Careers and Enterprise Blog
Susannah Gilbert
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We think you should complete the Careers & Enterprise Online Award, and earn the certificate which you can add to your LinkedIn/ CV/ portfolio. But don’t just take our word for it…
The Careers & Enterprise Online Award can be found in the Career Pulse tab on the Careers & Enterprise Online Hub.
Nina shares her story of how completing the award inspired her to start a Career Journal:
My name is Nina and I read the Canterbury Christ Church University blogs regularly, so when I was asked if I wanted to write about my career journal I jumped at the chance. I love writing so much that writing about writing is my ultimate hobby!
I started my career journal back in the summer, after doing a few courses in the Careers and Enterprise E-learning hub. I saw that the Careers and Enterprise Online Award was popular, so I decided to see if I could learn some skills to help with my confidence in job interviews.
The E-learning section in the hub is divided into Learning Paths, and there are sixteen of them. I glanced through the headings, and thought that the areas I should initially focus on are Career Management and Career Skills. I had heard the term Career Management before, but I realise that I did not understand it. I entered the first course in Understanding Career Management, and immediately saw that I had been treating my career like a chore…
I reached for some scrap paper (patterned, of course – I am a zinester) and started writing about my goals.
Afterwards I brainstormed what matters to me, and what I value.
As I wrote, I noticed I didn’t have a plan for my career. And I definitely was not preparing my next steps. I felt overwhelmed for a while, so I decided to start at the beginning by doing the Careers and Enterprise Online Award. And wrote about it in the next page of my Career journal:
I spent time doing the Careers and Enterprise Online Award. I don’t often think of my career; my career was something that just happens to me. I hadn’t reflected on it much because the most influential people in my past were people who thought of work as work. I once told a colleague in my old job I sell my labour, not my emotions. Which probably tells you more about my politics than about me. I’ve often felt the need to compartmentalise the different areas of my life. I’m not sure where this developed but I’m sure this was a reaction to one of my soul-crushing past jobs (fun fact: I used to be an investment banker).
An extract from Nina’s Career Journal, with her permission.
The course made me realise a number of things; I need to work in a place where my values align with the company values, I need to feel like I am making a difference, I need people around me (this was really surprising as I have anxiety and groups make me nervous), when I change jobs I normally jump sideways rather than upwards, I leave situations where I feel unchallenged rather than actively search for meaningful roles, and I am actually emotionally invested in my career!
The course felt like a natural springboard into the next stage of my plan, and conveniently coincided with my annual staff review (so I used the skills I learnt in the Engaging in Career Conversations pathway). In my review I asked to do more projects, and even suggested a project I would like to undertake myself.
After discussing my plans for the future, I decided I wanted to focus on three areas to help my plans come into fruition:
- think about what my next steps are.
- access support, and read around research interests (academic, and wellbeing).
- plan my months so I have a day dedicated to career goals, and attend events that inspire me.
My career journal is a continuously evolving document, I add pages to it monthly. I also try to make it fun to look because the process of cutting, gluing and decorating gives me an opportunity to reorganise my thoughts. Having it motivates me to update my pages regularly, which in turn encourages me to constantly review my goals.
Has Nina’s story inspired you to have a go? Why not try out the Careers & Enterprise Online Award for yourself!
Getting further support from The Careers and Enterprise Team at CCCU
You can get ongoing careers support via the following ways:
Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to share my experience of Careers & Enterprise Online Award. It is my most used resource in my job searches, and running through the sections help me battle pre-interview nerves!
Thank you for contributing, Nina! Sounds like some pretty glowing feedback there!