Take our Animal Quiz to find out what you’re like and what you could do!
Written by Grace
Got some spare time on your hands? Why not use this time to find out more about your key strengths, skills and even what jobs you may enjoy! These self-assessment quizzes are fun and an interactive way of learning more about yourself and becoming more self-aware!
Facts: 3 percent of the UK population are Eagles. Eagles are symbols of power, leadership and strength, often soaring high to generate new ideas and new ways to do things. Others are often willing to follow due to their good ideas and their determination to make them happen.
Job Roles:
· Retail Manager (was my previous job role!)
· Sales Assistant (also used to work as this!)
· Business Advertiser
· Accountant
We would love to hear from you, leave a comment below letting us know what animal you got!
To speak to one of our Career Coaches get in touch.
I ended up fine tuning my project to trial a fairly new technology to aid in the live extraction of data. I chose to spend my first week researching this technology in order to fully understand what I would be doing and plan out the following weeks. The good thing about this placement is that you choose your own schedule which teaches good time management and allows you to be in as little or much as you need based on your requirements.
‘I felt really prepared for the weeks ahead and confident in my abilities’
Upon arriving I was introduced to Jemma who specialises in games consoles in the Digital Forensics Unit. She answered every question I had without hesitation and she talked me through the current methods of extraction that they implement and examples of forms so that I had a good understanding of how it all works. After receiving so much information from everyone I felt really prepared for the weeks ahead and confident in my abilities to start working on the project.
‘Working alongside staff in this environment demonstrated to me in real-time the hurdles technicians face’
Every day I was learning so many interesting facts and regulations and gained a good understanding of how it works behind the scenes. I continued working with Jemma and covered all aspects of live acquisition. I brought my own console in to practice on, as for obvious reasons I couldn’t use the ones in police possession due to them being a part of live cases. Working alongside staff in this environment demonstrated to me in real-time the hurdles technicians face and gave me the chance to ask them directly what they would improve if they could. I then started my own research, carrying out typical live previews on my console and using the new technology to see if it would be of use to the police.
At the end of the project, we are required to make a presentation and present this to staff members from both the police and the university, who are invited to watch and ask us any questions they may have. Being a university student, I am very used to making presentations and writing up scientific reports therefore did not face any issues in writing or structuring these. I created the presentation so that non-technical readers could understand and the report included more detail as it will be used by the forensics staff working in that area.
In the run up to my presentation I was so nervous but as soon as I got there it went away. It was comforting seeing some familiar faces that I had been working with who were there to support me. My presentation went a lot better than I anticipated and everyone who attended seemed really interested in my project, giving me great feedback. I realised I had nothing to be nervous about and overall it was a great experience which will develop my professional skills.
‘Help people who were in the same position I was in a few months ago and deciding if to apply or not’
I feel I have really benefited from this placement and I have absolutely loved every day of it! It has gave me an insight into how forensic departments operate, what processes are carried out and what protocols are followed. It has really reinforced my ambition to go into this line of work when I graduate and if anything, increased it! It is definitely something I could see myself doing as a career and hope I am lucky enough to do this in the future! I feel like this will be a great addition to my CV, giving me relevant experience that I will inevitably need. It will also benefit me in my final year of my degree as I have a real-life working example of how it all works and have practical experience to accompany the theory we learn in lectures. I was the first 2nd year student to get onto this scheme (as it is usually 3rd year students), therefore I feel I have a unique opportunity to apply my knowledge to my studies and help others learn from it.
Not only does it benefit me as a student looking forward to a future career, but it also benefits the police force as fresh ideas are always needed and students may provide an insight or perspective on an issue that may not have previously been viewed. It also provides the force with extra people to help research areas they may have been wanting to work on but didn’t have the time or man-power to dedicate themselves.
‘My expectations were nowhere near as good as the placement itself’
My expectations were nowhere near as good as the placement itself! I thought my placement would be similar to the open days, for example all of the screens being turned off when we entered the room etc. However, once I completed my induction(after vetting) , people treated me as an equal and carried on working around me, integrating me into the office and chatting to me. I appreciated this as it really gave me a feel for what it would be like to work in a place like this and the whole team were so incredibly friendly and welcoming! I didn’t think I would learn as much as I did but I feel like I have come away with so much knowledge and understanding of processes and legislation I didn’t even know existed! I expected to not get much help due to the staff having a lot of their own work to get through but everyone went out of their way to help me with whatever difficulties I had and Jemma took so much time to talk me through everything which was really helpful!
