Work Experience

This topic is .. well, I wasn't sure how to take it when they told us that work experience would be a mandatory part of this course. At first I thought they were joking because I had never heard of this before, I mean we did work experience at school.. not in college! but it seems that over here at least, you do both! Which is kind of strange to me. I guess it's especially strange to me because I've already been in several jobs for some years! Either way, it's something that we need to do so I need to bite down and take it.. re-write my C.V. for the umpteenth time and write some kind of letter of application.

We actually get most of our marks from the planning and preparation unit of this subject - a massive 50%! This includes writing our C.V.'s, letters of application/email, when we are doing the work experience, who with, who it's with(bit of history on the company) and how we will get there or something like that. We have also been given two pages on the legislation so we know our rights in the work place and all that(exciting stuff). Then there is our learning goals, where we have to set out like 10 goals to achieve while we are on the work experience.

On top of that we have done a skills audit.. giving yourself a score of 1-5 on a massive list of things which encompass all sorts of things from "Can you work effectively with others to complete tasks and achieve results" to "Are you able to present complex and unusual ideas to friends and colleagues". I deliberately marked myself just above or around average for things I'm reasonably good at, just so that if all else fails I can put that there has been an improvement in some areas of my skills.. a tutor actually suggested this.

While we are working, we must write a daily diary covering everything that we do in that day.. our tutor told us that he wants roughly half a page per day.. that is going to be a riveting read. Then after the experience is over, we have to re-do the skills audit and then evaluate and review the work experience as a whole.

As of this moment in time, I don't have a placement.. :( I am trying to get a spot in a company I used to work for, but I don't think my chances are that good, because they have never taken on someone for work experience.. so if you know of somewhere in Cork that is somewhat computer related, let me know and I'll give it a go!

I think I've rambled enough for this subject.. onward and upward to better things.. and more code!!