#TheWeekInCareers - Episode 24

Welcome to?#TheWeekinCareers ! If you are a first-time reader (and congratulations if so, you are now part of a 1800+ strong community!), this newsletter is my attempt at summarising some of the key?#Careers -related news from across the?#Careersphere ?each week, along with some of the talking points I feel are worthy of further debate amongst the?#Careers ?community! So, without further ado, on to the news!

Are YOU ready for National Careers Week 2023????

Unbelievably, the time has almost come to celebrate National Careers Week again! We may still be a couple of weeks away from #NCW2023 (which runs from 6th-11th March) but there are already some brilliant resources available that careers professionals can use to celebrate #NCW2023 and the importance of discussing career development with young people in schools, colleges, universities, alternative provision settings and other organisations! Check out the links below for some of the great resources out there right now for careers professionals to access in advance of #NCW2023 ...

Download a smorgasbord of NCW resources from the mothership - What better place to start your search for #NCW2023 resources than the source itself, the NCW website! As always, the NCW team have put together a range of downloadable templates, sessions and activity plans for careers professionals and educators to access, including an assembly presentation, worksheets and evaluation templates for form-time activities, classroom door signs and more, as well as a link to this year's Virtual Careers Fair , which gives young people the opportunity to explore a range of career pathways with different employers!

Get creative with ERIC x Creative Portal for National Careers Week - The good folks at ERIC have gone BIG for this year's NCW, partnering with Creative Portal to offer a wide range of FREE online talks for schools/colleges throughout the week, with well over 100 industry speakers covering creative industry fields including Film & TV, VFX, Gaming, Music, Fashion, Publishing, Arts & Crafts, Theatre, Culture & Heritage, Fashion, Journalism, Tech, Marketing and more! There are also skills-based sessions on topics like CVs and portfolios, an overview of the creative industries and a huge range of employers to hear from, so check out the full schedule via the link below and register your school today!

Home Education careers resources from YEUK - Not specifically designed for #NCW2023 but these FREE career resources from Youth Employment UK , which have been created for home educated students, are a useful reminder that not all young people may be celebrating #NCW2023 in the same way. The suite of on-demand learning modules for home educated students includes topics like Exploring Your Confidence, Thinking About Your Skills and Thinking About Your Future, and can be completed in any order the young person chooses. There is also a link for parents/carers to register and explore the courses together with their child:

'Career we Go' with BBC Bitesize (and Mr. P!) - BBC Bitesize Careers has become an increasingly reliable player in the careers education resource space in recent years and it's no surprise that they have some specific content lined up for #NCW2023 , including an interactive workshop for 13-16 year-olds entitled Career We Go (hosted by social media stalwart and educator, Mr. P!) and a livestream on Friday 10th March with a range of yet-to-be announced special guests talking about their career journeys:

International Women's Day (Wednesday 8th March) - Last but most certainly not least, an important reminder that International Women's Day 2023 also falls during #NCW2023 and is the perfect opportunity to bring this year's theme, #EmbracyEquity , into careers activities and conversations we may be having with young people in order to reinforce the importance of campaigning for gender equity within the world of work and why this matters. The IWD website below has a range of really useful resources that could be used as discussion points for #NCW2023 , including information on the difference between equity vs equality, the gender income gap and how to break down barriers for women to move into leadership roles:

To keep up with all of the developments around National Careers Week, remember to follow the hashtag #NCW2023 on LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media channels and keep an eye on the official NCW website for updates! ??

Are?YOU?planning to celebrate?#NCW2023 ?and if so, what are you up to? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of the newsletter and we'll be spotlighting some of the goings on from?#NCW2023 in a couple of weeks' time! It's also worth keeping an eye out for our #WeAreCareers special coming to you live on Wednesday 8th March @ 12:00 during #NCW2023 , with two very special mystery guests from the world of #Careers ...?? Details to follow!

#MyWeekInCareers ?Vol. 4???

It's time for another edition of?#MyWeekInCareers ! For those unfamiliar with this new segment, it's an opportunity to hear more about the day-to-day reality of careers work from different careers professionals delivering quality CEIAG with clients in a range of settings! This time around, we hear from? Amy Longsden , a careers consultant working in Higher Education!

Name: Amy Longsden

School/Company:?The University of Leeds

Position: Careers Consultant

My Background:

• Started working in Admissions at Leeds in 2012, moved into schools outreach work a few years later and studied Level 6 Diploma in Careers Guidance and Development.??
• Two years in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences as an Employability and Placements Officer (alongside one day a week in a sixth form) before becoming a Careers Consultant with a focus on taught postgraduate students, including a large international student cohort.?
• Member of the CDI and AGCAS , including membership of the AGCAS Postgraduate Taught Task Group .?

