Employability

Our group this week conducted a presentation to the room on employability, which included everything from methods of job searching to the interview. 

It was a good task for us all to do because of the various experiences each one of us have had, especially the mature students.

Being 24, I've experienced working life for almost 7 years, so I'm used to maintaining CV's, creating covering letters and being interviewed in different environments by numerous types of employers.

I thought it was important for me to share with the lads my own personal scenarios that I've found myself in, just to let them know how things are. 

Each group had key, valid points to share with everybody, which made for a good brain storm, seen below.

Aspirations

Almost 7 years ago, in my final year of college, I had everything UCAS and university related rammed down my throat, giving me the impression that I had to have a plan to take the next step in my life. I ended up finishing college still not knowing what I wanted to do, and went straight into work with the civil service, followed by Tesco, biding my time until I knew 100 percent what I wanted to do for a career.

That thinking process took a lot longer than I was expecting, but in that time I was able to earn money, travel, as well as gain all-important life and work experience, before heading back into education.

I had to convince myself that I wasn't too old to do a university course, with my 25th birthday only a few weeks away.
"I'll be getting on for 28 by the time I've finished my degree...", I thought, feeling the pressure of having to have a career sorted as quickly as possible.
"That means I'll be nearly 30, then that's only 10 years until I'm 40. I've left this way too late", I continued to snowball.

I eventually calmed myself, sought out other people's opinions about what I was planning on doing, and was assured that it would indeed be a great move, and that it wasn't anywhere near too late. I actually had my reference written by an old colleague of mine who didn't graduate until he was approaching 30. That was the first time I felt properly confident about the next big step I wanted to take.

Right now, I don't regret taking so long to decide. Being a mature student puts me in good stead to achieve my target of a first, because I find myself infinitely more interested in learning new things, performing better in an academic environment than perhaps I was when I was a kid. It also helps that I have experienced the real world outside of education, having knowledge of what to expect beyond this programme.

I'll be doing the best I can in St. Helens, and wherever I do my top-up year. I'm still yet to decide on what I want to do in my third year; whether I want to carry on with Applied Computing, covering as many areas as possible, or to specialise in a particular field, such as networking or web design. These next 2 years will shape that, and once I've achieved my degree, the plan is to head down to London to be successful in whatever I end up doing.

Let's see how that goes.