Michael's job log: 1
Michael Litman found himself in full-time employment on 12 June 2008 having finished university a mere two weeks before. It shows that the seemingly unexpected can happen, assisted by determination, drive and self-belief. On 30 May he found out he got the one job he wanted from the mountain of applications made. He didn't think that within two weeks he would be moving to a new city, knowing no one, with no place to live and starting work, all in order to get on the career ladder. Michael's first post begins here... Getting the ball rolling  I've been asked to put together my experiences of past and present in blog form and I have to say it's been something I've really been wanting to do yet at the same time not knowing where to start. Where do you start when you've been in some form of education all your life? I've been thinking about questions like what experiences have I been through that people will want to hear about and which will encourage them to continue reading week after week? I'd obviously like to establish a following and ensure that readers are getting some value from each piece.
I find it the easiest thing in the world to talk and write about something other than the topic I probably know most about, me. So when I was asked to do this I was excited, I am excited but looking at this blank document and bringing the words to life is harder than you think. I basically have a blank canvas and am tasked with painting you a picture, a pretty picture full of life and colour. Will it turn out to be a horrible mess or a Da Vinci? Let's see. Before I go into deep and meaningful mode and start on my voyage of self-discovery and how previous experiences at School/College/University have formed the person I am today, I'll tell you a bit about me and some background. So, a little about me I'm twenty-one, from Nottingham and achieved a 2:1 when I completed a four-year BA in Marketing with Professional Experience. The professional experience bit basically means I did a 13-month industrial placement within a company undertaking a role relevant to my degree. I did this at a well known IT company as a Market Analyst from July 2006-August 2007. Following on, I went back to university in September 2007 to complete my fourth and final year and finished university on May 30th. Bizarrely, soon after, I found myself in employment in my dream job, with an unconditional offer before I'd even got my degree results which weren't available until a month after on June 30th. I now work for one of the most well known retailers in e-commerce working in marketing and social media. Going from my comfort zone at university to starting a full-time job two weeks later I found it to be an incredible uphill task and a culture shock. Most of my friends are taking a year out and travelling and maybe then considering employment within the year following so in comparison I'm doing things in Fast-Forward! I've never made things easy for myself, choosing to learn the hard way but ultimately for me it seems to be the most rewarding way. Was I supposed to go from 'Student Bum' to 'Young Professional' in such a short period of time? I wondered how I would do it and still three weeks into the job I wonder how in the long term i''ll adapt to the working life. Although I have experience of the working world on my Industrial Placement year I always had it in the back of my mind that after a year I had that safety blanket of going back to University to do my final year. With this, I always knew it wasn't going to be forever. Now, this time around, it's a little different. I have an actual job, a proper job, I like to call it where I'm not classed as an Intern but a bona fide employee. And here's where the start of the rest of my life begins. I hope you''ll be here to share it with me.
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