Conclude my week of work experience.

I realized that it really wasn't feasible to write about each of my days as most of the information I looked at was confidential. So a basic summary of what I did and my conclusion.

This being my second draft, as I realized writing a break down of what I did every day would be tedious. So in short: Monday and Wednesday I was out with clients and/or insurers. Tuesday and Thursday I was in the office either attending meetings and/or learning about other roles within the company. Friday was a short day with a client adviser.

From my week I learned that brokering involves many varied and specialised roles. I was shadowing a client executive which deals with the relationship between the client and the insurer, so very people and presentation based. Over the week, this particular role became apparent to me that this is the role I think I would be most suited for. There was a specialised client executive role for professionals and finiancials, but I was told that specialising too early could hinder me having transferable skills. These two I found the most interesting and will be reviewing at a later date.

What I suppose I can discuss in a bit more detail is that I was very pleased with the overall experience, I never felt like a loose end and everyone was very polite and easy to get along with. I never felt forced into conversation and things seemed to flow very naturally. I believe this is very important as I want to work within a company where the other employees are people I get along with and share similar personality attributes(not necessarily interests as that was very varied). A particular job can sound great, but I expect it's the people you work with which makes it more of an enjoyable experience and more likely to be something you look forward to coming into work for. In conclusion the company, the roles and the people all made a great impression on me. I am very much looking forward to spending more time with Marsh in Leeds.

My second week of work experience is coming up, this time at Dickinson Dees in Newcastle in HR. I have had a fantastic week with Marsh so I am hoping a renowned and successful company like Dickinson Dees can match Marsh in their hospitality and roles. Will keep you up to date.

I would like to thank Marsh for their hospitality and giving up their time for me.

H

A very early start...

My start to today was very early - 5am start as I was having to travel from Buxton for a 9am start at the company. Made it in fine, even after the rush and the run through town. Must have looked quite amusing to the passers by running in a suit!

Day one was field work; meet some of the clients of this particular company and attend a meeting between the clients. A particularly long meeting I was told, but one I found very interesting and I enjoyed listening to the two companies communicate. What I enjoyed the most was chatting to the clients and building the relationship with them. I know that this is brief, but I can say no more. Overall a great experience and a very interesting first day.

On with tomorrow! I'm in the office.

Time to shine!

Tomorrow I start my first day with a company which I am very excited to be spending time with. I am very unsure of my target job so I think having tasters will benefit me greatly and it will also give them a taste of who I am too. I have learned I can't say too much in my blogs so I shall not say the name of the company in fear of getting into some kind of trouble (funny democracy we are in?). I shall be blogging the basics of my day for the next fives and my adventures with this particular company. It shall be brief because I know of the need for confidentiality.

The week after I start another week of work experience with a different company in a different part of the country and if I am able to, I shall blog briefly about that also. This particular one is in a completely different sector: HR and I have chosen it because I have seen that there are a lot of job vacancies in HR. Hopefully with a week of work experience behind me, it will show interest and I shall shine a bit more on my CV.

So yes I have been very busy setting these up. I am also planning some more work experience with another company in a totally different sector altogether! This one might be harder to get, but we shall see.

Overall, I think that these two weeks will shed some light into what I want to do, or what I want to stay away from. I think work experience is great and I hope it will really pay off as I have such little formal work experience behind me. In this current climate, I need anything even somethings which are slightly unusual, to stand out in the mountains of CV's recruiters receive for jobs.

I have to be an entrepreneur about this and look for the gaps which other competitors aren't looking at. I think most graduates who are not in work need to chase up new strategies to find and win the job they deserve.

H

One has to keep busy

My previous blog was an article I wrote for @Twitjobsgrad for their blog about the possible lack of knowledge of what a Philosophy graduate is: thoughtful reflective, thinks outside of the box and looks to different direction and an independent learner. Of course, all degree disciplines demand respect, but I think possibly equal respect.

