Careers Supplement

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Careers Week

Supplement Tuesday 1st October 2013

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE Skills Workshops Shauna Cleary speaks to Education Officer, Jack Leahy, about the up and coming SU skills workshops.

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Societies & Careers Find out what you can learn from joining different societies.

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Network your way to success Kingsley Aikins gives students the best tips and tricks to finding your dream job.

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My internship experience David Walsh tells us about his internship working in a publishing house in London and argues that the experience is worth more than pay.

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CAREERS WEEK GUIDE Brought to you by the Careers Advisory Service with the support of the Students’ Union, and the Graduate Students’ Union, and sponsored by Deloitte, Careers Week is running during week two of Michaelmas term, from Monday 30th September to Friday 4th October 2013.

The week will offer an impressive selection of sector-specific talks from graduates and employers in areas such as languages, digital media, creative arts, development, marketing, IT and scientific and entrepreneurial areas. In previous years, many speakers have spoken individually to students after their session and indeed have given contact details for further support.

Careers Week is also an ideal time to meet with employers and there will be a series of employer-led workshops covering CVs, Application forms and Interviews. This year we aim to engage our social media users more than ever before, so keep an eye out for our tweets, posts and updates throughout the week! We are also delighted to welcome LinkedIn who will advise on how to leverage social media in your job search. For students interested in postgraduate study in Ireland and abroad,

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Thursday will cover entry into medicine, accountancy and teaching professions and postgraduate research.

Careers Week is targeted mainly at Sophister and postgraduate students but has attracted students from all years in the past. Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to find out about possible careers, postgraduate study, upcoming closing dates, job searching skills and meet with potential employers!!

Wednesday the 9th of October sees the turn of larger employers at the gradireland Graduate Careers Fair, taking place in the RDS from 11am to 5pm. This will include over 120 graduate recruiters, course providers and professional bodies from Ireland and the UK. The event is organised by Trinity Careers Advisory Service and other Dublin colleges in partnership with GTI Ireland. The full listing of the companies is available on the website http://gradireland.com/events/52468 and it is advised to register on the website early to avoid the inevitable queues. This is a unique opportunity for students to meet with potential employers in a relaxed and informal atmosphere, to ask questions and to really gain some important knowledge of what to expect when you graduate.

Hope to see you at one or more of the events!

Careers Advisory Service Team

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Tuesday 1st October 2013

sKILLS WORKSHOPS My for a dv ic e s tu d e nt s

Shauna Cleary Supplements Editor What is the importance of career focus in undergraduate degrees?

More and more employers are looking for skills that currently aren’t part of the undergraduate teaching programme. In this context it’s very important that students take a grasp of their own career direction while they’re in college to pick up skills that will be viable to them later in their career and to give their CV that bit more, particularly because the jobs market is extremely competitive at the moment Why did you decide to introduce the skills workshops in Trinity?

I’m part of a wide-ranging reform of teaching and learning in Trinity. But at the moment there is so little focus on how we teach and learn regarding things such as group work and communications, skills and problem-based learning. As a short term solution I’ve proposed, and I think it has been very well received, that the Student’s Union and the Careers Advisory Service be at the centre of organising these types of skills courses

that will supplement the qualities that you should get from an undergraduate degree.

Therefore I’ve put together a wide-ranging programme which I will be announcing over the next few weeks. It will start sometime in November and hopefully there is going to be a very big take-up because when I was originally pitching it as a campaign idea there was a very good response.

How exactly will the workshops benefit students?

I’ve moved away from the catch-all approach which I initially had during the campaign and now I want to work on things that are eligible to be accredited. For students, the skills which they acquire will be another notch on their CV. For an employer who is looking at forty graduate CVs and you’re the only one with a particular skill, you’re going to stand out as someone that they would like to hire. It’s an increasingly competitive job market so there is very much a need to push Trinity students to the front of the queue and that’s what we are confident the workshops will do.

What can students expect from the workshops?

This year we will have the usual services such as Lavazza coming in to give their Barista training courses. We’ve also been in talks with a major graduate recruiter who I can’t give the name of at the moment, but I will say it will benefit those who are interested in going into a career in business and accounting. We’ve got management psychology, a module delivered by a former executive of a world-renown enterprise which is going to be fantastic. We will also have a few things related to part time jobs such as customer service and customer training which is coming together nicely and will give students that extra edge in the world of part-time employment which is just as important to them at this point in time.