The future and advice for candidates
I have now started my third year of my course and thinking about what I want to do upon graduation. My placement project was such a success that I am now continuing the research for my dissertation! I am so pleased to have the opportunity to do this as I find it very interesting and means I can continue to utilise everything I’ve learned over the last few months. The continuing support from the police staff has been amazing and you can tell they have a genuine interest and appreciation for what the students do.
The main advice I would give to students who may be reading this would be to go for it! You have nothing to lose by applying, and even if you are not successful, the application process is an experience in itself! I would say to always believe in yourself and your abilities, I hadn’t done anything similar before but settled in straight away. Finally I would say to choose something you are interested in – if you find a topic you really want to do you will surprise yourself with how much you will learn about it in a short space of time and it will boost your work rate so much.
If you found this blog informative, let us know in the comments below and through the likes!
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Work Placement Experience at Staffordshire Police
By Grace,
Part 1 – How I became involved
Written by Becky
This blog is going to focus on my experience whilst on a six week placement with Staffordshire Police, through the Staffordshire University Forensic Partnership. My particular project was based in the Digital Forensics department, but before I go into that I will tell you a little about myself! My name is Rebecca Edwards and I am studying a Forensic Biology degree at Staffordshire University. I really wanted to be involved in this placement scheme because it has been my aim to work in forensics since I was around 13 years old – therefore this was my dream placement! Prior to this I had no experience in a real-world setting so it was a great opportunity to get a feel for what it would really be like as a career. To begin with I will take you through the process of how I applied and my journey through the placement, up to what I’m doing now!
‘I hadn’t previously heard of the Staffordshire Forensic Partnership’
I hadn’t previously heard of this partnership until it was mentioned to me one day in a conversation with a lecturer and it took my attention straight away. To initially sign up I had to email David (senior lecturer at the University) a short personal statement to express interest in the placement and why I would like a position. David was so helpful in providing me with all the information I needed and keeping students in the loop about the progression of our applications, telling us what we needed to do next.
‘I found this open day incredibly informative’
After the initial expression of interest, I was amongst the students chosen to come along to an open day. The purpose of this was to ask any questions, have a tour of the police headquarters in Stafford (where we would be based) and to meet the staff. I found this open day incredibly informative as I had no idea how a police HQ operated, how the hierarchy of departments and staff were structured or the magnitude of workload they collectively deal with! We found out at the start of the day that the placement is based around a project that you would like to do and research the topic to eventually present your findings to staff at the end of the six weeks.
To begin with I had absolutely no idea what to do my project on and how I could possibly think of anything to help such a vast department of experts. However, we were later given a really interesting presentation from the forensics staff who gave us suggestions for projects they would like students to do this year, highlighting areas that are in need of new ideas.
‘That is the great thing about forensics; it is so versatile and has so many routes to explore!’
The project suggestions ranged from trialling different lifting tapes to be used at crime scenes, to new ways of analysing information collected from satellite navigation devices. The idea that interested me the most was related to collecting data from games consoles. I chose to do this because my interest in the digital side of forensics has grown massively over the last year and I had been contemplating studying a masters in that area upon completion of my degree. (That is the great thing about forensics; it is so versatile and has so many routes to explore!)
‘Searching the news for real world examples of how my project would help the community’
Once we had chosen a project topic, we had to then write a project proposal (one side of A4), outlining why we wanted to do that topic and the reasons why further research is needed. I come from a biology background so hadn’t covered the digital much in my previous modules, so I had a lot of research to do before I could write my proposal! I started with learning the very basics of how hard drives are structured, the ways data is extracted from them and why games console extraction is different to say a PC or laptop. I picked lecturer’s brains and read a lot of journal articles until I felt like I had a good starting knowledge to talk about the project. Something I found helpful was searching the news for real world examples of how my project would help the community. Games consoles that are taken into police possession would be for reasons relating to criminal activity, a prevalent one being child grooming. This is due to the popularity of playing over the internet and often with strangers. Therefore, being able to quickly and effectively take information from the devices of suspects is paramount to the safety of a large number of victims. A quick Google search of issues relating to this really shocked me as I didn’t realise how often it occurred on that platform and made me want to help even more! I feel it is important to understand how your project will help not only the police force but also the general public, as helping the community is at the heart of policing no matter what your role is, and having a passion for what you are working on is important in every area of life!
