Identifying social talent is the subject of an activity at IMPA Tech

4/2/2025

“What is your talent?” With this question, the Careers and Internships Center (NCE) began another meeting with the students of the Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics of Technology and Innovation, held on Monday (3). Despite seeming simple, the question generated deep reflections and opened up space for self-analysis. The activity was organized with the aim of identifying students’ strategic social and behavioural skills.

Eduardo Suterlande, career and internship coordinator at IMPA Tech, presented examples of talent identification in real life and showed how we can take on different social roles in different academic or professional contexts. “We are multiple. Every human being, psychologically speaking, has lights and shadows, strengths and weaknesses. When you go into the job market, it’s essential that you know your abilities so that you can achieve your goals,” he said.

The coordinator encouraged the students to reflect on the skills they already possessed before entering higher education, what skills they had developed in their first year at IMPA Tech and what areas they could still improve for the next cycles of their degree.

Emotional intelligence, critical thinking, problem solving, adaptability, collaboration and effective communication were some of the skills discussed at the meeting. Eduardo also stressed the importance of welcoming new bachelor’s students. “Once you have identified the skills you need to improve, you can develop them with the new students arriving in March. It’s a new opportunity to socialize and create connections,” he said.

At the end of the activity, the NCE organized a dynamic to identify competences among the students. Divided into groups, the young people listed the skills they see most in their colleagues. The aim was to recognize hidden talents and show undergraduates the skills that they themselves end up overlooking.

For student Suelen Veiga, the dynamic was important for self-knowledge. “It’s very interesting to realize that people who live with you point out skills that you sometimes underestimate in yourself. This helps to enrich our self-knowledge and make us better professionals.”

From 2026, undergraduates will be able to start doing internships. The idea at the NCE is to create trails of meetings to work on developing and identifying skills among young people, making it easier for them to work in the job market.

Suelen wants to work as an intern in a company where she can apply the knowledge she has acquired in everyday life in a practical way. “I’m thinking of working with physics in an interdisciplinary way. Perhaps with biology, education or health, but using the discipline to solve real problems.”

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