What advice would you give to people who are interested in undertaking internships?

Internships are a fantastic opportunity to gain experience in a field of your interest and that’s undeniable. I would

just encourage everyone to be cautious - don’t be exploited and forced to work ridiculous hours. Self-care is particularly important and of course the Student Union is here for students not only during the academic year but also during the summer. Try to maintain a balance because although internships may seem like everything right now, they’re not.

How will students find out more information about the workshops?

The Student Union hasn’t engaged with these kinds of workshops before but they’ve always facilitated people coming onto campus to do this sort of thing. The weekly email, notice boards and class addresses will keep students up-to-date with which workshops are specifically beneficial to their studies and interests.

Hopefully towards the end of this term there will be an alternative careers fair and while we really do appreciate our partnerships with the likes of Google, Deloitte and other companies who take on a lot of graduates, it will be

exciting to expand the number of companies coming into Trinity. I’m hoping to bring in different PR and publishing companies who will appeal to a different type of student who wouldn’t benefit from the great opportunities provided by these particular companies. e.

What advice would you give to incoming Freshers concerning their future careers and getting involved during Careers Week?

My advice would be to try and supplement your academic career as much as possible because more and more these days employers are looking beyond just the grades on the CV, they’re looking for proof that you’re an organiser or a public speaker or good at managing finances and all of these things you can get involved with through Trinity societies, newspapers and clubs.

So my advice would be to just embrace all the opportunities around you while you’re here.

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SOCIETIES & CAREERS Fresher’s Week may be over, but there is still time to get involved in societies and to develop important skills for future careers.

by Shauna Cleary

Business

Nowadays, employers are looking for skills which go beyond a qualification and degree results. By becoming actively involved in the business societies in Trinity, you are enhancing your knowledge of the business world by gaining hands on experience while also growing in confidence. Despite the many business societies in Trinity, AIESEC, DUBES and TES remain popular favourites among students.

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AIESEC:

“AIESEC Trinity is the society for any student that wants to gain employable skills and stand out from the crowd.”

AIESEC works with over 5,000 corporate partners including links with companies such as Deloitte and Kerry Foods and offers students up to 6,000 internships worldwide.

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TES (Trinity Entrepreneurial Society): “Trinity Entrepreneurial Society is the primary business and careers focused society on campus.”

Regular guest speakers and the annual “Dragons Den” type competition enables students to get actively involved in entrepreneurship and to experience first-hand the creativity of the business world.

DUBES (Dublin University Business and Economics Society): “DUBES aims to broaden the horizons of our members both academically and socially, especially with regard to business and economic matters.”

With frequent events, guest speakers and the annual BESS ball, DUBES offers students the ability to interact with their fellow business enthusiasts

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Debating Oratory skills are vitally important for many careers and if you’re looking to build confidence with your public speaking, presentation-making skills or general sociability, then look into joining one of or both debating societies in Trinity.

1 The Hist The College Historical Society: “The Hist is the longest established student organisation in Trinity College and the oldest student society in the world.”

The HIST allows students to get actively involved in debating and public orating while also boasting previous guest speakers such as W.B Yeats, Bob Geldof and Ted Kennedy.

2 The Phil The Philosophical Society: “The University Philosophical Society (aka The Phil) is Trinity College’s premier student society.”

With previous members including Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde, The Phil welcomes all those who are interested in listening to public debates and also offers to aid students in enhancing their oratory skills.

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The Arts Over the past few years, Trinity College has produced an impressive amount of talent stemming from many of the creative societies within the college.

1 DU Players “D.U. Players is Trinity’s Drama Society. They are responsible for around 40 student productions each year.”

With members such as Game of Thrones’ Jack Gleeson and newest Love/Hate addition Aaron Heffernan, it is fair to say that D.U. Players has been producing some of the hottest talent in Ireland at the minute. If acting, producing or directing is something which interests you, do not hesitate to get involved in one of college’s most popular societies.

