Several things occurred to me. One was “How dare they?” Is this an example of the infuriating snobbery (class based I believe) that dissuades bright young people from entering the absolutely crucial teaching profession.

Or was it the tutor using the  ’challenging’ guidance technique to test the motivation of the client. Possible though in my judgement not likely.

But it got me thinking that I was in a position of judging a ‘guidance’ process through a headline. Thats what the genral public does all the time and gets cross when it disagrees with it – to our detriment.

The other issue would be value judgements in guidance. When and where is it appropriate to express them? Ever? Thats a big topic. I cannot say I never express value judgements in guidance ( such as the ones I expressed a couple of paras back), but its clearly a key ethical crux.

Need to think about this more, because I have always been pro the practice of ‘advice’ in career Guidance. Many of my colleagues disagree but I think the clue is in the job title. Notwithstanding the fact that the commonest mistake new advisers make is to ‘give advice’. In a careers interview, advice is the last thing you should do. Literally.

I think there is a gap in the market there.

Lecture a bit disappointing to be honest, but hey-ho. Chatted to the Pro-Vice -Chancellor and discovered some common experiences. He is an English graduate who found his way through volunteering at a Law centre to barrister training then lecturing. So not a research route.

I would like to thank you very much for all your help during my application process. I had 17 consulting interviews in total and all were positive. For most companies you get only an offer after five interviews. In the end, I took a great offer from McKinsey. I will start in the Frankfurt office next month. It was definitely easier doing the applications in Germany than in London. I am not sure what was the reason for not getting interviews in London, it could be that I didn’t have industry internships or that English companies did not know how good the German grades were…

If you have students interested in concultancy, please tell them that it is all about preparation once you have an interview. They have to spent a lot of time on case studies and should practise interviews (I prepared from January till July!).

Furthermore, they need to know about trends and industries (Financial Times!!). Nothing is better than dragging your interviewer into a discussion about his favourite industry when he introduces himself/herself. Sometimes these discussions lasted 20-30 minutes and made the case interview at the end very short. In addition, the interview atmosphere was great as people like to talk about their favourite subject… Practising case interviews with other people is also very important.

I hope the information is helpful for others interested in consultancy. By the way, I also got an offer for the Accenture Navigator scheme you told me about; it was good training to do their interview and assessment centre!

“Multiple career guidance counsellors told me that my profile matched that of a prison warden, which was interesting, but not exactly what I had in mind!”

Newspaper interview

No they didn’t. No careers counsellor has ever done this. They may have commented on the results of a computer based questionnaire – which may have produced this match. Does anyone know what a prison warden profile looks like?

Music graduate preparing an application to Medical school

Kakakhstan undergrad helped to prepatre her Cv

Experience spanish lawyer exploring options as solicitor in UK in corporate finance area.

French law graduates looking for options outside of law 

LLB student with low grades wondering how that affects his prospects

Creative industries Masters grad applying to internship

American studies student looking to switch fr0m a career in energy trading to something else.

So -Kazakhstan, France, Japan, Kenya as places of origin. 3 with considerable job experience looking for a career change.

So a completely different set of issues form yesterday. From each one you need to grasp quickly whre thay are at and how to progress them.

Bulgarian Masters in Law student: how should my CV look for UK law firms?

Biomedical third year who is more interested in chemical engineering – possibly. How can he find an internship?

Third year historian passionate about journalism. To do MA or NCTJ? or what other ways in? She had received contradictory advice from people in the profession.

A masters in theology interested in mental health but with no work experience of any kind.

A masters in environmental studies getting to interview but not beyond. What is she doing wrong?

A second year management student about to have a telephone interview for an FMCG. What will they ask him?

A medieval history fellow looking to change career. Any suggestions?

A Pharmaceutical science masters loooking to find laboratory work experience.

You cannot be an expert in all of these fields obviously, but you need to give something to take them forward and if  possible instil some self confidene as well as an idea about their next step.

when I read that students – graduates rather – complain about the Careers service not helping them I wonder whether these individuals would say that? I felt that they all left the room with some added value / knowledge / impetus. I do not believe i am deluding myself.

Tremendous energy in the group and may students / postdocs powerfully affected.

But a couple of people — men – is that significant? seemed very turned off by the experience and claiming not to be getting anything out of it. I suppose what this tells me is that learning styles which are still in my view imperfectly understood – vary so enormously.

I found that doing this course with 2 very experienced professional trainers enhanced my own thinking and learning. Lots of ideas for our new employability programme at Kings.

 Action Learning is a means of development, intellectual, emotional or physical, that requires its subjects,

through involvement in some real, complex problem,

to achieve change

sufficient to improve his observable behaviour

Learning-by-Doing may be a simpler description of this process.

In action learning programmes, subjects learn with and from each other by mutual support, advice and criticism during their discussions about real problems.

The learning achieved is not so much an acquaintance with new factual knowledge nor technical art conveyed by some authority such as an expert or a teacher,

It is the more appropriate use by and reinterpretation of

the subject’s existing knowledge.

This interpretation is a social process, carried on among a number of learners who cause each other to examine afresh many ideas that they would otherwise have continued to take for granted.

Action learning particularly obliges subjects to become aware of their own value systems, by demanding that the real problems tackled carry some risk of personal failure.

Action learning demands real-time and observable activity on the subject’s part and thus tests whether the subjects are committed to what they say they are committed to.

http://www.jtiltd.com/al_definitions.htm

Some of the shared characteristics of our successful hires include:…..

Many PhD students could say ‘I can do that’

Responsibilities

- Arranging and conducting interviews with senior executives, academics, and industry experts in search of best practices
- Conducting significant amounts of secondary research and documenting those findings
- Analyzing business problems using root cause analysis, hypothesis generation, survey design, benchmarking, and other qualitative and quantitative methods
- Presenting interview and research findings to senior managers: verbally, and in writing
- Creation of research deliverables, including essays, executive summaries, case studies, essay graphics, presentations, and speeches; significant contribution to the idea generation of the team—framing both research questions and preliminary answers
- Assisting with program and research agenda development
- Supporting the team through other tasks such as scheduling interviews, coordinating meetings and teleconferences, and preparing research materials and summaries for the team.

Qualifications

Some of the shared characteristics of our successful hires include:

- Experience conducting primary and secondary research
- Curiosity for exploring the frontier of knowledge regarding corporate growth strategies
- Excellent oral communication skills and demonstrated ability to conduct research interviews
- Strong writing skills and experience creating graphical representations of data
- Ability to locate and procure sensitive data from original sources and senior executives
- High proficiency in distilling massive amounts of data into important relevance for senior managers
- Ability to analyze quantitative and qualitative data
- Strong project management and time management skills
- Ability to work either independently or in a team environment, depending on the task at hand