The time has come...and made it just before midnight on Tuesday :)

The time has come for this blog to end. With 20 minutes till midnight I’m adamant I’m going to get this posted on a Monday…the day it all began (partly because I forgot to do it on Sunday). So my LPD term is rounding up and the portfolio is closing its covers…well it should be within the next week as I have a few things left to slot in.

I thought I’d do things a bit different for my last post and instead of tell you what we did in LPD; I’m going to draw up my conclusions on the module as a whole. Looking back it has definitely made me reflect and realise things that I would just otherwise push to the back of my mind and save till after university was all over. Even though I have moaned a lot about how all this thinking, analysing and reflection has confused me, it has also made me really think about what career path I want to take in the future and what I’m going to need to do to get there. Hopefully, I will & when I do I’ll fill you in as I plan on sticking with this whole blogging idea in the future. Maybe not during the rest of my university days, but when I have more exciting things to write about like travelling and any other big things that happen in my life which I may feel the need to rant or waffle about.

…Back to LPD…the researching occupations, attending career talks (which I probably wouldn’t have been as inclined to do if the topics of the portfolio weren’t what they are), self-assessment has all influence how I see my future, well the career side of it anyways. Although my decisions mean a lot of a hard work, determination, perseverance and patience, I will hopefully get where I want to be where I want to be…holding that title of being a creative (and making decent money), whether it be in the field or marketing, advertising or something else.

With the term now ending, I look forward to what more this module will make me ponder about, no doubt it will have my mind thinking so much that I still have something to moan about J

With no more to say and no post needed for this blog there is only one thing left to say…

...Watch this space. That. Is. All.

Summed Up and Shut Down.

Hakuna Matata

P.S. Yes, I did go to Leeds Christmas Markets and…disappointing. No Hog Roast Sandwiches. Definitely has nothing on the Manchester Christmas Markets!!

I had been looking forward to something like this ALL week :(

Hunting & Hog Roasts

So a Monday post again it is…where on earth does the week go?! Anyway, let’s commence my penultimate post (well at least in terms of my LPD term). We found out earlier this week that Bob won’t be back with us till next term (sad times) and that Alicia Prowse will be taking over for him in the next few weeks before this term ends. Ends?! I hear you say…I know!!

This week in LPD was all about the interview process and the online module focuses on job hunting. Job hunting is very rarely an easy process, saying that, in the past it hasn’t been too bad for me. I do have the feeling though that when it comes to looking for an actual graduate job it won’t be as easy. Especially in today's job climate. There are rare thing wanted my many a people. Good job I’m not thinking about starting my career for a while then I guess.

This topic came in handy anyway as I looked at a few job postings just to get a roundabout idea of what I could be earning and  doing depending which route I decide to go down in the future. Whether it be marketing, advertising, graphic design or branding (another one I’ve added to my list). They all call for the hands of creative which is the category I desire to be in. It also called us to look into relevant employers and see what they are offering when it comes to working for them. It all seemed a bit much to take in as I’m not clear on what I want to do yet L.

The rest of the week saw me working (paid), working (non-paid) and working. This is probably how the week flew by so fast. I finished 2 essays (whoop!!) and an outline and now just have to focus on two presentations and a draft report, oh and the completion and putting together of my LPD portfolio. I sure can’t wait till the 17^th of December when everything previously mentioned can be put behind me and forgotten about!!

As a way of ending the week on a good mood I decided to visit the beaut that is the Manchester Christmas Markets J….sausages, hog roasts, pretzels, chocolates and quaint little stuff…what more do you need to put you in a festive mood. It was certainly a good shout. The streets were bustling with an air of festivity and the aroma of good food, all in the presence of some Sunday winter sun. Bliss. Next week I plan on visiting Leeds’s Christmas Markets and I look forward to enduring the food and festivity once again J

The Christmas Markets of Manchester.

...Watch this space. That. Is. All.

Summed Up and Shut Down.

Time flies when you're snowed under with work...

So as per, this week has flown by and somehow I completely forgot yesterday was Sunday, aka blog day. The past week has been a busy one in terms of uni work, had a lot to get done in not enough time. LPD this week called for us be presented with a talk from Dominique Phillips who works for AXA and is on their graduate scheme.