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Dance Society

“It takes two to tango, and that’s why we want YOU to join us at DU Dance this year for the dance of your life!”

D.U Dance holds numerous events including last year’s Trinity Come Dancing. The perfect society to develop your skills as a performer.

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DU Comedy Soc “Dublin University Comedy Society is the student run Comedy Society for Trinity College Dublin. The society’s aim is to foster an appreciation for all things comic and it is the largest run student comedy society in the country.”

The comedy society is a fantastic way to build confidence and cultivate talent. Whether you like making people laugh or want to learn more about the business side of gigs and festivals, the Comedy Society provides opportunities for many.

4 Trinity FM “It takes two to tango, and that’s why we want YOU to join us at DU Dance this year for the dance of your life!”

D.U Dance holds numerous events including last year’s Trinity Come Dancing. The perfect society to develop your skills as a performer.

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Tuesday 1st October 2013

NETWORK YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS

Kinsley Aikins Contributing Writer

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am a Trinity graduate of Economics and Politics who has lived and worked in six countries and as I now in my ‘Third Act’, I sometimes get asked if there were any one single piece of advice I would give to people starting out on their careers.

Every time I have no hesitation in saying ‘Network your way to success’. Going to countries where I had no connections and knew nobodymade me quickly realised that I had to build networks if I were to make any impact and progress. I also knew the only way to get to people I didn’t know was through people I did know. I used every angle I could find whether it was Trinity connections, Irish connections or rugby connections, all of which I found to be terrific door openers and ways of, as they say in the US, ‘getting off first base’. When in Australia I even founded an Irish business network called the Lansdowne Club which now has over 5000 members and has been enormously helpful for Irish graduates moving to develop their careers in Australia.

Looking back now I realised that there was a specific process that I followed and a particular methodology that I developed that allowed me to develop networks. In essence it was all about building long term

hearts and minds relationships and doing so with integrity, mutuality and sustainability. I watched others who were good at it and mimicked what they did. I kept records on people I met and always tried to figure out what I could do for them rather than ask them to do something for me. I reckoned the more I gave to individuals the more I would get back from the network.

It became a way of living and ended up serving me well as I zigzagged through my career. Now, I believe it is more important than ever and will be a key factor for success in the future and a key differentiator between people. The reason it will become more, rather than less, important is because the world has changed dramatically and emerging graduates need to react accordingly. In reality, the information age is over – information is available to everybody at a click of a mouse. We now live in the networked world and the vertical world of hierarchies has been replace by the horizontal world of networks. The measurement of power is connectedness and only the connected will survive and thrive. However it is not simply a numbers game and there is a big difference between the most connected and the best connected. It is not just who you know but how well you know who you know. In the old days economies were about the factors of production - raw materials, labour and capital. Now it is about

talent and creativity. But alone, talent and creativity are not enough – you have to be found and so you need to develop a network to help that to happen. We live in a world where it is not what you know, not even who you know but who knows you. We have tended in the past to ‘buy into’ the myth of individualism – the notion that you succeed or fail on your own merits. But, in reality, success depends on others and the key is collaboration. Sociologist James Coleman has written that ‘individualism is a broadly perpetuated fiction in modern society’.

The glue that makes networking effective is ‘social capital’ which is defined by Wayne Baker as ‘the resources available to you in your personal and business networks’ and is a measurement of your engagement. Research has shown that people with strong social capital find jobs more easily, are promoted earlier, close deals faster, are more creative and agile and get into leadership positions quicker.

Social capital, as opposed to financial and human capital, does not reside within you but between you and others. Social capital increases with use and is about you and your networks. It also requires some key skills the most important of which is to become a terrific listener. Listening is not about you but about the other person and yet so many people only listen to prepare what they are going to say next. As Dale Carne-

gie famously said -’to be interesting be interested’. We believe we listen but we don’t…..we interrupt, give advice, talk endlessly about ourselves and jump in to conversations with our stories. Giving somebody intense attention where you listen with your ears and eyes is a form of power. It doesn’t matter what you say only what people want to hear.

You must listen with the intention of understanding not with the intention replying.

So networking is a career ‘must’.

