Career Development

Episode 7 delves into the experiences and psyches of three students battling through internship season. From the correct approach to placements to being lead by passion, guest speakers discuss ways in which we can find our career path and leave ourselves open to it finding us.

• Quote 1: "That will look good on your CV" - As important as our career considerations are, we cannot allow them to take precidence over experiences inspired by genuine interest.
• Quote 2: "You cannot sacrifice the person you are today for the person you want to be tomorrow" - We need to remain loyal to ourselves. As much as that represents being loyal to our long-term interests and striving to our potential, it also reperesents being loyal to the person you are today. That means not sacrificing the now for the person you want to be because they don't exist (yet).
• Quote 3: "Assume no, not yes" - When it comes to following any sort of prescribed path it is easy to seek comfort in having a pre-fouraged, tried and tested path laid out for us. What may prove helpful is assuming we are not progressing. This allows for a reorientation reflective of the path we would choose for ourselves today rather than one we foresaw a number of years ago. For how many of us do our GCSE choices reperesent the last time we chose a path based solely on what we wanted to do?
• Quote 4: "Letting motivation precede commitment" - We often wait until we are presented with an interesting and enriching path before we wholeheartedly engage with it. Sometimes commitment is what we need to open ourselves up to the virtues of what we are doing and only then will motivation introduce itself.
• Quote 5: "Fix the small things" - For those times where we lack direction, applying ourselves to the manageable problems around us can provide an immense amount of feedback - be it how we best like to tackle our problems, what isn't for us or even what we are inclined to deal with first. With time, this can create an image that may start to look like a direction.
• Quote 6: "Collecting data" - Sometimes it takes climbing to the top of the ladder to realise that it was pirched agains the wrong wall. As much as it may seem as if it would be a tremendous waste not carry on, it can provide an invaluable insight into where to place our ladder next.
• Quote 7: "Aims, visions and trajectories" - The more we plan and create goals the greater our chances of dissapointment. This often dissuades us from creating detailed visions of what we want from our future. We cannot allow our goals to manifest as another measuring stick to compare unfavourably to. Rather they can be a tool that helps us mediate the disparity between the situation we find ourselves in and where we want to be. They can, if we let them, provide us with a trjectory that we can begin embarking on today.