{"id":10856,"date":"2023-05-01T14:13:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T13:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=10856"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:21:43","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T11:21:43","slug":"returning-to-university-why-careers-support-is-important-and-how-you-can-access-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/returning-to-university-why-careers-support-is-important-and-how-you-can-access-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Returning to University: Why Careers Support Is Important and How You Can Access It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am a fulltime Postgraduate Student here at Westminster, studying Public Relations. I graduated with my Undergraduate degree in 2018 and left not really knowing where I wanted my life to go. After spending the next two years working, I had gained a lot of \u2018real world\u2019 experience and realised what it was I did and did not want to do.\u00a0 Having this world experience has benefitted me as I now have a tangible goal of what I want to do after I complete my Master\u2019s later this year. My approach to University is very different this time, and I am trying to make the most of the Careers support available as I can.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-10859 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/02\/Screenshot-2021-02-12-at-11.29.52-496x250.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"496\" height=\"250\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westminster.ac.uk\/current-students\/employability\">The Careers and Employability Service (CES)<\/a> is a really useful asset. You can access it via the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westminster.ac.uk\/current-students\">Student Hub<\/a> under the \u2018Employability\u2019 tab at the top of the page. The CES service uses a different website called \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/engage.westminster.ac.uk\/students\">Engage\u2019<\/a> but it is very easy to click through to from the Student Hub. Through the CES there are opportunities to apply for paid and voluntary part-time work which you can fit around your studies. If you are struggling to write your CV to apply for these roles, don\u2019t worry! There are resources available to you which explain how you should write your <a href=\"https:\/\/engage-employability.westminster.ac.uk\/menu\/svc\/cms\">CV and Covering Letter.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>CV and Covering Letter Help<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I have been working for almost ten years now and have submitted applications for dozens of jobs, yet writing covering letters is something I still find tricky. Before I applied for my current position at the University, I looked at the CES guidance on how to write a covering letter and made sure to follow their advice. It was amazing how straightforward I found it to be once I actually <em>knew <\/em>how one was supposed to be written. The CES has targeted covering letter examples you can use which are aimed at jobs in different industries. For example, alongside having general advice on how to write a covering letter there are also resources available to help you target your application towards jobs in Law, Business and the Creative Industries.<\/p>\n<h2>Making an Appointment with a Careers Consultant<\/h2>\n<p>You can also make <a href=\"https:\/\/engage-employability.westminster.ac.uk\/student\/appointments.html?execution=e1s1\">appointments with careers consultants<\/a> to discuss specific areas you need help with. These sessions now take place online through video-call. There are a lot of different appointment types available so make sure that you book yourself into the right one!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-10860 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/02\/pexels-jess-bailey-designs-768473-372x496.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph of a weekly planner. It has each day of the week with space to write notes next to each day\" width=\"372\" height=\"496\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Careers consultants are here to discuss with you any number of career-related queries you have. Sessions are between 20 and 45 minutes long, depending on how much you would like to talk about. In these appointments you can receive job application and interview advice, CV-writing guidance and discussing career choices. These are just suggested topics to cover, however, so it is open for you to ask for help with whatever it is you need.<\/p>\n<p>If you are not a big interview fan, you can also book yourself in for a <a href=\"https:\/\/engage-employability.westminster.ac.uk\/student\/appointments.html?execution=e1s1\">mock job interview<\/a> workshop. If you have an interview coming up that you would like to prepare for, you can provide the careers consultants with the job description and as much other information about the job as you can and they will prepare a practice interview with you with potential questions you may be asked. This is a great way to help you prepare answers to possible questions, as well as receiving feedback on your performance and ways you could improve.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-10858 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/02\/pexels-katerina-holmes-5905711-496x331.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph of two women on an online video call \" width=\"496\" height=\"331\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Accessing &#8216;Engage&#8217; and Other Resources<\/h2>\n<p>\u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/engage-employability.westminster.ac.uk\">Engage<\/a>\u2019 has lots of useful careers information for you to look through in the <a href=\"https:\/\/engage-employability.westminster.ac.uk\/menu\/svc\/cms\">&#8216;Career Discovery feed&#8217;<\/a> section, but if you can\u2019t find the answer you\u2019re looking for then email us on careers@westminster.ac.uk and we&#8217;ll try to help.<\/p>\n<p>I know from experience how quickly your time at University goes \u2013 that\u2019s why I\u2019m trying to get the most of it my second time around! I am encouraging all Undergraduate, and Postgraduate, students to have a look and get the most out of these Employability services. The time will fly by before you know it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am a fulltime Postgraduate Student here at Westminster, studying Public Relations. I graduated with my Undergraduate degree in 2018 and left not really knowing where I wanted my life to go. After spending the next two years working, I&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":10869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-student-guest-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13123,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10856\/revisions\/13123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}