This is more important now because the traditional career trajectory has changed. The old social contract where you gave intense loyalty to a company in return for a salary, holidays, healthcare and pension is over. Lifetime loyalty is a thing of the past. Employers and employees are promiscuous. You will have many careers and employers over your career lifetime. And the onus is now on you to train and invest in yourself and take personal responsibility for lifetime training and upskilling. Just remember that the top five skills in demand today didn’t exist 10 years ago. The escalator model of career development has gone. The escalator is jammed at every level. Now people have to take control of their own careers and build their own career playbook. Also bear in mind that 80% of well paid jobs are not advertised – this is where your network becomes critical. Companies now like to ‘hire and wire’ ie hire well

connected graduates and wire into their networks. Every time you build a relationship you are plugging into that person’s entire network.

When I was developing my career the left side of the brain skills were predominant…..being deductive, analytical, logical. However I believe the future is going to be about the right side of the brain which is about empathy, inventiveness, creativity and meaning. However, and I am constantly curious about this, we don’t teach networking. Companies don’t have strategies for it and schools, universities and educational institutions don’t teach or train it.

I find this strange as I believe building networks will be a key factor for success in the 21st century and my hope is that today’s Trinity graduates will put it front and centre of their personal and business lives.

Finally, if any students or graduates are interested in learning more please email me on kingsley@diasporamatters.com and I will gladly send them my 101 Networking Tips.

Note: Kingsley Aikins runs a Dublin based consultancy company , Diaspora Matters, that advises governments, regions and organisations on how to build strategies of engagement with their Diasporas. He previously worked for 21 years for the Worldwide Ireland Funds

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THE BLOGGER’S LIFE

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BLOG YOUR WAY TO A CAREER Shauna Cleary Supplements Editor

When it comes to entrepreneurship in today’s world, one need look no further than to the hundreds of bloggers worldwide who have forged a career from simply setting up their own Wordpress site. Junior Sophister English Studies student Jamie Tuohy is just one of hundreds of students who has begun on the path towards his future career due to the creation of his website More Matter Jamie. With between 25,000-30,000 hits a month on his website, I sat down with Jamie to discuss becoming his own PR agent and building his business brand.

Why and when did you decide to set up your blog?

I think I set it up over three years ago, and initially it was just a platform for me to air inane ramblings and vociferations on the most random of topics from pop culture and fashion to education and literature. Being completely honest, it was definitely lacking in purpose and vision, but it was just a fun thing to do in my spare time. Then, as I came to college, I decided to focus more on fashion and lifestyle per se, and give More Mat-

ter Jamie a more specific theme and gradually let PRs know what I was doing and what I wanted to achieve. I mean, a blog is a fun thing to have, and of course it can be a plateau for you to showcase whatever you want, but it’s much more appealing to readers if you’re not bombarding them with completely different and often disjointed topics and posts. I’m constantly trying to redefine its purpose!

How has the website developed over the years?

Well, as I said initially, my content was very broad, and consequently I had quite a large readership - in the first few months of its inception I was getting 5,000-6000 hits a week. I could see that some posts, particularly the fashion and popular culture ones, were getting more

hits than others, and, combined with my own interest in these areas, I decided that it was time to focus solely on these, and make the blog not only more readerfriendly, but a sort of online portfolio for myself.

At what point did your blog take a turning point and did you start to reap the rewards of your hard work?

Oh, I’d use the term ‘hard work’ very lightly! For me, it’s still something I like to do whenever I have a free half hour! I suppose it was a couple of years ago, when I wrote a menswear piece on the model David Gandy, and, as I do with all my posts, I tweeted it, and, thanks to the power of social media, he ended up seeing it and tweeting it and promot-

ing it on his Facebook page. He actually sent me a lovely thankyou message as well, and it was probably then that I realised that if fashion is something you’re interested in getting involved in, then blogging is a great way of putting in the groundwork while you’re in college!

What kind of events have you attended?

Mainly fashion launches, but because I focus mainly on menswear, there aren’t a whole lot of menswear events in Dublin. I’ve been lucky enough to get invited to movie premieres, and I’ll then review the movie on the blog, so while you don’t get a whole lot of money from

blogging, the freebies can be quite nice! I was at the premiere of Chris O’Dowd’s movie The Sapphires last year, and Bono casually strolled passed me into a waiting car, and it wasn’t until he was in there chatting to Shane McGowan that I realised who he was!

