job SOURCING

Thought I would refresh my memory on job sourcing this summer, whether exclusively for the holidays, a sandwich job, or your first step on the career ladder (ie. you're doing a Criminology degree and decide to do admin for the Police Department).

As far as I know both Child and Adolescent Studies, and Criminology have lectures/seminars themed around job hunting, interview skills etc, in their 2nd year. An assignment where your CV, cover letter, Personal Development Plan (look below at my sample of a PDP) and job research is graded. I'm not rubbish at CVs, but it was a good way to know I was on the right track, giving me confidence in my interview skills, and analysis of a job is something I'd never done professionally before.

The UoB has a great page for CV and cover letter writing (click right here) but not only that they offer a free drop in session at Career Services on the ground floor of I block. I found this terrifically useful in the assignment, with proof reading my CV and PDP, and one of the advisors even gave me a good hour and a half for some career guidance. They also do a similar certification called the EDGE. 

Having said all that, I'd like to put it out there that the formal "job hut" and CV saturation of your entire town/city, isn't always going to be YOUR route to the job you're after - in fact we may often find ourselves somewhere better than our dream job. For example, when I first signed up to university and was looking for work, I signed up as a Nursery Nurse with a local recruitment agency, staffing nurseries and creches when needed. This led to me staffing schools when Teaching Assistants were absent, which then ended up with my being employed in one (I went through the external interview process but from knowing the school I was much more confident). Now I am seeking what avenues I can pursue to benefit my experience and career, whether it's after-school-clubs, interventions, parent workshops - might end up doing a PGCE yet.

I will be honest and say I don't know where I'm headed, but if you keep asking questions, keep throwing yourself out there, you are bound to end up somewhere very interesting and possibly the best thing that could happen to you. Now to keep my eyes peeled and myself at the ready this summer holidays ….

Descriptive > Analytical > Critical analysis.

These were the three degrees of university learning that my lecturer told of me yesterday. I had asked to meet him due to getting a grade (not a very bad one I might add), but wanting to go further and keep progressing, I needed to find out where I was going wrong and could improve - I'm going to need to if I want a decent degree to talk about like a first or an upper second.

You're on a trajectory path, he said. Something I had never heard of before. In your first years you 'die' for an A, but you don't always get it, perhaps due to the challenge of the assignment or your personal ability. But one doesn't simply arrive on site at university and within days become a raging, A+ academic. And I realised that in order to be happy professionally, efficient and achieve my goals, I needed to stay on this 'trajectory path'. (1) Descriptive = our first year academically, describing what we read and see. (2) Analytical = dissecting, looking carefully at, reasoning within ourselves the theories and current policies. (3) Critical Analysis = making our contributing, taking all we have learnt and arguing what holds true and what does not.

A friend of mine started out her first year as a C student, which might have discouraged or hit me hard, but then in her second year she was a B, and her third she is now an A student (getting regular A-, A and A+). And when we talked about it, that was a success story. In today's climate where it's more than the paper that says you've got a degree, it's the 3D learning, it's the character you build and display from your learning years. Perhaps this is a good thing, employers (while they look at your qualifications) are looking even more at YOU. What has our degree made us, how do we present ourselves, how have we spent our time. I could be wrong but I believe this is the way of future employment and success stories.

Which brings me to what my lovely unit co-ordinator told us in an informal meeting one day: I don't care if you get A's, B's or C's, as long as you work to the best of your ability.

We are each on a different journey, with different abilities and talents (some aren't even academic), but to know you had been through university and not reached your full capabilities, THAT'S painful.

And it comforts me to know that even if I don't get the first or even the upper second class degree, if I challenged myself, and aspire to the next level at all time, then I will reach my full potential and be happy no matter what my grades are.

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On another topic, if you would like to see the StEP project I have been working on, here's is a sneak peak poster advertisement made for the event….

Summary of Easter Break and what's to come ...

Do the words routine and student fit in the same sentence?

My week is hardly routine, just when I think I’ve got it sussed, is when something else pops its head up to throw things around again. Perhaps it’s what being a student is all about; perhaps it’s because I enjoy it. From Society events, volunteering opportunities, to having an impromptu review with a peer.

The first regularity is my work life, which is related to what I am studying (hence why employers feel I am getting more educated and can load more work on me). But I keep reminding myself how valuable this is as this is what will guide me into the career of my dreams once I graduate, nothing gets a job better than having a job. Ironic I know.

Secondly, I daren’t miss lectures, seminars or even the workshops; I guarantee you that the ONE you miss will end up being the one that has THE most important piece of information just happening to crop up in conversation. I have missed some due to illness, and even when I couldn’t help it I wished I had been able to make it in. I also find that if I go to teaching hours then it gives me less to review in my research time as I have already been able to ask my questions and learn it well in class. NB: Your lecturers are likely to tolerate your incessant questions more when they know you've made the effort to come to their teaching. I mean, can you blame them from staring at you when they've already been over the same question with everyone else a hundred times already?!

Lastly I cannot go a week without going over my notes and reading up on what we have learned or dabbled in. I find this keeps my interest even after those few teaching hours when you’re struggling to stay interested (or at least trick yourself by pretending to be), something will ring in my ear and I’ll be like “Hmm…I wonder what that is all about.” And quite often it will be more than useful in the long run. I’ll end up watching a movie /documentary about it or researching online and finding that golden nugget - and commence the Hallelujah chorus!

