OUGD602 PPP: CAREER ADVICE WITH INGRID

I had a meeting with Ingrid to discuss my future, my options between being a web designer and a potential career in the Army.

She told me to look on Prospects for where I can find job descriptions, and find out what web designing actually involves.
On the Web designing page on Prospects, there was a link to Women in Technology, which means there is more likely to be support out there for women who are trying to get into the technology field as it's a very male orientated industry. There could also be grants out there as well for women.

She also suggested that I ask to mirror a web designer, or ask for work experience at a web design company, to see what their job actually involves.
She suggested a company I should look at for work experience (Magpie Communications) as they are always willing to have people help them. Ged Savva and Becky Edlin are the owners.
Also look at Barclay's bank as they advertise coding and technology information, workshop things
Computeach - Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Google could be good for short courses into coding.
Bubble Digital Career Portal - look at
When applying for jobs, research into the actual companies, and adapt your CV to them

In regards to the Army, research into the different careers and the training, and becoming a Reserve could be a good way to get a taste of Army life whilst still developing a design career.
Could look at VSO - Volunteer Services Oversees
Also, a lot of smaller companies won't take on volunteers who haven't previously volunteered, bigger companies are more likely to take on people who haven't volunteered before.

Could also look to volunteer as a web designer for a day/week (no longer than 2 weeks). After you graduate though you shouldn't work for free unless you really really like the company
Look at grad schemes for jobs, most close in January, some even earlier
Apply for jobs 3 months before you graduate
Guardian jobs - look at the companies that are advertising jobs

On LikedIn you can link to groups on there - maybe link to web design or graphic design groups

Reflection
This has been really useful, and I realised how much I like web design whilst explaining why I want to do it, which was comforting. The idea of joining a charity as well part time was also something I hadn't thought of before but could be a really great experience, and is a great way of helping without joining the Army.
The main thing she pressed was just to research into the different roles, make sure I know everything about the roles I'm applying for before I make any decisions.
This session really helped me clear out the jumble that I was thinking about, and made it before clear what I needed to do to make a decision.