Saying that, the more I look into the recruitment process I seem to find it isn't just about qualifications or personality. I think it's your level of experience. I recently lost out on an internship (won't say which one) to a marketing graduate for the reason that they had previous experience in marketing. Simples. Whether or not they actually had an marketing experience I am not to know, but it's the fact they have had the golden word: experience. I could never of offered that.

So, with my "transferable skills" (graduate recruitment agencies LOVE that word) I have looked to gaps and problems which have led me not to be chosen in my previous job interviews and applications.
1.) Applying for jobs that don't match my skills
2.) No previous experience
3.) Not very good at writing app forms/Cv's and interviews.

I have a feeling this isn't news, especially not to a career consultant. But to work that out for yourself and realise your gaps, is a step closer to improving with understanding.

So... Let me start with number 2. : I have applied for voluntary work and I've got my interview tomorrow. I shall be a tour guide around St.John's Church. I believe this will increase my communication skills and memory capacity (not something I can put on my CV, but I believe it is one of my weaknesses). And it will show I like to keep busy. Secondly, I have a week booked with Marsh Insurance Brokers to have a taster about the work an insurance broker does, considering this is something on the careers list. I have to make sure I really want this as I would have to go through long and expensive training. I also have a week booked with Dickinson Dees in their HR department looking at what human resources is about and the type of roles they have.

I have looked at HR because it seems there are quite a few jobs going in that sector and I'm not sure what it's about. I was told I should apply for the jobs that are most prominent and this one is it. I will try and see whether I can get a week with their solicitors but that really depends.

I have been busy planning and looking at my resources. I know I don't look like much on paper, but hopefully these weeks will add something to my CV's.

Let you know how it goes.
H

What do you plan to do with your Philosophy degree... Article for TwitJobsGrad

“What do you plan to do with your philosophy degree – become a professional philosopher?”

When stating you have a Philosophy degree you can be greeted with a look of bewilderment from your family, friends and now recently for me, recruiters. From personal experience I believe the question they would rather ask (if they weren’t so polite) would be: “what can you do with a Philosophy degree?” You can do a lot and very little, so it would be acceptable to ask what the point is behind spending £9K to study it. Majority of the time it isn’t to become a professional philosopher.

Philosophy has had good press and bad press in the past and while it is classed as an arts degree, there seems to be a lack of knowledge on what Philosophy students actually study. We all have a good understanding of English and History subjects, but Philosophy seems a grey area where recruiters from my experience don’t seem to be sure of the skills of a Philosophy student. Regardless of the degree, I am sure that graduates have had to explain their reasons for the course, but I believe that those skills haven’t been doubted the ways I think mine have.

Our skills can include:

· Analytical, problem solving, research, independent thought

· Debating, communication (oral and written), organisation,

· Team work, working on initiative, attention to detail,

· Dealing with some of the most complex and daring thoughts in history

I think the last is crucial and completely missed when discussing Philosophy student’s skills. Our degree is one of the few disciplines that allow its students to handle some of the most controversial essays in history. Many of these papers have influenced and directed governments, religious belief, ethics and medicine. Philosophers were once greatly respected leaders and the Philosopher Plato stated that the state (country) should be ruled by Philosophers, as they are the most educated and knowledgeable (The Republic).

While an interesting and thought provoking idea, I don’t regard Philosophy as a more respectable subject, my only qualms being that the attitude towards modern Philosophy students can be misguided. From friends and people I have come across who have shown a curiosity in my studies, the attitude seems far from the ideas above of a Philosophy graduate. Instead the typical idea seems to be of drinking in pubs discussing conceptual ideas and generally just being very boring. I found some interesting articles in the University of Leeds Careers Centre on the general idea of Philosophy students by employers as being lazy about work because they think logic, time travel, anti-realism is interesting and normal work isn’t. Furthermore, if anyone has come in contact with a Philosophy student or graduate, they will know the degree involves very few contact hours. So from the outside perspective it looks as though our degree is easy. One of my Business friends came back from her day at University to proclaim she had a look in one of the Philosophy tutorial rooms to find us “just sitting around chatting”. She was mortified because she had never seen something look so easy and informal.