Monday

This is my favourite day of the week (never thought I would be saying that about a Monday!) as I get to teach a two hour workshop for final year students on our Careers module, Developing a Graduate Identity: Reflective Practice for Informed Career Planning. This is a “Discovery module”, so students join from a whole range of different degrees: this semester there is Food Science, International Business, Film Studies, Economics, Environmental Science and more represented. We make use of career theories (lots of Planned Happenstance discussion last week!) and reflective techniques to help the soon-to-be-graduates identify who they are now, and where they might want to be in the future. Four weeks in, we’re all getting to know each other and it’s a great learning environment.?

Tuesday

This morning was the monthly Careers Consultants meeting, when all 11 of us catch up, discuss how things are going and ask each other for help with our challenges. Our team of Careers Consultants work quite separately in our faculties but we’re developing new projects that will mean working more closely- such as running some pilots of group coaching with specific groups of students in the coming months. I love working in a team where you’re encouraged to try out new things and experiment.?

The afternoon was mainly spent in guidance appointments in person and on Teams, including one with a recent graduate who is struggling with his next steps. We spent time analysing what he has been applying for and what his blockers might be to moving on in the recruitment process, and some new tactics to gain relevant experience. He left with a clearer sense of purpose and some specific goals, which feels so rewarding. I’m glad we have online appointments as part of our standard offer now - it means a lot to our graduates to get support from us, wherever they are.??

Wednesday

Today I finished the second draft of my article for the next edition of AGCAS Phoenix magazine, which will be about CEIAG for taught postgraduate (Masters) students. I’m part of the AGCAS Task Group for Postgraduate Taught students, which is a working group of specialist careers professionals from a range of universities, and we’re all looking forward to reading this issue, finding out what other people are doing in their own institutions so we can further develop our resources and hopefully run an event. As I’m still quite new to supporting PGTs I value being part of this group, and they keep my pesky imposter syndrome in check with their encouragement.??

My article is about the Plus Programme, the support offered to students from underrepresented backgrounds here at Leeds. This used to be just for undergraduates but now extends to Masters students, with financial support and a specialist mentoring programme, as well as a focus on demystifying postgraduate study for all widening participation students. I’ve been fortunate to collaborate on it with Iqra, my colleague in Careers, and Liv, who I first met when she was a student working for my old team as an Outreach Host and who is now one of our Plus Programme Officers! I’m happy I’ve been able to keep up strong connections with my former team in Educational Engagement, as my outreach and WP work was a key part of developing to where I am today.??

Thursday

For the first few weeks of Semester Two I’m teaching first year undergraduate students on our Management with Marketing programme some “careers basics” as part of their Professional Development module. It’s brilliant to get access to so many students early on in their programme, so they get to know me as a Careers Consultant and about all the support we have available if they want to secure a summer internship or do a work placement year.??

For this session I arranged a guest lecture by a friend who works in a marketing agency, and she was fantastic! She shared lots of insider information about what it means to work in an agency, comparing it to her other experience of working in-house, and her views as a graduate recruiter. It’s always reassuring to see the advice you share with students about being open-minded and making connections being backed up by employers - I know my students will listen to them!??

Friday

Some more appointments - face to face this time, and awesome to see our Careers Centre getting busier each week with people dropping by for help. We have an incredible team of Peer Support Assistants who are our first line of support to students coming into the Centre, and I always make time for a chat with them. We’ve been talking about the Unison, UCU and Unite industrial action at Leeds and why trade unions are important.??

Then I did a bit of video editing, making some bite-size clips from a Commercial Awareness virtual employer panel organised by our Employer Engagement team back in November. I’m going to use these in the Graduate Identity module and future workshops to bring in the employer voice without needing someone “live” every time, and see if any of my team want to do the same.?

Reflections...

Writing this has made me appreciate even more how varied my role is. I get to work with so many amazing students and colleagues both in the Careers Service and outside it, as well as peers from other universities who are facing similar challenges following the disruption of the pandemic. We’re all adapting and working in new ways, trying to figure out what is “the new normal” and what might continue to change or go back to how it was.??

If anyone wants to talk to me about what it’s like to be a Careers Consultant or Employability Officer in a university, please get in touch. I’m always happy to talk about my experience of studying the L6 Diploma for anyone considering it too!?

A massive thank you to Amy Longsden ?for being the latest member of the?#Careers ?community to share her?Week in Careers?via the newsletter - you've really captured just how varied careers roles in HE can be!

I am very keen to use this segment in the newsletter to highlight just how diverse the?#Careers ?sector is in terms of job roles and the work that we do, so if you are interested in sharing your?Week in Careers?as part of a future newsletter, please just drop me a line! ??

Guest Blog!? Judah Chandra talks Viva Insights! ?

A couple of weeks ago, in Episode 22 of the newsletter, I shared one of my pandemic-era articles from the archives in recognition of Time to Talk Day , which looked at how careers professionals can use concepts like FormScore , that capture the ebbs and flows of our mental health and wellbeing, to inform our work with clients and how we reflect on our own career development. Fortunately for me, at least one person was reading the newsletter that day, as Judah Chandra , an Employability and Placements Officer at the 英国利兹大学 (Ed: They're everywhere this week!), got in touch to share his reflections on how he has been using a related MS Teams tool, Viva Insights, to track his mood in work and how other careers professionals can leverage this tool if they are interested! Read on...??

