Carolien Wielockx
By Carolien Wielockx, English student
At the end of my first year of PhD study in Creative Writing at UoN, I was set on gaining academic teaching experience. I had done the Postgraduate Teaching Observation Scheme in the spring, for which I observed two members of staff.
As there are currently no teaching opportunities on offer in my department, I started to look for positions elsewhere.
An external opportunity
Most universities, and rightly so, will reserve their Postgraduate Teaching Assistantships (PGTA) for their own PhD students. But I found a PGTA at UCL (University College London) that was open to external students as well.
The deadline to apply was two weeks away. The modules on offer were creative-critical writing ones in the BA Creative Arts and Humanities, a new interdisciplinary course that has only been running for two academic years, bringing together creative writing, moving image and performance.
Developed an academic CV
I had never written an academic CV before, so I consulted the webpages of the Careers and Employability Service of UoN and read all their resources on how to compose a strong academic CV. This was extremely helpful; an academic CV is really different than a professional one.
Then I made two appointments with an adviser from the Careers team to get feedback on my draft CV and cover letter.
The adviser emphasised the need to tailor my CV to the role, in this case, to put any teaching experience I had - ten years of teaching secondary English in Brussels – right at the top, as well as anything else teaching-related. This included online courses taken at UoN – the Discovering Teaching Pathway – and of course the PGR Observation Scheme.
I followed with my research experience, including details about my PhD thesis and any publications. The second page was for academic conferences, awards, placements, and so on.
Focused cover letter
In my cover letter I emphasised the main points of my teaching experience, relating very succinctly how they qualified me for the position at UCL.
I highlighted my strong points as a teacher, allowing for a more personal touch here than in the CV, and summarised key concepts of my research in two sentences, making sure to connect my work with what I had read in the job specification about the modules I was applying for.
I made sure to be both very succinct and keen, and there was really no room for anything else – I was given very strict constraints on the length of both the CV (two pages) and the cover letter (one page), and it is absolutely paramount to adhere to these.
Invited to an interview
A few weeks later, I was invited to an online interview. Again, I made an appointment with a UoN careers adviser.
We had two sessions, one in which she gave me tips on how to prepare for the interview, which I then set about doing in the next few days, followed by another session in which we did a mock interview.
It is so important to do a mock interview, to practise your answers to possible questions. Take care not to sound scripted; don’t read out a text at the interview, but you can have notes with you, as long as you sound honest and to the point.
Got the job
I put a lot of work into the whole process, from CV to cover letter to interview, but the closer I got to the interview the more confident I was that I had a real chance of securing a position. And I did.
This has set a whole series of other preparations in motion, from applying for a student visa to finding accommodation in London, as I have been a distance learning student in Brussels up till now. It has taken discipline and commitment, but opportunities mostly don’t come to you, you have to come to them!
If you're working towards a PhD, our team can help you to develop experience and build your career. Visit our website, attend our events and book an appointment with an adviser.
Posted on Tuesday 4th November 2025