‘However this method carries a lot of risks and issues, both ethical and technical’
Without going into too much detail, there are basically two ways of extracting data from a device, ‘live’ and ‘dead’ extraction. Dead extraction involves the traditional process of taking the drive out of a device and making a copy of it, interpreting everything that is on there. This way you will find relevant evidence on there, even after the suspect may have tried to delete them. However with the rise of internet use and data being stored on a cloud, live extraction is becoming more popular as it involves actually turning the device on and looking at it as the suspect would. This way you can see things in areas you may not with dead extraction. My project was originally revolving around how to improve methods of live extraction from games consoles as it is more difficult to get an image of console hard drives and therefore live extraction is the preferred method. However this method carries a lot of risks and issues, both ethical and technical. For my proposal I researched this area heavily and included real world examples to cover every aspect of the area.
‘I was absolutely over the moon to be offered one’
Once we had submitted our proposals to David, we had to wait to be offered an interview. The staff at HQ selected the students for interview and then we were informed of interview dates and times. I was absolutely over the moon to be offered one and even if I wasn’t to progress any further, I knew it was a good opportunity to experience what an interview for a career in this area would be like and to be honest I had never been so nervous for anything else in my life! The interview was at the HQ and the staff instantly put me at ease and asked questions about me, my interests and my project. They seemed really impressed with the amount of research I had done and even suggested ways to advance my project to focus more on specific areas. After the interview we then had to wait to find out if we were successful or not.
‘I was ecstatic!’
The day came and I found out I was one of the few lucky students to be given a placement and I was ecstatic! It was daunting as I was going into an unknown environment and was worried I didn’t know enough or would be prepared enough however, my levels of excitement surpassed this so couldn’t wait to start. We had to complete a number of vetting forms which were quite extensive and therefore took a number of weeks to be processed, then the placement could commence.
Before we started the placement, we attended an induction day at headquarters. We were introduced to the Partnership Coordinator Martyn who gave us all the information we needed. He provided us with induction check sheets which tracked our progress and helped us visualise the things we needed to be aware of to give us the best start possible. He was our first point of contact and stayed in regular contact with us throughout the whole placement, asking if we had any issues and was always just an email away or you could go and knock on at his office if we were unsure of anything at all. We were then taken to our relevant departments where we could meet the rest of the staff we would be working with, finalise our project ideas and start to plan our time.
In Part 2 Becky describes her experiences working with Staffordshire Police Forensics through to the day when she had to present her project to Partnership members and her mentors.
Like this post if you found it useful and comment below sharing your work placement experiences! We would love to hear from you!
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How to stand out through your Cover Letter!
By Grace,
Top tips to sell yourself!
Written by Annie
Cover letters can be tedious and hard to write sometimes, a lot of people think their CV is enough. However, cover letters are extremely important in assisting your job applications! They highlight your key accomplishments and allow you to expand on details that would make you the perfect candidate for the job role.
‘You might think your CV gives employers all the info they need about you. In reality, a CV is of limited value to an employer without a cover letter for context. Cover letters are important because they tell employers the type of position you’re seeking — and exactly how you’re qualified for it.’
To make your C-O-V-E-R letter stand out. Call out leadership positions, awards and achievements as it will catch the employer’s interest. Offer examples of relevant work experiences/voluntary work. Verify the appropriate contact name and make sure you know about the company and the role you are applying for. Exemplify your strengths by identifying them. Refrain from waffling.
Being concise and knowing why you are a good candidate is the foundation to getting that across articulately to your potential future employer.
When writing a cover letter, you should consider:
1) Reading into detail the job specification (what the duties of the role involve and which skillsets they ask for)- This allows you to highlight why you should be selected for that role and what experience/skillsets you have that are applicable.
2) Tailoring every cover letter to the individual job advertisement – this does not mean you cannot have a template cover letter – Just make sure you are editing each time to keep it relevant.
3) Do your research – Learn about the company you are applying for (What do they do, are they working on any projects, have they achieved anything).
4) Selling Yourself – Make sure that any skillsets/experience/work you have done that can demonstrate what they company are looking for is included. This is vital to illustrate how your qualifications fit the position.
