As part of the second year Consultancy module, Cara Mullen completed a real-life project with a live client and presented this work at this year’s Consultancy Conference. Read all about the experience, and what Cara thinks of the Consultancy module as a whole, below.
What have you enjoyed about the Consultancy module?
I liked how it gives us an opportunity to work with real clients, especially doing a real project that will help to give proper results.
What was your Consultancy proposal and report about?
It was about comparing the Common Bird Census with acoustic recordings identified by BirdNET to have a look at the amount of bird species that were at Cutacre Nature Reserve and if one method was more reliable etc.
Who was your real life client and what were your tasks?
Stephen Cartwright and we looked at different methods of bird surveying and compared them.
What did you enjoy about working on a live project with a real life client?
It was in a field that I want to go into in the future so I enjoyed working with a specialist in this field to have a go at doing something that might give a better angle on what I want to do in the future.
How do you think the live project sets you up for life after you graduate?
I’m hoping I have made connections to clients in the ornithology field, so that I can see if there are job opportunities afterwards I have already worked with them and got some experience.
What did you enjoy about the Consultancy Conference?
I enjoyed being able to present what my group had worked so hard on and also see what the other group did. I also liked networking with people in the environment and sustainability field.
Did you get to meet your live client at the conference? Tell me a bit about what that was like.
Yes we did and he was extremely nice and very knowledgeable and grateful for the work we had done.
What did you enjoy about the guest speaker?
He was very motivational and was nice as he’d done the module as well a few years prior and he gave great advice about dissertations and what to do when you graduate.
Was the conference a good opportunity to network? Why do you think it is useful to have clients, supervisors and a guest speaker there?
With the clients and guest speaker yes. I think it’s important to have a guest speaker that is a past student and has done the module as it makes it more relatable.
Can you please share the work you showcased at the conference?
What are you hoping to do after university? How do you think the Consultancy module will help you to achieve that?
I am hoping to go into some form of wildlife conservation, specifically to do with birds/ornithology. This module has let me work with a client in this field and sample real birdsong data, which was incredibly interesting to me!