20/20 – Day 15: 20 considerations for the future before you leave university

It’s impossible to plan the future perfectly.  No matter. The more you do to provide for your future, the greater scope you’ll have with each new day.

Whether you’re still in your first year or you’re soon to graduate, start thinking about a life after your degree.  Nobody knows where you’re headed, no even yourself, but there’s plenty you can do to help the process.  Get the dice working in your favour.

  1. Why did you choose to study your subject? If you were asked this question, would you have a reasonable answer ready?
  2. Is your degree relevant to the field you want to go into? If not, pay attention to what you can bring to a job or career and what experience you have gained from your study.  Many core qualities and skills can be developed from a university education, so be prepared to explain and sell yourself over these transferable skills, no matter what your degree is.
  3. Work experience. Whether paid, voluntary or otherwise, any stints working are good to show off. Not so much a paper round when you were younger, but anything more substantial than that could play a part in strengthening your case.  Bar work, SU work, shop work, office work, placements, charity work, student work…jobs may not be directly relevant to those you apply for in the future, but many of the roles will have given you transferable skills.
  4. Societies/activities to mention, or join.  Playing a role within a club or society brings many transferable skills.  I don’t advise joining a vast number of clubs and societies for the sake of it.  Join one or two societies that you have most interest in so you develop contacts, experience, confidence, and much more.
  5. Professional associations.  Most associations have cheap membership options for students.  This is a great opportunity to find valuable information and join with people who already work in the areas of work you’re interested in.
  6. Create a great CV.  Don’t rush a document off a couple days before you need one, spend some quality time crafting something good now.  Check my series of posts on Employment Nirvanafor more information.

    You can't control the future, but it still depends on your help.

    You can’t control the future, but it does need your help.

  7. Tweak your CV and update it if you already have one.  Perhaps you made a pretty good CV in the past.  If so, keep going!  Make sure it’s kept relevant to your needs, as well as adding your experience and achievements as you go along.  Don’t leave it to chance.
  8. Look at jobs currently on offer for ideas. You may not be applying right now, but do you know what type of jobs are available?  If you don’t take a look, you won’t know how feasible your plans really are.
  9. Look at jobs currently on offer to see what they’re looking for.  Another benefit of browsing jobs you’re not about to apply for is so that you know what skills and qualities employers are looking for.  If you see a common trait that you haven’t yet mastered or experienced yet, you’ve got time to bring things up to speed.
  10. Check graduate schemes as soon as you can.  There’s no point in waiting.  The jobs won’t wait…
  11. If you know what your dream job/career is, pursue it NOW! Don’t wait, get involved.  Just because you’re not getting paid to learn about your chosen line of work doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bother putting the effort in.  The moment you start chasing for leads and opportunities is the moment you step closer to what you want.
  12. Go to careers office and use them.
  13. Check careers & graduate sites for information, help and leads.
  14. Consider transferable skills in everything you do.  A small feat for you may be just what an employer wants.  Don’t overlook your talents!
  15. Clean up your online profiles.  And if you don’t want to remove the gory details, at least protect yourself by updating your privacy settings so you’re…well, private.
  16. Clean up your offline profiles. You don’t live in an online-only world, unless you believe we’re all in the Matrix or something.  Real-world issues need just as much consideration as those online.
  17. What do you *want* to do when it’s all over? Ask yourself this question and give a genuine answer.  Don’t kid yourself with ideas of what you’ll probably end up doing and what would roughly satisfy you.  Be bold by deciding what you’d choose if you had every option freely available to you.
  18. How will you achieve this? You’ve been bold in your answer to the above question.  Now have a plan to make this happen, no matter how outlandish it seems.
  19. Personality. What would you change and what would you keep the same?
  20. What do you seek beyond career, money and fame? We all crave different things in life.  Those cravings change as we change.  Before you graduate, what matters to you beyond money and the usual ‘big dreams’?
Title image: original by tiffa130 (cc)  /  Bottom image: quinn.anya (cc)

Simplicity: One Notebook Per Project

Some ideas are so simple, but delightful.

Thanks to Ben Terrett over at Noisy Decent Graphics, I’m going to try out the ridiculously basic and wonderful One Notebook Per Project idea that he’s been successfully trialling since the start of this year.

I’ve used separate project folders, kept idea notebooks, and written study journals, but I’ve not tried a single notebook for each project I’m working on.