Note-Taking and Revision Ideas

Writing on the lines


 The old-school way of learning, and to be honest it still works perfectly for some people. You follow the lecturer and write down the things that are important, that stand out to you, or (if you're a visual learner like me) just so you can see it on paper and print it in your mind before filing it away and never looking at it again (okay, do as I say but NOT as I do on that one!).

Bullet Points


 I LOVE my bullet points, and to be fair they get involved with all kind of note taking, but rather than write odd words here and there, or complete sentences or phrases that are often repetitive and unnecessary, incorporate bullet points.

Highlighting and Different Coloured Pens!

 Okay, maybe  this is my OCD side coming out, but I highlight in a colour co-ordinated fashion, purple is references, yellow are key facts, and when it comes to trying to find out that key bit of information from hundreds of notes, it really helps.

Interacting with Printed Slides

 Lecturers will often put up their slides on BREO prior to their talk (and if they don't you can always ask). I did this a lot in my first year AND used it for revision to remember everything I had learnt.

Mind Maps

 I actually picked this one up recently at a training day in my school, and I realised I already used mind maps but perhaps not to its full potential! You start with your main theme, ideologies for example (but it could be childhood perceptions, welfare systems etc.) and create branches on the different stems like Marxism (or Universialism, Feminism, etc.). Marxism would then have branches to define what it stands for, how it is perceived in today's world, or you could even start a new mind map on a new piece of paper. This is great for in class note taking or for revision too.

 Check out this youtube clip on Mind Maps for language learning (we're learning our own academic language remember) and the guy explains how powerful it is for our brain connections.

and don't forget the Recommended Books

Essential

Cottrell, S. (2008) The Study Skills Handbook, 3^rd edn., Houndmills: Palgrave

Moore, S., Neville, C., Murphy, M. & Connolly, C. (2010) The Ultimate Study Skills Handbook, Milton Keynes: The Open University

Background

Greetham, B. (2008) How to write better essays, 2^nd edn., Houndmills: Palgrave

McMillan, K. & Wevers, J. (2006) Smarter Study Skills Companion, Harlow: Pearson

Pears, R. & Shields, G. (2010) Cite them Right: the Essential Referencing Guide, 8^th edn., Houndmills: Palgrave

Stogdon, C. & Kiteley, R. (2010) Study Skills for Social Workers, London: Sage

TopRead of the Term!

goes to … (a drum role pulease!)

Gangs as Alternative Transitional Structures, a journal article in primary research by Jewelle Gibbs

Gibbs, J. T. (2000) 'Gangs as alternative transitional structures: Adaptations to racial and social marginality in Los Angeles and London' Journal of Multicultural Social Work, 8 (1-2), p. 71-99

I used this in my latest Research Approaches module assignment, and in my own mind it's the most interesting journal I've read so far. Not perfect (but as I am learning, no research every is) I still found it to explore fascinating themes as to why youth and individuals become enticed into gang membership, and what it really means to them. Not just dodgy gangs of unruly and disorganised youth, to some it represented a place to go and people that would accept you, not to mention the emotional and social needs of those maturing into adulthood and have no where else to find it without being labelled and excluded. A great read, but I realise I can only understand it now that I have some comprehension to academic jargon. Ah well, here's to writing some of my own interesting academic findings in plain English.

The Research Approaches Module of year 2 has not been to everyone's liking, I however have found it quite fun to play researcher for the last few months, especially with the approaching dissertation of my final year coming up. The module sees introductions into computer research programs like SSPS and NVivo, and how to analyse both qualitative and quantitative data. Assignment 2 (where I used this article extensively) had me writing a critics review of the article, analysing how one would do their own research - which incidentally the proposal of which is coming up in the final assignment of this module. Oh joy!

Child and Adolescent Studies, Year 1 Units

This afternoon I found myself clearing out and filing the contents of a drawer with all my year one material. I ended up looking at some of my notes, unit contents, my old schedule, and mostly my assignments and their grades. Not horrendous grades, but in looking at the notes, I realised how the things that were picked up on by lecturers aren't a problem any more, and how much better my grading has become now in my second year. Sure, I'm not your A+ student, but it's nice to realise how far I've come and actually improved academically from one year to the next, and I know I will develop more in my final year. Having said that, in realising where I was a year ago, during the beginning stages of university and working at the same time, I realise I've developed in my professional capacity as well, with much more confidence in practice, understanding why we do certain things in the human services.

Some of the units in my first year were:

• Introduction to Working with Children, Young People and Families

The foundational principles behind working with individuals and families, respecting their choices and working with a person centred approach, as well as abiding by professional ethics.

• Academic Skills for Higher Education

A great way to get your head around academic referencing, note-taking, and (the biggie) plagiarism. 

• Introduction to the Human Services

Mostly a historical background and the reasons why we have the human services in this country, as well as some of the roles that are out there.

• Foundations in the Social Sciences

Not everybody's cup of tea, but personally a favourite of mine. I never really understood politics or how governments work, but this unit really help me to understand current events and things that are happening in the UK and other countries, and how they effect us. 

I think if I had taken the time to understand the units before I took them, I might have had a better approach to them at the beginning, as it were I was quite blank and naive initially, but hopefully this will help you get the better grades in your first year as opposed to your second.