Help me make daughter stand out! Work experiance 2010

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi Guys!

I am in urgent need of help!

My daughter whom is currently 14 has been given her work experience dates for next year. The main place she wants to do her work experience only has 15 openings with over 2000 applicants applying each year. How can we make her stand out?

This is extremely important to her as it’s her lifelong ambition and it will take her places she so desperately wants to go.

She has been given 3 EXCELLENT references from her head of year, tutor for the past 3 years and head of Art Dpt. They have all given excellent credentials and have confirmed she is in line for 14 GCSE’s and what her life goals are.

I am thinking of a Portfolio type folder enclosing:


Her own personal statement
References x 3 from teachers etc
Copy of her latest report (shows effort, grades/scores, and punctuality etc)
Pictures of herself
Copies of her Art work which she is equivalent in A Level at and only 14

Is this going over the top? She is such a good girl and would love her to get this opportunity. As many know I am disabled and chronically ill and she keeps me going through the bad days when I just don’t want to be here anymore and give up. She is my everything and I don’t know how much longer I will be able to help her with stuff like this as my health is getting worse.

She has to send it off Sept 2009 for July 2010.

Any advice on this would be appreciated.

Thanks

PP
xx

weezl74

Hi,

Sometimes I think people remember things being presented in a different format. Could the portfolio maybe contain a memory stick/cd with a video clip of your daughter being 'interviewed' by the person holding the camera about why she'd be an excellent candidate?

It's harder to say 'no' to someone you've seen and heard!;)

HTH

Weezl x

princessamy86

What sort of work is it? If it's arty orientated then a video type thing is a great idea from weezl, but if it's more of a formal type of job then maybe the portfolio would be best.

Penny-Pincher!!

Thanks for the replies.

It's not formal. She wants to work with animals and is arty.

Actually, thinking about it...she did an RSPCA interview 2 months ago as part of a project at school and she could add this to a disc or stick and include that...it was excellent and covered animal cruelty.

PP
xx

princessamy86

Definitely put the RSPCA interview on a stick, that would be great! Make sure it gets done on powerpoint then they should be able to open it. Maybe she could do a brief intro, show the interview and then sum it up concisely with why she wants to do the job. I think the trick is not to make it too long, they will have a lot to wade through and she needs to get her point across in less than 5 minutes in my opinion. A brief summary of references and her report could be included on a separate sheet, which maybe she could decorate? A nice arty border around the edge would do it, I don't think including some artwork is particularly relevant (correct me if I'm wrong!). Wishing her the best of luck though!

Penny-Pincher!!

princessamy86 wrote: »

Definitely put the RSPCA interview on a stick, that would be great! Make sure it gets done on powerpoint then they should be able to open it. Maybe she could do a brief intro, show the interview and then sum it up concisely with why she wants to do the job. I think the trick is not to make it too long, they will have a lot to wade through and she needs to get her point across in less than 5 minutes in my opinion. A brief summary of references and her report could be included on a separate sheet, which maybe she could decorate? A nice arty border around the edge would do it, I don't think including some artwork is particularly relevant (correct me if I'm wrong!). Wishing her the best of luck though!

Thanks for all the helpful advice.

DD was thinking of decorating the A4 envelope to help it stand out. She is an excellent artist and can draw animals very well. The presentation is on powerpoint as it was shown to the whole year and is a healthy debate on the pros and cons of showing dogs and neglect/cruelty etc. It was in an interview form with a friend filming them.

Thanks again.

PP
xx

Ettenna

What a strange way of doing work experience. In our county (and the neighbouring one) it is all done on line with children marking several options in order of preference. There is no "applying for a certain job". Either that or getting your own placement. They don't know where they are going until a few weeks beforehand.

My eldest DD wanted to work with children so got herself a placement in a Primary school. She loved it.

My middle DD wants to be a PE teacher and got her placement working with 0-5 in a nursery. She was very apprehensive because she doesn't really get on with little children but she loved it in the end.

They have to remember that it is work experience (the experience of work) not a taster for what they think they want to do when they leave school. It is all about discipline, working with others, getting up and possibly working later than they are used to, doing as they are asked, etc.

princessamy86

They have to remember that it is work experience (the experience of work) not a taster for what they think they want to do when they leave school. It is all about discipline, working with others, getting up and possibly working later than they are used to, doing as they are asked, etc.

I have to say I would disagree with that, if penny pincher's daughter has a chance to try out a job that she potentially wants to build a career in then why not go for it? I went to Topshop, just reinforced that working in retail is not for me! I thought it would be fun, can't for the life of me think why. Yes it's about the things you mentioned, but if she can gain experience and get a better idea of whether or not it is the right field for her then so much the better.

the_cat

PP

Is their any way she could do some volunteer work for an animal charity over the summer holidays to get some relevant experience? Or possibly a local riding school etc (I used to work for one of these and we did take keen kids to help out and get some experience) She could then hopefully get a recommendation from them to add to her portfolio

t_obermory

If the placement is something art based then she definatly needs to do something creative with her application. When I was doing graphic design (at A level) we had a competition to make the most unusual CV, the one that won was a model of an oversized (old style) film canister where the CV wound out of it. Definatly try to get her to think 'outside of the box' what she does doesn't have to be confined to a piece of paper.

Unless she's applying for something IT orientated I'd be wary of sticking stuff on a disc as it could easily get put to one side to look at later and then forgotten about. She needs to do something that will make them remember her application.

Hth's!

Penny-Pincher!!

the_cat wrote: »

PP

Is their any way she could do some volunteer work for an animal charity over the summer holidays to get some relevant experience? Or possibly a local riding school etc (I used to work for one of these and we did take keen kids to help out and get some experience) She could then hopefully get a recommendation from them to add to her portfolio

Thanks for the reply.

DD is on a farm for 3 days in 2 weeks and is going to ask them for a referance too. She already has experiance working with animals.

PP
xx