London Careers Day with UK Careers Academy

Recently, Morgan McKinley hosted a Careers Day with teenagers from two schools, who had signed up with UK Careers Academy.

Recently, Morgan McKinley hosted a Careers Day with teenagers from two schools, who had signed up with UK Careers Academy. To make sure that the day was engaging, useful and more importantly, fun, the day was split into sections focussing on CV Writing, Social Media, Preparing for an Interview as well as a practice interview session. As much as it taught them about developing their skills and knowledge, it was a good lesson to us Consultants on what it is to teach. It’s good that you know what you’re talking about, but actually, it’s another thing altogether to be able to teach it to people who don’t. For me, it took me back to being 16 again.

That feeling of “How can I write a CV when I’ve only been at school?” and thinking “What will employers actually want to see? What will they be looking for?” You’re 16, sitting at your computer, trying furiously to make your CV look like something other than a list of schools you’ve been to and you end up feeling like it’ll end up being a thankless task! Back to the present day and it’s funny to think that at some point we’ve all been in that position and had those thoughts. But somehow, we manage to forget those feelings altogether and act as if it had never happened. When these memories came back to me, it made me realise, that actually, being at this point in your career can be exciting, but also pretty daunting. I have to hand it to the teenagers who came in, they were engaged, they asked questions, and genuinely wanted to know what needed to be done.

They were teachable, and it’s a characteristic that’s often missing in people these days, no matter what their age. Social media is a great tool but can also be a mine field if you use it in the wrong way. All you have to do is switch the news on and someone has lost their job or gone to court because of one comment they made on Twitter or Facebook. It was such a fantastic opportunity to get to talk to these students and evaluate what they use social media for and to introduce new tools and social media sites, like Linkedin, to help them get ahead in their job search. It also puts you back in their shoes, what is it that they need or want to hear? What would I want to know if I were them? Being taken back to those feelings of frustration and not knowing what to say, certainly helped all of us realise that it is difficult getting onto the career ladder. I’m sure that when we were in that position we would have wanted some help and if anything it was nice to be able to pass on the knowledge knowing that it would be used. After all, we were all 16 once.