde Haakenstad.
Amanda and Linn held a 15-minute presentation of PCAPS, introducing the PCAPS project. The audience consisted of bachelor students and master students from UiO’s Department of Geosciences. The UiO Geosciences Career Day is an annual event organized by the students in the iEarth project and is hosted in the Geology Building at UiO. An important part of the UiO Geosciences Career Day is the networking it provides, both for students and future employers. Importantly, students have the opportunity to mingle with the various presenters, helping them make connections that can support them in their future job searching and careers.
Amanda and Linn’s presentation covered the goals of PCAPS as well as how Amanda and Linn - as early career students - were introduced to PCAPS. They also shared what opportunities students have to participate in and be a part of the PCAPS community. After their presentation, students could come and ask questions.
The feedback from the students after the PCAPS presentation was very good. Many had not previously heard about PCAPS, so it was a good opportunity to learn more about the project. Some students were interested in learning more and asked further questions.
It was a fun experience for both Amanda and Linn to present at the UiO Geosciences Career Day, especially since this was their first time presenting about PCAPS!
Amanda hopes that she inspired some of the students to choose a polar climate career path, especially since UiO is her home university and many of the attendees were her fellow students. To be able to present about her work in front of everyone and to engage and inspire others was a great experience. Since the UiO Geosciences Career Day is an annual event, Amanda has attended it in previous years., She always found it very nice to be able to talk to companies and watch presentations. In particular, she enjoyed having the chance to learn about opportunities she otherwise would not have known about. Attending several career days also made the process of approaching companies less intimidating.
Linn was very eager to take part in the UiO Geosciences Career Day, to help inspire students to deep-dive into polar science. She has previously participated in the annual Researchers’ Night at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), which seeks to encourage high school students to choose to study physics. Linn is also motivated to help fuel the curiosity of early career students; engaging in the UiO Geoscience Career Day was a perfect opportunity to do that.
Career days are important ways to help students feel better prepared to enter their professional worklife, while feeling both welcomed and inspired.
Events like this align with PCAPS’ goal of increasing inclusivity in polar research particularly with regards to early career researchers. PCAPS presence at events like career days helps support students as they enter the professional world, by informing the next generation of researchers about important opportunities ahead.
Polar research is a fast-evolving field; all the work that facilitates early career inclusivity within it is valuable. It was a great experience to do something important and meaningful for PCAPS and the future of polar research!
We encourage everyone to sign up for our newsletter to stay informed about upcoming opportunities. We have a lot of exciting activities planned this year - including the launch of our webinar series and our annual Open Session. Updates will be shared on the PCAPS website and via the newsletter.