Helping Earth Sciences Students to Develop Key Skills:
a portfolio of curriculum exercises

Chapter Three:Long Exercises

Introduction

Sample Exercise 1: The Process of Career Management

Sample Exercise 2: The Dynamics of Career Management

Sample Exercise 3: The Interview Process

Portfolio

Introduction

In essence, the whole of this portfolio could be sub-titled 'Career Management' because all the sections are designed to empower students to manage their careers effectively. However, we felt that certain activities were best suited to be used in tutorials under the stand-alone theme of Career Management. In the first part of the section we will restrict ourselves to an analysis of the Career Action Planning cycle (see Section on 'The Processes of Career Management & Personal Profiling'). We encourage students to assess:

• Where they are NOW (self analysis exercise)
• Where they want to be in the FUTURE (goal setting for 2, 5 and 10 years down the line)
• How they can GET THERE (the actual planning stage to achieve their goals)
• The process of GETTING THERE (the action stage which is entirely in their own hands)
• Their PROGRESS (self evaluation)

In the second part of this section, we look at the 'Dynamics of Career Management' with emphasis on the process for Geoscientists. In this section, we attempt to give students the practical tools to build a bridge between the Career Action Planning process and the interiew process. We have regularly referred the students to the expert careers advisors, rather than attempt to cover techniques such as job search strategies, general CV, covering letter and application writing, psychometric tests and interview skills ourselves. The exercises examine how students can tailor their applications to particular jobs or employers working on the basis that CVs, covering letters and SAFs are flexible rather than set in stone once written.

The third and final part of this section gives a brief insight into 'The Interview Process'. Students are encouraged to design and run a panel interview to become familiar with both sides of the process: interviewing and being interviewed. This section ends with an exercise that summarises the entire process.

How to use this section.
We recommend tutors introduce students to this section at an early stage in the first year so that they get used to assessing their personal profiles as part of their learning culture. The section is laid out in the recommended order. We have found that the tutorial system is the most effective way of addressing career management issues although a number of the exercises can be used as stand-alone material. Alternatively, if better suited to your needs, the section can take the form of an intensive 2-day Career Management programme that could be run with students in the second semester of Year 2.

This is the time when we have found that students find this material most relevant. However, it should be noted that best results are achieved if the students have experienced this type of self-analysis in their learning culture earlier in their course, rather than being exposed to it for the first time in this intensive format. A suggested format for such a programme would be:

Sample Exercise 1. The Process of Career Management

Exercise: The Student Values Audit

Tutor's Notes
Aims:

• To outline the importance of life values in choosing a career;
• To provide a mechanism by which students can assess their life values and consequently provide the second building block of their personal profile.

Methodology

• Outline the importance of being aware of your values in life as a key element of planning a career. Use the example that if one of your main life values is to work 9-5 in the same place for the rest of your life, then an exploration geologist is probably not for you!
• Stress the need to complete the values audit honestly and individually for maximum worth.
• Explain the methodology of the exercise (as detailed on the exercise sheet)
• Inform the students that the recommended timings should be 15 mins to assess the values and 10 mins to complete the analysis.

Debrief

• Concentrate on the key areas of the seven categories and build up a picture of each student's life values.
• Stress that life values will not change so much with time as the skills will. Therefore, it is not as critical to revisit this exercise as often as the skills audit.
• You may wish to examine each of the student's values audit individually and give practical advice on the potential career paths that match up with their values.

ACTION ARROW >>>> At this stage the student would benefit from discussing their values audits with a careers advisor who could provide information on potential career paths to match life values.

Sample Exercise 2. The Dynamics of Career Management

Exercise: The Competent Geoscientist

Tutor's Notes
Aims

• To familiarise students with the format of job advertisements.
• To encourage students to unpack the advertisement and decide what skills/qualities are being asked for.
• To compile a list of the most common key skills and technical skills asked for in Geoscience job advertisements.

Methodology

• Tell students that one of the most common mistakes made by students when applying for jobs is that they do not tailor their job applications to the job advertisement. Employers usually make it easier for applicants by telling them the skills they require, so students should always stress these skills in applications. This exercise allows students the opportunity to read a number of adverts and see which skills are asked for most frequently.
• Task 1: Categorise each of the advertisements into 'public sector' or 'private sector'. The private sector jobs can be further broadly categorised into 'minerals industry', 'hydrocarbons industry', 'environmental', 'geophysical contracting', etc.
• Task 2: Read all the job adverts and list all the skills asked for as follows: (a) Technical (Geoscientific) skills and (b) key skills.
• Task 3: Decide on the "top ten" skills you think are required for a competent Geoscientist.

Debrief

• The technical skills will depend on the sub-category of job, e.g. a hydrocarbon development geologist may require different technical skills to an environmental geophysicist.
• Many of the "top ten" will be key skills rather than technical skills, highlighting the fact that a "Competent Geoscientist" is one who not only has technical ability but, essentially, has a broad range of high level key skills. Therefore, it is crucial that these are highlighted and evidenced in your applications.

Sample Exercise 3: The Interview Process

Exercise: Constructing an Interview

Tutor's Notes
Aims

• To familiarise students with the process of designing an interview and therefore help them prepare them for the interview process.

Methodology

• Task 1: Obtain a student volunteer from the group to be interviewed. Ask this person to submit their CV, SAF and covering letter as application for their chosen job. This person will have a 15 minute panel interview (next exercise) which the remainder of the group will now construct under your supervision.
• Task 2: Analyse the job advertisement and devise a list of key points you want to test during questioning at the interview (the list of person/job specs in the advert should help here!). Do not write any questions at this stage.
• Task 3: Read the student application and pick out interesting and relevant parts that you would like to ask questions on.
• Task 4: Devise a set of questions based on the information from Task 2 and 3.
• Task 5: Once you have the question, decide who will ask which questions and agree on an assessment strategy. The panel should now have a formal interview structure and you can proceed to the next exercise.

Note: Tasks 2-5 are performed by the student panel under the guidance of the tutor.

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