Dominique kindly filled us in on the ins and outs of the graduate scheme process, telling us what we can expect from employees offering these and what they are looking in graduates. Although the likelihood of me going on to do a graduate scheme is very very slim, it was interesting to know what companies actually look for and how the interviews and assessment centre days are ran. It did get me thinking if graduate schemes are a possibility if one wants to go down the graphic design career path so when I got in later that day I decided to make use of my good friend Google. Didn’t really find much evidence to support this idea though so looks like it’s just a case of building up a portfolio, networking, gaining work experience and working your way up from the bottom…

The other task for LPD this week was Goal Setting & Action Planning. This task I am still yet to commence and had to be put on hold until this week just because of the sheer work load I had. I’ve had a little look over it though and it seems simple enough...set some career goals, make sure they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Timed) – a term also used within setting marketing objectives, set an action plan for said goals and then do, I guess. Think I’m going to do it in the form of a mind map, seeing as I’m a more visual person, should make it easier and more interesting.

As I’ve mentioned two times already, the past week was crazy with work…mainly developing our group website and working on the group presentation for CIMC as well as writing up a 1,500 word report/rationale on said website which is still in the process of being made (this doesn’t make the task harder). However, I did manage to get to where I wanted to be at the end of the week which left me with the weekend to take a trip up to Leeds.

Beaut.

Free from the thoughts of  Uni work in the world of art.

I decided that the weekend was going to be a no work zone and I embarked on a trip to the YSP (Yorkshire Sculpture Park). Such a beautiful place, made even better by the winter sun…good choice of day to visit the park. It was even better that I thought…this made it even more gutting that I didn’t have my camera to get snap happy with (I like to think that I have a photographic side to me that sometimes gets unleashed) . Instead I had to make do with my camera phone, which did me proud to be fair, but I shall be going on another trip sometime soon with my camera in hand in order to vent some creativity. All in all a productive week has been had, hope this one follows the same path…

…Watch this space. That. Is. All.

MOAN, MOAN, MOAN

A day late but not to fear, I’m back again, another week and another post for your eyes. What have I done with my week…dare I say nothing much. I wish. It seems that this is a term where nothing much is an option unless when the topic of conversation is my social life. Anyhoo…enough feeling sorry for myself…its LPD time!! (I know you’re all holding back you’re excitementJ)

This week LPD brought upon…dun, dun, dun…decision making!! An issue that has been pecking my head for the past couples of week, decisions, decisions, decisions. I don’t know what to how many more paths more brain can travel down. Careers, Qualifications, Life. All so serious…I think I’m just going to go with the flow for a bit. Concentrate on getting work done that need to be submitted, work on my project and not think too much about the next stepping stone. I’m just going to get this year over with then save up and go exploring the globe.

This is the sort of things I can't wait to be thinking about - Where to go, What to see

This is the sort of thing I can wait to be doing (with my other half) - not a care in the world :)

As much as I moan about how this subject is making me think so much about my future career. It is probably the lightest workload that I have regarding my modules. Step by Step simple sections to complete every week….easy as, unlike the rest which calls for more reading than I have done in the previous two years combined!! I like the structure of this module, and if I’m being totally honest it has made me realise certain things and enlightened me to certain opportunities.

This weekend I was on a mission to get my CIMC essay written up. After spending the week reading all the journals and academic publications that I had collated, scribbling notes and highlighting various sections, it was time to get fingers to keys and start typing. To be honest it could have gone much worse…I seem to be lucky when it comes to writing up essays. Once I get on a roll I can keep going until I get to the point where I am rambling on. Usually this continues happening till I realise I’m waaay over the word count. This. Always. Happens. You’d think it’d be easy to get rid of word but no, it’s not. You feel like everything you have wrote is valuable and deserves a place in your essay, thus making it extremely difficult and painful deleting words. Especially, when I’m thinking will this get me better marks or will this?? Which point do I delete??

Anyway I finally managed to get it down to a respectable word count and now it just needs cleaning up and references added to a bibliography. I’m going to leave the final touches till later to the hand in date. This week coming I have another essay to tackle. There’s going to be plenty of reading and note making to do…fun times. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the majority of the chores (workload) done before the weekend comes so that I can relax a little bit when it does…

…Watch this space. That. Is. All 

Thinking and Findings and Fireworks

Here I am, yet again. This week has been one of both insight and career planning chaos. Plans have been put to a holt and confusion has been planted. All as a result of attending a couple of career talks on Tuesday!!

So, Tuesday came and I was looking forward to hearing about careers in Marketing and Advertising. As informative as they both were, they day ended with the realisation for me that I don’t think I actually want to go into any of those areas. Well, not the strategic side of it all anyhow. I left me quite troubled and my mind was full of questions. The main one being…what am I going to with my life?!

