Project Clinics
'We built it' is true, and it answers nothing.
Most final-year projects are team projects, and interviewers know it. They will ask what you did. Students answer with 'everything' or 'a bit of everything', and both answers hurt. This session helps each student find the part that was theirs and describe it so it can be checked.
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An interviewer's real question is: what can this person do?
A project is on the resume because it is evidence. The interviewer is trying to learn what you can do from it. If the whole team's work is presented as yours, the questions get harder very quickly, and the gaps show.
The opposite also happens. A student who did the difficult part says 'I just helped' and lets a teammate take the story. Neither helps the student.
Some teams divide work unevenly. Some parts are small and some are dull. This session does not judge that. It helps each person say what they did, and understand enough of the rest to be honest about it.
Finding and describing your part
19 topics across 5 areas. Five steps, each done on your own project.
List What You DidSpecific tasks, not roles.4
- Features or modules you built from start to finish
- Things you fixed, tested or set up
- Reports, data collection, design or documentation you did
- Work you started and handed over, or took over
Pick One DecisionA choice you made, with a reason.4
- What the options were
- Why you chose the one you did
- What it cost you
- Whether you would choose it again
A decision, even a small one, is more convincing than a long list of tasks.
Talk About the RestTeammates' work, said fairly.4
- Describe it in a sentence, as something a teammate built
- Know how your part connects to theirs
- Do not claim what you cannot explain
- Say what you would ask them if you had to explain it
If Your Part Was SmallIt happens, and it can be said honestly.4
- Say what it was, without apologising
- Show that you understood the whole project
- Mention what you learned from the larger parts by working beside them
- Offer a smaller thing you built on your own, if you have one
If You Did Most of ItThe opposite problem.3
- Say so plainly, with examples
- Give teammates credit for what they did
- Expect deeper questions, and be ready for them
What the professional looks for
- Whether the answer can be checked with a follow-up question
- Whether two teammates describe the project consistently
- Whether the student understands the parts they did not write
What participants leave with
- A short list of what they personally did
- One decision they can explain well
- A fair way to describe each teammate's work
How the session runs
Teams are asked questions one person at a time, so each member answers for themselves. The professional then points out where an answer could be checked and where it was vague. Members rewrite their own part. The college chooses the date and the teams.
What your students leave with
- A clear list of what you personally did
- The ability to describe one decision you made, and why
- A way to talk about teammates' work without claiming it
- A comfortable answer when your part was small
- Knowing the parts of the project you must understand even if you did not write them
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Your part, said clearly, is worth more than the whole project said vaguely.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.