Collecting Career Skills - The Revival.

2017

Currently job hunting, I decided to look back at what I have achieved during and since university. Originally, I created this blog to demonstrate and gather together all of my professional experiences and learning experiences. So there's no better time to re-start the practice again - watch this space!

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There's lots to update on this blog, but first things first: I previously posted lots about my university's Leicester Award scheme that I took part in ... twice. So in order to tie up loose ends, here is an overview of the award, and the certificates I received upon completing them!

The Leicester Award has many strands, depending on which skills you want to improve upon and where your interests lie. The award is described as an 'inspirational personal development programme' that allows you to 1) explore these interests, strengths and motivations, 2) gain 10hrs experience in that area, through workshops and professional experiences and 3) reflect on all of this, identifying your skills and then planning your next steps based on this.

More info: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/careers-new/information-for-students/The-Leicester-Award

Leicester Award for Employability: Online Networking and Employability
During this award, I took part in lectures to learn efficient uses of social media, as well as online workshops, where I took part in modules that focused on presentation skills and personal branding.  My experience working in retail was taken into account in the award and after, I reflected upon these skills, as well as my social media presence, on this blog in order to complete the award.

Leicester Award for Employability: Experience Employability

During this programme, I worked more upon my CV and job applications. I had the chance to attend a mock interview and practice assessment centre day with Enterprise-Rent-a-car, in which I worked in different teams to create a presentation and build the highest paper tower! This specifically allowed me to focus upon how to demonstrate my teamwork skills in an interview, and more generally the day taught me how to present myself to possible employers.

Both awards, were not only useful (and look great on my CV) but were also fun; previously to that I had never taken part in a live online lecture and I had never attended an assessment centre day.

Completed in 2015, I have since used many of these skills - in particular the knowledge of efficient social media use (LinkedIn!) and how to present myself to employers - and will continue to do so!

Self-less selfies

Spotlight blog post
The phenomenon of taking a picture of oneself to post on social media has been part of internet 'life' for a long time now, whether we are advocates of it or not. Yet recently any adversity that I may have had towards this vain practice has been changed into wonder at the sheer amount of publicity the the #nomakeupselfie campaign has managed to create. Enjoying a kind of passive snowball effect, the campaign left to its own devices has led to over well over '£2 million being raised in the space of a few days' according to BBC News.

This has struck me as a very clever campaign. It has taken something that half the population loves and half the population loathes and let it spiral, even bad publicity and selfies that miss the point of donating to the campaign have only added to its success. The nomination aspect of it has meant that people have felt obliged to continue the trend, but furthermore it has overshadowed the previously horrible nomination trend to drink too much and made the nomination idea have a much more positive impact.

Personally, I hope this trend does continue to have success, but moreover I hope that charities are able to continue to find other equally innovative ways to motivate the general public to donate. I look forward to seeing how this idea progresses.

Source:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26683817

Taking networking to the next level

Take Your Networking to the Next Level: Build Actual Relationships

Just a short blog to share an article that I read today on mashable. Although I haven't made any new year's resolutions, I would have definitely made this one of them: taking the networking a step further. This article gives 5 simple ways to achieve just that, it's worth a look.
#2 particularly strikes a chord with me: 'in our digital age, handwritten anything shows that you're going the extra mile.' This is something that could be applied to any communication with companies. When my mother wanted to send a minor complaint to a well-known cake company, in order to get noticed, she hand-wrote an ode. It had results and she even received a letter back; hand-written is going the extra mile.

http://mashable.com/2014/01/18/networking/

Reflections on my Leicester Award Journey

As the Leicester award for online networking that I am currently undertaking draws to a close, here is a video presentation of my reflections on my progress. 

Please have a listen, and excuse the poor audio!

Presenting faux-pas!

Today I took part in a Leicester Award (see previous posts) Webinar, aka virtual workshop and lecture, on the subject of 'How to best present'. It was particularly useful as it not only gave information on the structure of a presentation, the dynamics and the content, but also the use of visual aids.

This video shown in the Webinar particularly stuck a chord with me, especially after sitting through many Powerpoint presentations that made ALL of the errors mentioned during my school years. It made me think, similarly to social media, Powerpoint is something that has been there practically all of my schooling life, but rarely has it been used right (even by teachers!). The humour in this video, makes it even more memorable! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpvgfmEU2Ck