Viva insights is a tool that is built into MS Teams. It is really helpful as it can look at your calendar and give you suggestions of free availability to book your time, and other handy tools. It's linked with My Analytics , where you can further see who the top people you connect with are, and your habits regarding how much of your time is in meetings or other tasks.

For me, the most helpful tool has been that at 4pm everyday, I get an MS Teams notification prompt for me to rate how I'm feeling and where I can click one of 5 icons. It then puts this in a graph for you to see how you've self-rated your feeling over time.

?It's been helpful for me to look back to November 2022 (when I first started collecting data) and see the peaks and troughs of how I felt at any particular time, as this is something that it's not always easy to reflect on from memory alone.

Overall, the tool could be improved as I'd ideally like some free text to write in what I was doing at that time to make me feel that way (e.g. I'd just had a careers appointment and was feeling happy, or feeling sad due to <Insert personal life factor>). But as it stands it's still an interesting tool and as it's built into MS Teams, it requires no additional effort to remember to do it each day.

A massive thank you to Judah Chandra for sharing his thoughts on Viva Insights as a follow-on from our focus on 'Careers Form Scoring' a couple of weeks ago! What are your thoughts on tracking your 'Career Form' as a regular exercise - a useful reflective tool or the potential to become just another data-collection activity? Answers, as always, on a #TheWeekInCareers postcard! ??

If you are interested in contributing a GUEST BLOG on any #Careers -related topic over the coming year, please drop me a line - I'm keen to use the newsletter to showcase as wide a range of views/topics from across the #Careersphere as possible! ?

The Best of the Rest: My Hot Picks from the wider?#Careersphere

Have YOU registered for Empathy Week 2023? ?- Monday 27th February sees the start of Empathy Week 2023, which features a series of webinars that students, teachers and parents/carers can access as part of assemblies/lessons in order to develop understanding, perspective and empathy further. There are a really interesting range of webinars available throughout the week, including sessions on Empathy and Entrepreneurship, a Creative Careers talk from our friends at ERIC and a talk on Emotional Intelligence and why it can change the world. As Anthony Burrill intoned, 'Work Hard and Be Nice to People' - it's a truism and Empathy Week is a reminder that empathy and kindness are just as important in our careers as any number of the 'skills of the future' so often touted in various publications.

One skill to rule them all? ?-?Up next, an excellent piece on LinkedIn from Kate Daubney PFHEA FRSA regarding the challenges Higher Education faces in identifying the skills that students need to develop for the future - this is well-trodden territory, so it's refreshing to see Kate Daubney PFHEA FRSA approach this debate from a different angle, inviting universities and higher education institutions to consider stepping away from definitive lists of 'graduate skills/attributes' and explore how they can help students develop the agency and perception needed to identify for themselves the skills that they will need over a changing career and how to both develop and articulate these skills. A really interesting take and well worth a read!

What's holding back your career development? ?- As regular readers of the newsletter will be only too aware, I rarely miss a chance to plug an article from Sarah Ellis and Helen Tupper of Amazing If , and this recent offering from the Harvard Business Review is a goody, outlining four common challenges that hold individuals back in their career development and solutions for addressing these challenges, framed with the questions When?, Who?, What? and Where? As always, the advice is practical and easy to digest, with links to some handy tools to help individuals visualise their career development challenges and potential solutions.

The Early Careers Labour Market ?- In this 30-minute, easily digested episode of Recruiting Future with Matt Alder, the inimitable Charlie Ball breaks down how the early career labour market has transformed over the past few years, including the possible long-term impact of the pandemic, the changing nature of 'place' in work and what the future may look like in areas such as credentialism, entry requirements and hybrid working. Those who have heard Charlie Ball speak previously will know he does a brilliant job of bringing LMI, often a relatively dry subject area to life with a keen sense of humour and useful anecdotes/reflections on conversations with employers/recruiters to back up the data. Well worth half an hour of your time, particularly if you work in the early careers space!

Why 'follow your passion' is bad advice: according to Research ?- To round off this week's newsletter, Raj Sidhu is back with another excellent video on his YouTube channel, which this time looks at why sticking too devotedly to the age-old adage of 'follow your passion' can potentially be fraught with risk for our career development. What's particularly nice about this video is that not only does it frame the four challenges to the 'follow your passion' mantra in the context of genuine research studies carried out in this space but Raj Sidhu is also careful to be nuanced in how he discusses 'passion' and where this can also be beneficial within our careers.

I'm always keen to hear what people think of this weekly newsletter format (e.g. Is it helpful? Does it add value to what is already out there on LinkedIn? What might make it better/more digestible?) so please do drop me a DM if you have any thoughts!

See you all in the?#Careersphere ?next week for?Episode 25! ??