What has been the biggest perk so far?

When I post something on the blog, the first thing I do is post it on Twitter, or even take a screenshot of it and Instagram it.

Some people will say it’s shameless self promotion, and it is, but why not?

Last year, Brown Thomas held a menswear event for the launch of Robbie Williams’ clothing collection Farrell and I got to attend and meet Robbie and interview him about the collection. His wife was just about to have a baby at the time, so he was showing me pictures of her pregnant stomach on his phone, and I thought that was a cool and unusual way to spend an af-

ternoon. At these types of events you not only get to meet a celebrity or whatever, but you get to meet the people who make all this happen – the magazine editors, the fashion journalists, the stylists, the TV presenters, the PRs and the contacts you build up are invaluable if you want to pursue a career in that particular area.

How do you maintain a healthy balance between blogging and college life?

College has to come first, and even though it’s usually more fun to write a blog post than an essay, I have to remember that blogging isn’t a career (at least for me). I used to blog nearly every day, but now I’ll do it whenever I’m free, and that horribly overused cliché of quality trumping quantity definitely applies. For example, I made a decision not to blog over sum-

mer because I was going to California on a J1 with my friends, and the last thing you want is to be the anti-social loser over in the corner writing a post on how scorching the weather is instead of actually enjoying said weather. So I took a little sabbatical to enjoy my summer without having to worry about content.

What advice would you give when it comes to setting up a blog?

People ask me this on Twitter a lot of the time and it kind of baffles me, because I’m not a sage of social media with sure-fire tips for success, but I suppose you can’t beat a well-written blog with on-point quality posts.

It’s definitely important to give your blog a focus and a theme, be it fashion, politics, sport etc.

I’ve talked to magazine editors in the past and they’ve told me that the first thing they ask when they’re interviewing interns is if they blog, and if they do, they want to see some of their content, and if it’s up to scratch, it can be a deciding factor on who gets the internship.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Eeek, that’s a big question. When people ask me what I want to do ‘when I grow up’, I always give the broad answer of ‘I’d like to work in media!’, but I’m interested in getting involved in television and print, so in ten years, I’d like to see myself perhaps as a magazine editor of some sort, or maybe working on a TV show.

I’m still figuring it out to be honest. I never really know where I’m going, but hopefully it’s not nowhere!

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TRINITY’S YOUNG & SUCCESSFUL Each year Trinity College produces a large number of graduates and many of these students have already garnered a considerable amount of experience before they leave university. We profiled just a handful of students who are already making waves in their respective industries and who are clearly setting out their future career paths.

Aaron Heffernan

Iseult Ward

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Jack Gleeson Jack Gleeson is a Senior Sophister English and History student from Cork, who has forged out a strong reputation in the acting industry. As the artistic director of the Collapsing Horse Theatre Company, Gleeson is most famously known as King Joffrey Baratheon in the television series Game of Thrones.

He also played Adam in the short film ‘Chat’, and while Gleeson has indicated an intention to pursue an academic career rather than a professional acting career once his work on Game of Thrones is completed, it remains to be seen what happens in the future of this rising star.

Aaron Heffernan

Aaron Heffernan is a recent graduate of Drama Studies and Classical Civilisation. Gaining fame from several productions as well as becoming Ireland’s favourite Barrack Obama impressionist, Heffernan has recently undertaken the role of Detective Inspector Gavin Brogan in series four of RTÉ’s popular gangland drama Love/Hate. Heffernan’s career began in Trinity where he was an active member of D.U Players. Speaking previously about his time in Trinity Heffernan stated “The Samuel Beckett Centre and DU Players are serious spots and potent breeding grounds for very strong work.

It was between there and DUBC that my collegial loyalties lay and adventures took place for me in Uni.”

Iseult Ward

Iseult Ward is a perfect example of what the student entrepreneur should strive to be when setting up thei business. Combining street smarts with an admirable business pedigree (Trinity’s outgoing Business student of the year). Iseult has put much of her life in the last year into her start-up Foodcloud, culminating in them winning the Arthur Guinness foundation prize worth €40,000. The social entrepeurship element of the company, which specialises in finding ways to distribute surplus food to those who need it most, such as the homeless and charities, is just an added bonus.

