Christmas Careers Advice Corner
In just over a week’s time I am off home to Norway for Christmas. It is one of my favourite times of the year going home, and this time my sister tells me there is snow on the ground! So here I will share some of what I am looking forward to at Christmas and how this can help you in your career planning.
- Decorating the tree – we always decorate tree on the 23 December, a lot later than most of my friends here in the UK. Decorating the tree always takes a lot of planning, but it always looks nice at the end. So how are you going to plan to gain awareness of potential career pathways or job roles for 2018? I suggest you use a couple of hours researching our wonderful careers resources and explore the tree and branches of sectors and jobs out there.
- Reflecting on the year gone by – I always have a lot of time on my hand during Christmas as I have a very small family. With a cup of hot chocolate in one hand and a pen in the other, I sometimes write down notes of reflection in my diary. What went well, what went not so well and how can I improve things for next year? Reflection is a useful careers tool too – here is a great article by Open University on self-reflection which may help you think about how this last Autumn term went for you.
- Spending time with family and friends – I can’t wait to see my sister again and spend some quality time with her and also see an old school friend in Oslo. You never know how seeing friends and family can inspire you in thinking of new career ideas or support you in getting new contacts in your job search. I also know that sometimes seeing family can be difficult, especially if you feel low as you have not secured a graduate job… yet. There is still time to find one! Here is a previous blog entry on coping with rejection which you may find useful.
- Having a cup of tea in front of the fire – well, this is my favourite past-time. Staring into the fire, feeling warm and fully relaxing, perhaps reading a book at the same time. I think my most important piece of advice over Christmas is to take a few days out to really relax and take your mind off exams, job hunt or university. Go for a walk, sleep in and spoil yourself with a food and snacks, play in the snow! That way you will come back more refreshed for a new semester. If you still are finding it difficuly getting your mind away from exam stress, this earlier blog entry on managing your time around exams may help you. The Wellbeing Service here at Bath are also available to support you before and after Christmas and have a range of activities for you who are staying in Bath during Christmas.
Lastly, here is a reminder of our Christmas opening hours, please do contact us if you need any further support or inspiration. We are closed from Friday 22 December to 3 January. Please see at the bottom of this link for details of our opening hours.
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