To reflect on my careers research so far I have to admit
that it’s not going so well. My preferences from starting at University have
been to work with people and to achieve this I’ve become a Leicester Ambassador, ISWP Assistant and part of the SET Team. While these roles have improved my interpersonal skills and work experience for a H.R role, I
haven’t been able to get any specific experience in criminal justice related to
my criminology degree. Such experience would be with the Leicestershire Police,
Probation Service, Futures Unlocked or the many other opportunities around
Leicester. Unfortunately at our ‘Criminal Justice Careers Fair’ last year only NOMS were recruiting to take on 15 people nationwide and even admitted they
won’t be recruiting in 2013. The Leicester Police have failed to get back in
touch with me about community volunteering and because of my previous time commitments
with them I missed the last volunteering recruitment for Futures Unlocked rehabilitation service.
In reflection of last semesters career research, I not only attended but ran one of the sponsor stands
(Contact Student Volunteers) at the Festival of Careers which improved my
networking skills significantly as I had none previously and opened up the
opportunity of widening my careers research to Government organisations and
business recruiters as I realised they essentially had the same graduate
leadership and project management schemes. Unfortunately after apply for GCHQ I realised I didn't have enough experience to even answer all of the questions because I have no example of
working with ‘experts at the forefront of their field’. And after spending 10
minutes staring at my PC screen attempting to figure out 2.61% of 75,010 I've decided that I need to do some online practice tests to refresh my maths before I apply for the Civil Service Summer Internship Programme.
I was never great with numbers but I've always been great
with people. My next plan is to go through the Times 100 Graduate Recruiters,
apply for Futures Unlocked for the 3rd time and do some research to
find out exactly the kind of work experience I need for social work. In further reflection I could have planned my research better or perhaps followed up my
initial research at the Festival of Careers quicker, if I hadn’t got swamped by
my essays and a significant personal event. In retrospect of that event it made
me realise just how important planning and thinking ahead is. And in fairness
to my indecisive personality, I may not know exactly which graduate path I wish
to take but at least I’ll have graduate prospects.
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