After a couple of days of pretty much solid thinking and “soul-searching” (by this I mean browsing the internet for hours at a time), I finally embarked upon what I really want to do (well kind of). Being a creative person and wanting to work in field that builds on this I came to the conclusion that I want to be a graphic designer (I think J). The one thing that I see as a downside to this decision is the starting salary isn’t amazing…but I keep telling myself that if I’m good at it I can make my millions J. The major implication is that my degree doesn’t cater for this choice, but it does cater for the industry I could end up working in which counts for something I guess.

My next step is to decide I’m going to get to the starting point. This involves developing a portfolio and gaining some kind of relevant qualifications, whether it is through short courses, a foundation year, distance learning courses, a diploma…the list goes on. At this point I decided to stop thinking about it for now, and to concentrate on this degree first, then focus on taking the necessary steps when I have less work to do and manage.

At uni, Bob was still ill so class was cancelled again. The LPD portfolio section was all about researching occupations, which tied in nicely with my thoughts of the week…my other modules are going alright. However, this month will probably the heaviest on the term, in terms of workload. With two presentations and two essays to be handed in towards the end of the month, as well as my on-going project (for which I need to carry on drafting up my methodology section), it’s not going to be a fun ride.

Taken by my very handy phone

Taken by my very handy phone too :)

November does however, bring the festive times of Halloween and Bonfire Night which called for a night in of horror films on Monday and night out to the fireworks display in Platt Fields Park last night. It was a good way to bring the week to an end and took my mind off careers choices and researching. Tonight involves me going to watch Britney Spears (I know she’s gone downhill these days but back in the day she was one to watch, I’m hoping she’ll be reliving some of her old songs…), hence why I’m blogging I up at such a time in the afternoon…I’m hoping she won’t be as bad as the reviews have been making out…

…Watch this space…and once again, Hakuna Matata (Yes, I did watch lion king again last night (on DVD this time though J)).

The Methodology of CVs

Another week, another blog. Bob was ill this week so we didn’t have a lecture…however, still got plenty to crack on with in terms of my LPD portfolio. I decided to have a look at my... 

...I only just updated it the beginning of this summer so I thought it wouldn’t need much amending. Wrong. For some reason it has taken my this long to realise that it is way too wordy, if I was an employer looking for staff…with a stack of CVs beside me, I would most definitely would not want a 2-sheet documents full of lengthy paragraphs. It definitely needed work. Saying that, it did manage to get me a job this summer so it can’t have been all that bad…yet it has become a task to be dealt with…

The uni tends to put on various CV workshops that offer advice on developing our CV’s. I have come to the conclusion that I need to attend one of these. Also, the thought popped up in my mind that if I want to work in the creative industry…will I need a creative CV?? If so, I reckon I’d really enjoy doing that, would be a handy little project to have to keep myself occupied (I say as if I don’t have enough work on already!!). That’s something I need to look into as well.

The proposal was handed in successfully, now just waiting on the feedback. Was a gruelling task to get the word count down but I think I made it down to 826 (just one over the maximum…eek.) This week has been mainly filled with tackling reading up for the methodology section of my project, this has consisted of a lot of note taking and reading of books all saying pretty much the same thing just in different orders but needs must and all that. I feel I’m in a pretty good place when it comes to my project so I’m starting to shift more of my focus to other modules, catching up on readings and commencing research for group projects.

I have two groups projects on at the moment, both in for the end of December and both consisting of a presentation and an essay. One also includes the creation of a website. So this term is definitely full on. Time management and library books have become my best friends in the past month or so…Not. Cool. Hopefully it’ll all pay off in the end though. This week coming up is reading week…whoop :), even though it’ll probably consumed with my head in books. Got a couple of career talks I’m going to go to this week also so I’ll be filling you in on how those go in the next post at the end of the week.

…Watch this space…That. Is. All.

A Week of Careers, Coursework and a side of Cheering

So…here I am again. Filling you in on the life of one particular LPD student. This week has had us thinking about the future. The future of being in a career, hard to imagine but I guess I have to start thinking about it sometime, and I suppose now is a good time.

MMU Careers Website

We had a talk from the careers department in our lecture this week. Who knew our careers website contained so much?! I’ve made a few visits to the site since the talk, it has been very useful and I will definitely be making more use of it in the future. Apart from that I’ve been making progress on building up my portfolio and checking out the prospects website. I remember setting up an account on the website years ago but never really knew it would come in handy and it was interesting to see how my motivations, skills and desired careers had changed. As a result of all the career talks in the air at the moment my mind is now full of questions I’m asking myself. What I want to do? What I need to do? Can I actually do it? Will I want to do it in a couple of years’ time? What’s the best way to get there? Etc.