Given my liking for elaborate notebooks and gorgeous Moleskines, I can’t understand why I didn’t think to do this before.

I’m off to get some more notebooks!

20/20 – Day 14: 20 reasons why lists do/don’t work

Writing all these posts with lists of 20 are both a boon and a pain.  Should you write a list? Use the following two lists to find out.

10 reasons why lists are great

  1. They focus the mind.
  2. They’re easy on the eye.
  3. They challenge, inspire and satisfy.
  4. You can add or subtract from them with ease.
  5. It’s a less stressful way to start an essay.
  6. Comparison lists work well side by side.
  7. They’re as succinct or complex as you want them to be.
  8. They work well as blog posts!
  9. They aid collaboration and team work.
  10. They’re a quick test to see if you have enough points, or if you should rethink something.

10 reasons why lists aren’t so great

  1. They’re linear.
  2. It’s difficult to make points overlap effectively.
  3. Lists are often incomplete in themselves. Further explanation may be necessary.
  4. Can appear laboured, scraping the barrel.
  5. Can go off the mark, especially if facing Point 4…
  6. You risk repetition.
  7. A list is more a tool than a full answer.
  8. You risk repetition.
  9. If you commit to a particular number (like I am here) you may get stuck, spoiling everything.
  10. Er…better find someone to help me out…
    Okay, any list that claims to be definitive or appears as a set of rules is not necessarily as helpful as it first seems. I’ll give the final point over to Molly Young in Intelligent Life:

“Can anyone doubt…that an author’s rules are as specific (and exclusive) to her as her DNA? And yet, if we can’t learn anything new from such lists, why do we find them fascinating? Their value, I think, is mainly an affirmative one. At their best, writing rules remind us of the things we already know about ourselves. The advice that rings true, in other words, is the advice we already follow.”

As a bonus to the above lists, here’s Atul Gawande (author of The Checklist Manifesto) explaining why we need checklists:

“On the one hand they are memory aids. If you go shopping, a list doesn’t tell you about every single step you take to the grocery store, it reminds you of what you might forget. The second aspect of a checklist is that it can help you perform well when you are working with many people on a complex procedure.”

So there we have it. Are you an avid list writer?  What sort of lists do you like to use?

20/20 – Day 13: 20 ways to cut down & free up time

You’re busy, so I’ll keep it brief. Here’s how you can start saving even more time.

  1. No unplanned events. Impromptu is a no-no.
  2. Ignore TV.  As Gary Vaynerchuk says, “Everybody has time, stop watching f__king Lost”
  3. Switch off IM services.
  4. Switch off Facebook, Twitter, et al.
  5. Filter out all unnecessary plans/tasks.
  6. Quit something.  Do less and win.
  7. Order in Most Important Tasks (MIT).
  8. Don’t let unfinished tasks bog you down. Finish them, or get rid of them completely if unimportant.
  9. Declutter. Mess doesn’t work for everyone.  If it bothers you, get rid of it, make some quick fixes, or change your system.
  10. Do not be disturbed. No exceptions.  Switch yourself off from the world.
  11. Stop using so much toothpaste. Your time, according to Sid Savara, is like a tube of toothpaste.  Savara says:
    “Unlike a stream running or sand falling in an hourglass, toothpaste does not simply come out of a tube on its own – we force it out and use it up. Similarly, we are not spectators in our own lives with our days, weeks and months passing us by. Each day we make a decision what to do and what not to do. Every moment is our opportunity, but it’s a moment that we must choose to use up.”
  12. Plan a leaving time every time you go out. Stick to it.
  13. Be strict. Time is precious. Treat it that way.
  14. Don’t schedule and forget about it.  To make proper use of a timetable or schedule, check it in the evening and at the start of the day.
  15. Incorporate unexpected events as soon as possible. Make appropriate changes to your schedule right away.
  16. Complete overlapping tasks together in order to avoid doing the same preparation two or three times.  Batch those tasks!
  17. Read my six-part series, “Make Time for Time“.
  18. Check times saps like social services and email just once or twice a day.
  19. Delegate, if possible and appropriate.  Not a typical student option, but don’t rule it out.  There will be occasions.
  20. Keep on top of routine tasks.  It’s quicker and easier as you go along.
Title image: original by tiffa130 (cc)