For those Trinity students looking at the jobs market when they graduate and are thinking: ‘oh no’, there’s always the option of inventing your own. It’s working out just fine for Iseult!

Dylan Haskins

While a third year History of Art and Classical Civilisations student at Trinity, Dylan Haskins ran for a position in Dail Eireann, leading a veritable mini-army of youth activists and promoting an agenda of change with a definitive DIY ethos, Dylan has done more in his 26 years than most people could do in a lifetime. He has also worked for RTE in both Radio and Television and has written for the Guardian, produced his own record label and directed a documentary. He is a fantastic example of what the arts can do for you. Haskins casts aside the stereotype of the arts student with no direction in life, with the sky being the limit for him. While his CV is certainly daunting and starts at a very young age, the value of volunteering and dedicating yourself to what you believe in is evident with the success Dylan has enjoyed.

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My Internship Experience

David Walsh shares his experience interning in the Sales Division of a London book publishing office T his summer I was lucky enough to secure an internship in the Sales Division of a London book publishing office. The opportunity to work in one of the world’s great cities and the valuable experience I gained there made it all a highly worth-

while venture. Studying English, publishing had always been on my radar as one of a number of potential career paths and I was conscious that I should spend my summer pursuing at least one of those paths. Most of the major publishers like Penguin

and MacMillan have waiting lists of up to a year or more making it unlikely I’d be offered a place till April 2014 or thereafter. Thankfully I managed to land work at a lesser known but big player in the industry, filling in part the employment gulf that had till

that point marked the summer ahead. I began life in the office on the 7th floor with two weeks of work experience in early June.

Things got off to a somewhat shaky start when my famously shoddy punctuality struck again, leaving me al-

most half an hour late on the first day. In fairness, it wasn’t pure recklessness on my part as navigating the ins and outs of London’s mammoth transport network leaves most newcomers a bit befuddled. I did arrive in the office eventually and to my great

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relief was met not with the scorns of reprove I had anticipated but by a warm welcoming face not much older than me. Amy introduced me to the internal

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sporadically since Transition Year, it wasn’t entirely unfamiliar work. All the basic duties were recognisable to me, with merely the surfaces of things needing to be pinned down.

Microsoft Office soon became a trusted friend of mine. The industry jargon soon followed as I accustomed myself with the TIs and AIs of the office (marketing sheets and cover images respectively). The weeks were not without its hiccups I’d add as I realised one day I’d saved dozens of client details in the wrong place. Nervously I informed my supervisor whose response was to apologise for not showing me properly and to ask if it wasn’t too much trouble would I mind correcting my mistake. Publishing, I soon would learn, is the most relaxed of industries; office banter proved essential to my initiation and coming to work in a tshirt and shorts was never frowned upon, which came in handy with those 7.30am starts.

The chance to fulfil anything non-administrative proved to be one of the highlights of my time in my office as I started carrying out Editorial duties. On one occasion, I was asked to draft the back cover text of a series of Enid Blytons soon to be published. Things got more creative as I jumped at the chance to leave Excel behind for a few days. This involved having to skim read a number of the books (a first for

Internships workings of can’t be the office, letting me know where weighed by everything was and run- the amount ning through the essential of cash you computer programs that I’d be earn at the using. Use of the laptop for end of it. work however was halted at that point as an intimidatingly large stack of envelopes and mailing labels landed on my desk. To my good fortune, I had come to the office just in time to help out with their bi-annual mailing order, sending catalogues out to the bulk of their many customers. Thus much of my first week was occupied by the rather menial task of filling envelopes, hardly the most thrilling of work but fine once I found a rhythm.

While tackling this mountain of envelopes, I was reminded

by Amy that it would’ve been her in my position, a fulltime, paid up employee of the company otherwise. In a time old cliché, everyone has to start from somewhere but I learnt early on even the most valued of employees still have the dirty jobs to do.

I didn’t just have mailing to do in my first weeks in the office as I soon progressed to contacting clients, drafting newsletters and managing the client database.

