Dr John Isaacs

Any tips for staff looking to share your career success?

The one thing that helped me the most was the Pioneer Programme. It gave me the opportunity to meet people across the university, to see what other departments in the university do – how they run and function. Without Pioneer, I would never have had that opportunity to meet so many different people.

If you are looking to progress your career at RGU, I highly recommend the programme.

Tell us about some of your career achievements

My proudest moment is definitely taking on the role of Dean, School of Computing. It’s a role that I’ve wanted to move into for a long time, and to be given that opportunity is certainly the proudest moment that I’ve had so far.

I was previously a course leader. My job involved teaching and running the Computer Science course as well. A big part of my job was pastoral care, so looking after the students who are on the course. I want students to be able to assess their own skills, discover how they can apply them and identify what they still want to achieve and learn. Encouraging a creative spirit throughout the computing courses for students is extremely important.

I’ve helped mentor the Student Computing Society in the development of the RGU Hack. It’s an annual hackathon where students develop for a mix of challenges put forward by sponsoring companies. It leads to greater ties between RGU and industry, and it has helped the winning students find employment within the companies that sponsor the competition.

I also established RGU’s participation in the Google HashCode: a four hour optimisation challenge set by Google to coders all across Europe. Similarly, I organised a Local Hackday that allows students to mix with college students wishing to articulate to RGU, resulting in a number of applications.

I was really proud to be recognised by students in the STAR Awards. I was awarded Lecturer of the Year in 2016, the Continued Excellence Award in 2017, Personal Tutor of the Year award in 2018 and the Extracurricular award in 2019.

What’s the drive behind your success?

I’m keen to modernise teaching practices, making sure real development tools are used to reflect practices in the industry.

I’ve also worked in a lot of different areas across the university. I’ve worked with a lot of different people in research, in teaching and in management of the organisation as well. I’ve always wanted to go into a role that includes all three of those and that’s what the Head of School role is.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

The one thing I would like to add is, if you have an idea – go with it. Try and reach out to people across the university to talk about your idea with them and see how they can support you. There will be other people in the university who will want to see your idea get off the ground. So, go for it. If there’s something you want to do, try it.

The next steps in your career progression

Explore opportunities to progress your career with your line manager. There are many examples of career paths from staff across the university on the Sharing Success webpage from which you can draw inspiration and ideas. Information on the latest application window can also be found on the Sharing Success webpage.

The HR team is on hand to offer advice about progressing your career. You may also find it helpful to speak to your colleagues who have already taken the steps you intend to take on their career paths.