Changes...

It's funny how I started this blog determined to become an Investment analyst and nine months later I'm not even sure. I think one thing I'm sure about is that I would love to go work for a large corporate business. I still have time to decide what I want to do but the most important thing now is to get into a good university studying Economics. An economics degree will allow me to go into any non- specialist job of my choice so there's a lot of options out there for me. The organiser of my work experience in July gave me some good advice about what I should do in the future. My aim now is when I reach my penultimate year in university I must apply for a graduate scheme. Then I should work really hard and a few years later I will be at a point where I can slow down, settle down in life and be financially comfortable. I just hope that works out :)

Shell work experience (9th July- 20th July)

I got the chance to do 2 weeks work experience at Shell petroleum company. I went into the building on the first day expecting to be sorting out spreadsheets and spending the whole day sitting at a desk but I was very mistaken.

The building has 25 floors and it may not seem good looking on the outside but the inside is really beautiful.

This is the desk I spent two weeks at. I really enjoyed working at Shell it made me realise that investment banking is not the only option out there and I honestly wouldn't mind working in any department in a corporate firm. During the two weeks I got to take part in a photography project with the other seven students on work experience where we had to take images of people using internet capable portable devices whilst incorporating the red and yellow theme of Shell. I had an exteremely great time doing that task as I realised it allowed us to get out of the office and interact with each other.

                                        

Another task I was involved in is the phone interviews. I was part of a team that had to interview members of the offer-to-cash global commercial departments in various countries questioning them on their time on a holiday they won after being a winner of a internal competition. We were given a list of questions to ask them and we had to write down the answers given. Some issues we came across are language barriers and people not answering their phones when we rang them. After the phone calls it was then our job to type up the interviews in a question and answer format which was going to be used in the Shell magazine.

I really enjoyed myself and I learnt a lot from it. On the last day we had to present group presentations that we made. Personally, I'm not confident talking in front of others but I think I've improved. I learnt that I should always keep eye contact with the audience, smile when someone else is talking and avoid saying "um" because that was a problem with the whole group. I would love to go back and I think I will just to help out with the next cohort.

January exam results!

So last week Thursday (8th March) I got the results for my January exams.

Economics Unit 2: D

Government and Politics: U

Maths C1: B

Maths C2: A

Further maths D1: D

I wasn't very pleased with my results especially my Government and Politics result. I never even expected to get a 'U' grade as I was predicted to get a 'B' grade. The only set of results I was proud of was my maths results where I got an 'A' and a 'B'. Consequently, I came to a very hasty decision to drop one of my subjects but after a lot of thinking and decision making today I made my choice to continue my five subjects through to the end of AS. This means I have to take a lot of sacrifices and potentially a few risks but all I have to do is put my mind to it and I will get the grades I want in August. One lesson I have learnt this past week is if something goes wrong for example you don't get the results you want it's not the end of the world. There is always a way out so don't panic and just start again but learn from your mistakes :). Nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it.

Realising Opportunities- National Conference at Leicester Uni

Yesterday (4/01/2012) me and six other students from my college attended the Realising Opportunities conference at Leicester University. There were a few problems in getting there but once we arrived we go to meet our mentors briefly and pick up prospectuses from universities linked to the programme. Luckily enough for me, two universities that I maybe potentially applying to (Exeter and Essex) were there and my mentor is studying the course that I want to which is Economics and Politics. I must make sure that I make the most of the time she has to mentor me. We also managed to get a talk/motivational speech from an advisor David Hodgson. That was the highlight of my day as I learnt a lot about myself during that hour and the speaker's book is absolutely amazing. He manages to help you find out your true personality and how to approach situations and build up your self esteem. I must admit I do get stressed and I think quite bad about myself but this book has made me realise that I don't want to wake up one day and feel like I haven't fulfilled my dreams or lived life to the fullest. He also has a website which is http://www.thebuzzbook.co.uk/index.php?page=test. Due to the bad weather the day was cut short and I only got to attend one workshop which was to get help in writing my personal statement. I managed to obtain a few tips from the speaker and I hope I can write an absolutely amazing one.

I am extremely pleased that I've got on to the programme and there's two more opportunities that are in my horizon also. I am currrently applying for the LSE (London School of Economics)  Choice programme where I get to pick a course I would like to study preferrably Economics and attend summer school for one week then 16 Saturday sessions afterwards then Morgan Stanley, which is an investment bank are offering a 3-day insight programme for females in year 12/13. I really do hope I get into both of them and once I do find out I will make sure I'll make a post about it.

I will also post more about Realising opportunities.

The opportunities are out there you just have to look for them and you'll find it :).