Caitlin Brandenburg, PhD Graduate, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
PhD graduate Caitlin Brandenburg participated in the Queensland Government pilot PhD Employment Experience program as part of UQ’s Career Development Framework and was placed within the State Library of Queensland.
"I really enjoyed my placement experience at the State Library of Queensland.
"I found it was helpful to be able to focus on something other than my thesis and go to a different workplace for a day or two a week.
"The hours were also quite flexible, so my involvement didn’t impact my PhD at all.
"My project involved investigating the measurement of the State Library’s online engagement.
"During my placement, I interviewed a number of staff and stakeholders at the library, reviewed the literature and wrote up a report with a number of recommendations.
"I presented those recommendations to the executive team and State Librarian at the end of my placement, and most of them were adopted by the library.
"It was very rewarding to see my work have an immediate impact.
"Later I had the opportunity to return to the library for a paid position where I completed another short research project.
"The placement was valuable to my research career.
"My ability to apply my research skills in a very different context demonstrated flexibility.
"I also found that there was cross pollination of ideas, and I have applied some of the project management skills I learned to my everyday research work.
"This experience was a standout addition to my academic C.V., and has proven useful in addressing selection criteria."