5) Be Professional – Spell checking your work is important! Make sure you sign the cover letter with appropriate and professional articulation. Make sure your sentences flow and you get across exactly why you are the perfect candidate.
The significance of a cover letter ultimately is to be concise, expand on key points that you haven’t been able to discuss in detail in your CV and make sure you include information about the company as well as the role you are applying for.
The Careers Studio offers assistance with cover letters all the way from the initial job specification to help you begin writing your cover letter and utilize your skills!
Give this blog a like if you found it useful and leave a comment!
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Sell Yourself!
By Grace,
The importance and impact of selling your ability, skills, knowledge and work experience.
Written by Holly
Selling yourself to a new potential employer is so important as it can be the make or break of getting your dream job. When writing a CV or networking with potential employers, it is crucial that you make a great first impression and show them how valuable you can be to their workplace.
Many people really struggle to ‘big themselves up’ as they feel they are showing off or are nervous of talking about how amazing they are. Truth is, applying for a new job is the perfect opportunity to really show off! Telling an employer about your skills is so important, as it allows them to understand how well you are equipped and suitable for the job.
Sometimes, people can be unsure of what to put or the kind of skills that they actually have. A key tip to identify your key skills is to write down what you’re good at and what you enjoy. This doesn’t have to be work related, it can just be in general. For example, you might be the person who all your friends come to for advice or just to talk to. From this you could pick out that you’re friendly, approachable and a good listener.
Another tip is to ask your friends, family and workmates to tell you what skills they see you have, this can be very effective if you are struggling to think of skills, or if you’re uncomfortable with talking about yourself.
Give this post a like if you found it helpful! Do you have tips on selling yourself? Leave suggestions in the comments below!
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Work Placement, Worth My Time?
By Grace,
Written by Amber
Unsure about completing a work placement and whether or not it is worth delaying final year? Maybe you’re anxious about applying for something completely new? Or is it that this opportunity would give you more responsibility and rely on what you’ve learnt at Uni so far and you don’t feel ready? Or is it that this opportunity would mean watching your friends graduating without you and leaving you behind?
I’ll start by saying you’re not alone when feeling unsure about a placement year but hopefully after sharing my experiences you will feel more able to consider the whole picture before making a definite decision.
I was just like you, I wasn’t sure about a placement year and if I’m honest I didn’t plan on completing one until I saw one job description in particular. This role stood out to me because it gave me the opportunity to work with and help people, which I’m really passionate about, while still developing my psychological knowledge. Maybe when you look at opportunities suited to you something will jump out at you!
Tops tips for deciding or applying…
If you’re unsure, do some research – make sure you have looked at all your options! (the earlier you start looking the better!)
Make sure you are passionate about what you are applying for – you are committing to do this role for a set period of time (12 months for me) and you will be assessed on your time there (for me it was a 3000 word reflection – don’t let this put you off, I didn’t feel like this was enough words!)
Speak to Careers – lots of the applications are different and for a placement position you want to make sure you really are selling yourself and that your CV is tailored to that particular role. (Support is offered for interviews too)
Don’t be afraid to show you are passionate about the role and share what you could personally offer the company or bring to their team by working there
My Personal Experience
My placement was the scariest, most challenging but most rewarding experience of my life so far! I think everyone with the opportunity to do a work placement should. During the 12 months I was a Life Coach, I used what I had learnt at Uni previously to help me deal with certain situations but a lot of what happened required thinking on my feet and adapting to surroundings and people’s needs.I wouldn’t change this experience for anything as I now have industry experience, more resilience and confidence in myself (you will realise you are more capable than you think too!) and I have friends and colleagues that I still keep in contact with and that willing offered to take part in my final year project.
Benefits…
Industry experience that will set you apart from other people studying the same course as you.
Some opportunities may be paid – if yours isn’t don’t panic mine wasn’t either!
There are plenty of bursaries or other types of funding you could apply to.
The opportunity to build relationships and connections that will last.
Potential focus for final year project – this opportunity is a great place to get ideas for what you want to research/focus on for your project.
Opportunity to go back and work there in the future.
Access to references in your relevant field.
You will be doing something worthwhile and that you’re passionate about.
Like this post if you found this blog useful! Considering doing a work placement? Let us know in the comments below!
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Animal: I’m an Eagle!
