Experiencing The Workplace

Work experience at Asda House has been confirmed for the last two weeks of May so I'm really excited about that! All is left for me to do now is book my train tickets and arrange some accomo dating for the duration. It is just too far to commute everyday reasonably. Unfortunately at the minute it seems super expensive to stay too.. the cheapest accomo dating I've found has been £199 per week! I am going to continue looking to find the best deal - Im thinking about contacting some student accomo dario in Leeds to see if they accept short term lets and would have any availability.

I have today received confirmation of my work experience for Standfast & Barracks: I am really hoping that a longer work experience will mean I will have a chance to learn some new skills. I would particularly like to learn some software ones such as Photoshop or InDesign so I can take these forward into third year and I prove my work. This will also be a good opportunity to increase my network of contacts.

I have replied to Jessica Fryer at Standfast & Barracks and asked if I can do a day a week starting in June and upto their shut down at the end of July.. I have suggested I am available Tuesday or Wednesday so I can still work around it but offered them some flexibility.. fingers crossed I'll hear back from them soon!

Waiting for a reply when you have submitted your digital portfolio is stressfull!! But I have finally heard back from the design team at AsdaHouse and been invited for a two week work placement!! I won't be able to commute to and from Leeds as it will take me 3hrs each way so I need to sort some accomodation out - I have contacted Claire again to find out if it will be Mon-Fri or Monday to Saturday so I can arrange to have my shifts covered in work, and look for a place to stay.

After attending Standfast & Barracks for a day last week and taking into account what I learnt about the importance of work experience I emailed Jessica Fryer to not only thank her for the opportunity but to ask if I could do something more regularly or for a longer period. Today she emailed me back and said I was welcome to do return! I now just need to decide which would be easier to manage as I need to fit it in with work figure out the cost of travelling everyday or just staying somewhere for a week. At the moment I am thinking it would be better to going a day a week between finishing uni in May and their shut down at the end of June - which would only give me 8weeks - but also means I can maintain longer contact with the people there too!

On Monday 5th March I attended a day of work experience at Standfast & Barracks design studio. I participated in some menial tasks such as sorting out a sample store room and folding boxes but it was a good opportunity to see the work and the atmosphere in the office. I also got a tour of the factory - I attended an open day there last summer but it was exciting to see the factory working this time! I was also able to go around and chat to different members of the team which was invaluable. Jessica Fryer who I arranged the work experience with (acting manager of the design team whilst Mary Stansfield is on maternity leave) had been an apprentice with the company and only 4yrs later was in such a high position so that was quite inspiring. On the otherhand was the design interns who were saying how impossible it is to get a traditional job - everything is now internships from 6months to a year which means constantly moving around the country. I found this as abit of a shock.. I was...

Today we received general feedback about the mock interviews we took part in. I have made some notes about parts I felt were relevant to me and what I need to consider for next time. 1. Tell me abit about yourself.      Here I introduced myself as a mature student studying at Textiles. I didn't really say much more than this tbh.. I didn't introduce any of my personal intersts as this is usually a question asked later on and I didn't want to use up my answers all in one go.. however the opportunity never really came up and I came away feeling like I never portrayed myself as a person. Also, never took this opportunity to state that I already work for Asda! It should be clear on my cv and it obviously came up later but might of been clearer if I'd started with this - especially as it something I want to promote! 2. How are you finding your course?        I pretty much just said "yeah it's good" but then felt like I had to expand which I did, but i...