Okay, so I know it’s been a while since I've last blogged (okay a LONG while) but it’s honestly not my fault!! Lots has been happening since I last updated you all, and I promiseeee that over the course of the next two blogs I shall update you soooo much you’ll be sick of me by the end of it :P (well I hope you won’t actually be sick…but you know what I mean :P).
Okay, sooo, after I finished my degree I started looking for jobs pretty much straight away. I think I averaged applying for about 10-15 jobs per day, and I literally must of only heard back from about 2% of those :(. It did get really disheartening after a while, as I worked so hard throughout my degree to get my First, and I tried to work as many jobs alongside it as well to try and build up my experience, yet I still wasn't hearing back from jobs I was more than qualified to do :(. I did hear back from two jobs though, the first was an amazing PhD Scholarship at the University of West London, in my specialist field of eyewitness testimony! It was such a great opportunity, but unfortunately it was offering too little money for me to live on (£7000 a year!!) so even though I didn't get the job/scholarship in the end I wasn't too upset as due to financial circumstances I would have probably had to turn it down anyway.
The other job I interviewed for was for an equally amazing job at the prestigious Anna Freud Centre. I was a bit surprised that I actually got an interview for this position as I only applied by mistake lol :P!! Basically, I thought I was applying for a Research Assistant Job (for which I was qualified), but I accidentally applied for a Senior Research Assistant position (which I definitely was NOT qualified for), I rectified it straight after and applied for the lower down position, but I strangely only heard back about the Senior position. I went along to the interview for the senior job anyway (despite knowing I wasn't qualified), as I thought it would be good experience (and I would recommend you guys go to as many interviews you get as its all practice!), but despite the interview going very well, I unfortunately didn't get that job either in the end :( The interview team were really nice though, and they gave me such good feedback which I intend to utilise within my future interviews, but they said I was the only one that they interviewed which didn't have a PhD so they had to go with the more experienced candidate. As rejection reasons go, I’d say that’s not a bad one :P
So after trying miserably to get a Psychology job for months and months, it got to the point where I was starting to panic about my future, as my job working in the Enquiry Unit was due to finish September/October time, and I was really getting worried about paying rent after that :(. Soooo long story short, I decided to take a change of pace and get into teaching. Whilst Psychology is (and always will be) my one true passion, teaching is something which has always interested me and was something I planned to do much later on in my life (think mid-fourties, grey hair, kids, etc…that kind of later on), due to me not having much luck in the Psychology field job-wise, I decided to move my teaching aspirations forward a couple of decades LOL.
And that’s what I've been doing for the last two months :P it’s going really well so far, and I’m about to start my massive 8 week placement in a few weeks, but as I can already see this blog is dragging on a bit, I think I’ll leave all of my training-teacher tales for my next blog (which I’m going to write really soon, PROMISE), I’ll also talk you through the process of applying for the PGCE as well as my tips for tackling those damn Skills Tests, so hopefully that’ll be of use to some of you :P
But for now, I wish you adieu :)
Xxx
Okay, sooo, after I finished my degree I started looking for jobs pretty much straight away. I think I averaged applying for about 10-15 jobs per day, and I literally must of only heard back from about 2% of those :(. It did get really disheartening after a while, as I worked so hard throughout my degree to get my First, and I tried to work as many jobs alongside it as well to try and build up my experience, yet I still wasn't hearing back from jobs I was more than qualified to do :(. I did hear back from two jobs though, the first was an amazing PhD Scholarship at the University of West London, in my specialist field of eyewitness testimony! It was such a great opportunity, but unfortunately it was offering too little money for me to live on (£7000 a year!!) so even though I didn't get the job/scholarship in the end I wasn't too upset as due to financial circumstances I would have probably had to turn it down anyway.
The other job I interviewed for was for an equally amazing job at the prestigious Anna Freud Centre. I was a bit surprised that I actually got an interview for this position as I only applied by mistake lol :P!! Basically, I thought I was applying for a Research Assistant Job (for which I was qualified), but I accidentally applied for a Senior Research Assistant position (which I definitely was NOT qualified for), I rectified it straight after and applied for the lower down position, but I strangely only heard back about the Senior position. I went along to the interview for the senior job anyway (despite knowing I wasn't qualified), as I thought it would be good experience (and I would recommend you guys go to as many interviews you get as its all practice!), but despite the interview going very well, I unfortunately didn't get that job either in the end :( The interview team were really nice though, and they gave me such good feedback which I intend to utilise within my future interviews, but they said I was the only one that they interviewed which didn't have a PhD so they had to go with the more experienced candidate. As rejection reasons go, I’d say that’s not a bad one :P
So after trying miserably to get a Psychology job for months and months, it got to the point where I was starting to panic about my future, as my job working in the Enquiry Unit was due to finish September/October time, and I was really getting worried about paying rent after that :(. Soooo long story short, I decided to take a change of pace and get into teaching. Whilst Psychology is (and always will be) my one true passion, teaching is something which has always interested me and was something I planned to do much later on in my life (think mid-fourties, grey hair, kids, etc…that kind of later on), due to me not having much luck in the Psychology field job-wise, I decided to move my teaching aspirations forward a couple of decades LOL.
And that’s what I've been doing for the last two months :P it’s going really well so far, and I’m about to start my massive 8 week placement in a few weeks, but as I can already see this blog is dragging on a bit, I think I’ll leave all of my training-teacher tales for my next blog (which I’m going to write really soon, PROMISE), I’ll also talk you through the process of applying for the PGCE as well as my tips for tackling those damn Skills Tests, so hopefully that’ll be of use to some of you :P
But for now, I wish you adieu :)
Xxx