This week has also been pressured due to my project proposal having to be handed on Friday. My final year project is on Shock Advertising and anti-smoking campaigns, it’s really quite interesting to find out how adverts work and affect people, seeing as they’re absolutely everywhere in this modern day and age. So the majority of my time not in uni has been spent trying to perfect that…750 word count was nowhere near enough!! (Especially when my first draft contained nearly 1,300!!) Getting rid of words is not as easy as it sounds, but I always seem to have to do it when it comes to writing essay and reports…I guess I just have too much to say J

On the other side of my uni life, this Wednesday was the first football match of the season. With one of the games being cancelled due to the wonderful weather (not) we had the previous day, the whole of the 1^st team went to support the 2^nd team in Chester. Standing on the side-lines cheering on the girls felt good…it’s been a while. We ended up winning 5-0 (thanks to our supporting skills of course J )!! What better way to start the season?? Probably without the broken nose of a fresher in the first game of the season…OUCH.

Now at the end of the week and I’ve treated myself to a day of nothingness…well kind of, some work did manage to work its way into being done. After a night out with the girls and a week full of assignment-ing it has been well deserved, even if I do say myself. I wonder what academic antics I’ll get up to next week…

…watch this space…That is all.

Week 1 - I've always wanted to start a blog and now I've been given a reason to

Suppose I should get started by telling you who I am, an MMU undergraduate studying BA (Hons) Information Communications & Marketing, and why I’m doing this. The honest answer is probably because I have to…however, I’ve always wanted to…it’s like the now thing within the media/communications world isn’t it?? Networking and all that jazz…something I need to get on board with if I want any sort of mentionable career in marketing/advertising. Anyways, back to why I’m doing this…Bob Glass and LPD…that’s why.

…Final year is finally here. Decisions made and modules picked. The series of posts to follow will be a little insight into the journey of my LPD (Learning and Professional Development Unit) unit and how uni life is treating me in the following weeks.

After the first lecture I knew that this module would be of great use for me seeing as I’m a bit unsure how I’m going to get on the career life when I can no longer use the excuse of being a student…sad times. Basically this unit will offer me insight into what I want to do, how I can achieve it and what I need to achieve it.

The first couple of weeks have been focusing on the portfolio we will be concentrating on producing during the first term. It all seems quite interesting to me to be honest as I like this method of teaching, no boring hour lectures being given a whole lot of information to take it. This is more about self-development and realisation; this is never a bad thing.

The majority, if not all, of the work I’ve done so far for this unit is based on me, myself and I. My personality, my skills and my career wants. It has in fact made me think about what kind of job I want to aim for when I’ve been handed a degree. On top of this I’ve had a lot more to think about, the majority being the workload I now have as a result of making it to third year…I knew it would be more than the previous but there’s a lot going on and I’m having to brush up on my juggling skills but I’ll get there in the end…hopefully.

As for life outside uni, let’s see…well there hasn’t been much of one in the past couple of weeks really. Does that make me sound like a hermit?? It’s starting to calm down a bit now as I’m getting into the swing of things and dealing with several coursework briefs and reading materials being thrown my way. I am looking forward to the first game of the season for MMUWFC (Man Met Womens’ Football)!! After 2 promotions last season I’m eager to see what awaits us…albeit from the sidelines. No playing for me this season, too much going on (what can I say…I’m in demand), so I plan on being a glorified groupie/chauffeur to the team J . I refuse to let go completely.

Haven’t really got much else to say right now, it’s time for me to catch some shut eye…I’ll be back next week though, aren’t you lucky J

…Watch this space and remember…Hakuna Matata (courtesy of seeing The Lion King at the cinemas twice in one week…good times!!)

Photo: From http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=juggling+work&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1364&bih=683&tbm=isch&tbnid=Ryy3EBH7AHbgsM:&imgrefurl=http://education.fitnessnetwork.com.au/mod/forum/discuss.php%3Fd%3D3935&docid=ywppjFx7YY-ecM&imgurl=http://education.fitnessnetwork.com.au/file.php/1/Enews/jugglingitall.jpg&w=419&h=286&ei=d6-cTovmGcKa8QPoxsSmCQ&zoom=1 ; Accessed 17th October 2011