Having worked in an office

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me since I was about eight) in order to write a plot synopsis for each. Thus I was faced with the somewhat surreal experience of flicking through kids’ books as those around me worked away. If only every day in publishing was like this I thought. On top of that, I familiarised myself with certain clients, drawing on what they’d ordered from the company previously and proposing potential book titles for them. Research was often necessitated by me to draw up potential customers for an upcoming publication whether it was in wine or arts and crafts. This in practice meant lots of time spent on Google. At this stage, I could probably tell you all the wine distributors in the Greater London Area. As a memorable two weeks drew to a close, much to my surprise, my boss offered me a paid internship for the rest of the s u m mer. My sceptical parents who’d cast doubt over the value of two weeks of unpaid work had been wrong on this count.

I’d got a job!

I happily accepted and would spend the next two months in Sales enhancing my knowledge of the industry and naturally perfecting all those office skills.

My internship experience was an overwhelmingly positive one, having gained an insider’s perspective into an industry I’d always wanted

to try out, taking a step up on the career ladder and forging lasting contacts. Considering the internship discussion as a whole that’s gone on in this newspaper, it would be remiss of me not to point out that had it not been for the generosity of family and friends, my working in London would not have been possible. Having to pay rent on a flat would’ve all but quashed my small part-time salary. Had it not been paid, I’d have almost certainly not had the luxury of agreeing to the internship at all. This is the reality of many students obliged to take a summer job with few long-term prospects, just to pay for college.

In many ways, these internships can’t be weighed by the amount of cash you earn at the end of it. They are a foot in the door that will really stand to you in the long run, providing a contact or suitable reference for the future, in essence a platform with which to build on. It won’t always be the most exciting of work but that in and of itself is getting to grips with the nature of the job. And it’s worth remembering that if you’re taken on unpaid, it may well be only a precursor to proper employment should you i m press your boss. That’s what I would take away from my time as an intern.

Much of my first week was occupied by the rather menial tasks of filing envelopes

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CAREERS WEEK TIMETABLE Tuesday, 1st October 2013 10.00 Writing a Winning CV & Online Profile (facilitated by Deloitte) (GMB) 11.00 Careers with Languages (GMB) 12.00 PR, Marketing and Advertising Careers (GMB) 1.00

NGOs & Development (GMB) 3.00

Working in the Creative Arts & How to Fund It (GMB) 5.00 Pharmaceutical, Medical Devices & BioIndustry Sector (LTEE1 Panoz Inst) 5.00 Want to Work in IT? (venue to be confirmed)

Wednesday, 2nd October 2013 10.00 Leverage Social Media: Your Online Profile & Job Search (GMB) 11.00 Succeeding at Interview (facilitated by tbc) (GMB) 12.00 Impressing with your CV & Application Form (facilitated by Accenture) (GMB) 1.00

Careers in EU Affairs & How to Apply (GMB) 2.00

Digital Media: Journalism & Broadcasting (GMB) 4.00 Entrepreneurship & Social Enterprise (GMB)

Thursday, 3rd October 2013 12.00 Graduate Entry to Medicine (GMB) 1.00

Applying for Teacher Training (Primary & Secondary in Ireland & UK) (GMB) 2.00

Chartered Accountancy for all Disciplines (GMB) 3.00 Postgraduate Research & Funding (GMB)

Friday, 4th October 2013 10.00 - 12.00

KPMG Application Form Review (Careers Advisory Service)

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Tuesday 1st October 2013

EMPLOYER EVENTS Monday, 30 September 2013 • Deloitte - Information Stand

Tuesday, 1st October 2013 • Deloitte - Information Stand • Ernst & Young - Information Stand • JET Programme - Information Stand • Nestle - Grad Scheme Q&A Session

Wednesday, 2nd October 2013 • Accenture - Information Stand • Deloitte - Information Stand • PWC - Presentation (Networking Skills) • Accenture - Recruiter in Residence • Morgan Stanley - Presentation

Thursday, 3rd October 2013 • Deloitte - Information Stand • Ernst & Young - Information Stand • McKinsey - Recruiter in Residence • Diageo - Presentation

Friday, 4th October 2013 • Deloitte - Information Stand • KPMG - Application form review

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Tuesday 1st October 2013 //

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