However I beg to differ as would many Philosophy graduates. We may have less than ten hours of contact a week yet we are still given a forty hour workload, therefore we are expected to organise our own time and develop our own learning techniques. The advantage over a science or mathematical based degree is that we aren’t given the information; we have to find it ourselves which gives Philosophy students a sense of independent learning and maturity.

This could and maybe should look desirable to an employer, but in researching what recruiters want at entry level for graduates they could possibly be excused for thinking Philosophy graduates would think they are above work. During my research for this piece I came across an interesting article called Advice for Philosophy Graduates[i] by Rob Farrow. What he drew on were the factors which would cause stress to a Philosophy graduate looking and entering the workplace. The section I found most interesting was he understood that at entry level a graduate isn’t expected to reason, question and discuss the mechanics of their new surroundings. Instead you are given your policies and procedures and that you are expected to follow.

“…[Philosophy graduates] often move from an environment which prizes critical and original thinking, ethical integrity and rationality to environments in which these are often considered problems. The culture of compliance that is so prevalent in the modern workplace can be a shock to the philosophy graduate who has been developing their independent thought.”

Nevertheless, I know that this problem of graduates feeling restless and unchallenged occurs right across the spectrum of degree disciplines. I recognise of course there may be other degree disciplines who receive prejudice when applying for jobs by recruiters, but I have specifically chosen Philosophy because this is my chosen subject and I know from experience that there seems to be a lack of understanding of what it involves. The point I am trying to make is whether recruiters do enough homework on their applicants as we do when we apply. Graduates put a lot of trust in the recruiters to make the right decision in whether to accept their application and I would imagine most graduates would expect the recruiter to have some understanding of their discipline. I believe a good number of graduates would believe they should not have their degrees discriminated against if the discipline has a bad or unusual reputation. Philosophy seems to be one of those subjects where the air hasn’t been completely cleared and I fear recruiters might not look deep enough to see what valuable employees we could be.

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http://philosophycompass.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/advice-for-philosophy-graduates/

In response to: How to Beat Stress if you’re a Philosophy Graduate http://philosophycompass.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/how-to-beat-stress-if-you%E2%80%99re-a-philosophy-graduate/

The rain has held off...for now.

Optimism comes in waves and I've found my perfect wave...

From browsing on LinkedIn, chatting to friends and looking at recruitment applications, I could see there was a big gap on my CV - something which has so far (according to the feedback I have received from previous interviews) held me back. Lack of experience. So, to fill the gap I have applied for some voluntary roles. Whether or not they are relevant is a different story, but considering I'm out of work and not using my skills I should keep busy. Those roles have been: PDSA sales assistant (good for retail I heard), Asthma UK to be an e-campaigner(good with writing and social media), magistrate(maybe not as I have to commit for 12months), a tour guide at St.John's Church and some roles at the Princes Trust. I have decided to go forward with the AsthmaUK and tour guide as I think they would keep me busy and I would gain some skills on the way (communication, leadership, networking, customer service).

In my last post I explained that networking on twitter had allowed me to know about a post going at a local food shop. I handed in my application and like I said it's now all in the waiting. But, what is exciting is that I was approached by @twitjobgrads to write them an article for their blog about the experiences of a Philosophy graduate applying for work. This was a pleasant surprise as I have recently taken on to writing. In fact, this is the third article I have been asked to write this year. The first article was for the independent record label Imogen Records for their March newsletter. The second article I wrote was about my competition win back in April for the Northern Dance Association Magazine, the issue will be out soon.

Earlier this evening, I heard some lovely news that I had an interview for an internship which I am very excited about. I had never applied for an internship before, so this is all very new. It's on Friday so wish me luck! Before I pour too much cold water on my optimism, obviously to get to where I am, it's common for me to lose out at the interview stage- BUT this time I am going to the Career's Centre at Leeds University to get some good advice. Feeling good.

H