Category Archives: Starting Work

When I was at secondary school, I got offered the opportunity to go on work experience. At the time I did not really take it seriously and just looked at it as a few weeks away from school. Since leaving school and starting work I do now realise why work experience is so important. It gives students the opportunity to experience a working day in a environment that they may want to work in when older. Ideally chose a placement that you could imagine applying for a job in once you are ready to work. Once you are on your work placement, be sure to gain as much information as you can, do not be afraid to ask questions and even to spend a bit of your lunch break or after work chatting to other members of staff to get their feedback on what they think of the job.

As a teacher, time management is vital to allow you to organise work loads and ensure that all topics are covered in the detail they need to be. Teaching is not just about turning up at 8.30 and leaving at 3.30 to teach a class, there is a lot of preparation work that needs to be done and then marking and evaluating afterwards.

Most teachers start their day at about 8am and often do not leave the school until about 5.30, but when they get home their job doesn’t finish there. Each lesson have to be planned and work set for the ability groups within the classroom, this may also require additional resources such as materials or worksheets to be created. Once the work has been completed, it must be marked and possibly revisited if the students have not achieved the level needed. All of this requires accurate time management to allow you to get it done in the set time frames. Creating a diary system or work schedule is a good way of ensuing you have enough time to complete everything.

When starting a new job it can be hard to ask for help. You may feel that you do not want to give the impression that you do not know what you are doing, or it could be that you don’t have the relevant people around to ask. Not asking for help when you need it can be dangerous as people often guess what they should do and end up getting it wrong which can have consequences for the them and also the company and / or client.

There is a line between using your common sense or making an informed design and asking for too much help. You need to be able to look at the task in hand and think why you cannot do it. If it is something to do with software that you are unfamiliar with, or procedures that differ from company to company, then no one would question you asking for help as long as you learn from it each time.

A recent survey has shown that teaching can be one of the most stressful jobs. Not only do you have to content with pupils misbehaving but also have to ensure that they learn what they need to to pass their exams and perform well when it comes to advancing in their education.

Teachers will also have to cope with Ofsted inspections which are usually carried out every three years or so and this can add a lot of work to an already busy schedule without even considering the added pressure of having someone watch how you teach and report on it.

Marking, planning, parent evenings, report writing and setting up the classroom displays is all work that is mostly done after school hours, so many teachers find themselves work as soon as they get home and / or weekends to keep on top of everything. With this in mind, it is no wonder the teaching has appeared in the top stressful jobs.

If you are happy in the job you do and with the company you work for then you may wish to start progressing up the ladder to obtain a promotion. Within some companies this is a fairly easy process but with others, it may take a number of years and a lot of hard work to allow you to take on more responsibility.

If the business is family run, you may find that the management positions are mostly held by family members and therefore you have little chance of progressing, but this is not always the case. If you can show loyalty to a company and work hard this may be enough to see a promotion on the cards.

Larger organisations sometimes have set time scales where your progress will be reviewed and a promotion may be offered. This is a more structured way of doing it but can take longer.

If you are looking to return to work after a long period of unemployment, you may want to easy yourself in gently and get a feel for the job world prior to entering a full time position. Charities are always on the lookout for volunteers to assist them in their work and although you will not usually get paid for this it can be great experience and also give you the confidence needed to move up the career ladder.

There are so many charities out there doing different things that the range of job vacancies available varies drastically. Some even include travelling abroad and staying in a country for a number of months working with local communities. Not only will this give you experience and confidence but it can also be extremely satisfying and rewarding knowing that you have helped.

A quick search on the internet for charity work vacancies will return a number of positions that you can apply for, then it’s just a case of seeing which ones suits your personal circumstances.