Hello

I have not written a blog for a while as I have been inundated with coursework, field trips and more coursework. But that is all sorted now, just my dissertation to complete, which would be going well, if the weather would stop raining.

I am currently re-writing my CV as I am hoping to apply for jobs within the next few weeks. I am looking for jobs via recruitment websites and the careers service which have been most helpful.

For your CV layout I would recommend the following sections:

1) Education, a brief description of the skills you feel you have gained from your degree, followed by a summary of the modules you have taken that would be relevant to the job you are applying for.
2) Work experience, a brief description of the skills you feel you have gained from your work experience.
3) Additional skills and possible memberships.

I would also suggest that when entering dates for your education, you say Sept 2005-present, for example, so that the interviewer can ask you what you did between June to September

Since my last blog I have been trying to get work experience as I feel that to become employable at this moment the more experienced you are especially in my field to greater the chance there is to get a job. I have not heard back from any of the companies which is a bit disappoint not even an email to say sorry no vacancies.

I have also attended numerous careers talks that are advertised thought the school, which have been helpful especially the agency related ones. Regarding them, my CV has been sent to numerous recruitment agencies.

However, I received confirmation that my application is being furthered by one company, and not by others, but thats life ups and downs.

Hey,

Happy New Year..

Following on from my last blog that seems ages ago now, I have had the experience of a formal interview for a place on a company’s graduate geotechincs scheme. It was a useful experience, I had to travel to East Croydon for the interview however when I got there my interview was only 40 minutes.. One main aspect of the whole interview experience is that practice and understanding the company you applied for. I also had a mock interview with the careers service at University which was really helpful.

Since the interview I have networked with several members of another company, where I had the opportunity to go to an open evening in Leeds where I meet people with the same discipline as my chosen degree, which was extremely useful. I have also been to the Newcastle office also which is one of the offices that I have applied to.

So the point of this blog is networking within a company is useful as it shows how keen you are for the position that is advertised.

On completion of my A levels I struggled with the concept of furthering my education to university level, so I thought, yes a gap year is in order. The aim of my gap year was to gather my thoughts regarding higher education, (which I had deferred my entry). Then in 2005, I thought well I can not see my self doing a job without a degree qualification. So I pursue my degree at Lancaster. I all told myself that ‘I wanted to work out doors’ and i loved earth sciences, thus Earth and Environmental Science was for me, however deep down I know I really wanted to do pure geology but at the time of applying I was determined to live at home.

Then during my second year at Lancaster I thought to myself, that I could not see myself working in the environmental sector, therefore I begin to search for geology related jobs, but with my broad degree I struggled to qualify for the pure geology jobs. Then I thought that a masters was in order to enable me to pursue my geological related job.

I applied to Newcastle before Christmas in 2007 as I needed realise they did an engineering geology MSc. I was fortunately able to get funding, which I was a surprise.

Therefore I conclude that it is never too late to pursue your dream as I have been able to convert back to geology……

Currently I am applying for jobs that will be outlined in my next post…