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Your ability to adjust to new environments and conditions, and your role in the situation.
Explore your understanding
Having the ability to respond to the circumstances around you and manage any changes effectively is a key component of adaptability.
Being able to show that you are able to, or willing to, make changes in response to the environment is a skill that can support you with your achievements.
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Find and develop your skill
How can you improve your adaptability skills at UCL?
Attend an employer-led skills session
Take part in a Employer-led mock assessment centre where you can take part in activities such as looking at case studies. You may be asked to take part in a session that changes its priorities at certain points requiring you to adapt your approach to the task.
Attend an adaptability boot camp
Learn more about adaptability and attend a 2 day boot camp. Here you will find out how to adapt these skills and apply them to employment opportunities such as roles requiring project management and problem solving.
Use LinkedIn Learning to find out more about adaptability
LinkedIn Learning has a huge range of video courses supporting learning in software, creative and business skills – all free to UCL staff and currently enrolled students. Access LinkedIn learning content on how you can build your adaptability skills.
Join a club or society
Join a club or society within the Students’ Union. Be part of a committee where you may find that you can develop your adaptability skills by transitioning into a new role and having to balance multiple tasks and priorities at the same time. They also offer a great range of workshops open to all students.
Students' Union UCL skills sessions
Become more adaptable by travelling
Learn to integrate into a new culture and setting when electing to go abroad for study or work. UCL Go Abroad programmes encompass an enriching selection of worldwide opportunities tailored to support UCL students to perform at their full potential and further develop their adaptability skills.
Develop your adaptability capabilities as a Researcher
The UCL Doc Skills Programme is open to all postgraduate research students at UCL. Here postgraduate researchers will be able to access courses related to adaptability to further develop skills within this area. You’ll find more information on all the courses available.
UCL Doctoral Skills Development Programme
You will also be able to browse the scheduled events for researchers and those for doctoral students. Research students can also access courses mapped to the Researcher Development Framework (RDF).
Gain work experience / do an internship
Work experience and internships can help you develop your availability. Via UCL Careers, apply for a work experience, UK Internship or Global Internship where you have the opportunity to adapt to a new location, environment, working culture, general culture and language.
Work experience and internships via UCL Careers
Prepare your examples
Ask yourself:
Describe a situation in which you were assigned a new task. How did you respond to this situation?
Can you talk about a time you had to do something you had never done before? How did you approach this situation, and what did you learn?
Think about a big change that you have had to deal with? How did you adapt to that change?
Next steps:
Need some support on how to structure your answer relating to adaptability for an interview?
How to demonstrate your skills in an interview
Here you can find out more about how to structure your answer and demonstrate your skills along with many more resources that will help you prepare.
If you have written a draft application for any type of opportunity, our team can provide personalised practical tips and advice to help you better understand how recruiters will shortlist your application, and how you can best demonstrate your motivation and your most relevant skills/experience.