The My Jotter Social Network has been specially developed for you so that you can interact with other students and educators, reaping the benefits of their knowledge, insights and advice.

This network should help you enormously when you are trying to digest information and ideas and should help you to prepare for your assignments and exams.

All you need to do is get involved.  If you have a specific interest or are currently studying a particular topic you can join the specific group to share experiences.

There are many benefits

• Speaking with students who are studying the same course can be a great motivation if you feel a little overwhelmed with things, or if you’re feeling a bit stressed out with the workload.  You’re never alone and getting involved can give you that ‘boost’ and encouragement to go the distance.
• If you are stuck on a particular issue, you have a network of ‘friends’ to whom you can turn to for help and advice.  They will be able to share their thoughts and help set you in the right direction, by sharing course notes and information. They may also suggest ideas which you had not previously considered! Likewise you can do the same for them!  Explaining a concept or knowledge of a specific subject matter to others helps reinforce your own understanding of it – this is a great confidence booster.
• Your study ‘friends’ can help you to adopt good study habits which you will find very useful.
• Interacting with others who are studying the same topics can make the course much more enjoyable – let’s face it, studying in isolation can be a little boring.  It’s great to meet like minded people and get inspiration from them.  You may end up becoming life long buddies with some of your study group members, and perhaps stick around to assist the next wave of students coming through.

We hope that you make the most of this unique network and that you reap all the benefits for becoming a member!

Finding the right career is vitally important as, lets face it, a huge proportion of your time is spent at work.  Therefore it’s essential to identify a career which is both stimulating and rewarding on all levels – with careful planning you can achieve that optimum work / life balance.

Rather than dive in feet first and start looking at specific careers its worth taking a step back and think about yourself as a person – our lives are so hectic that this is something we don’t often do.

In order to identify a suitable career for yourself, its essential that you spend some time really analysing yourself to identify what motivates, excites and interests you both in and outside work.  Also, think about what you actually are looking for from your career. From the list that you compile, you can then begin to match careers to your specific skills and interests.

For people who are considering their first leap onto the career ladder or those who are thinking of a change in career it can be difficult knowing where to start as there are so many options available.

As a starting point, you could try sitting down with a piece of paper and listing:

• all qualifications you have or are currently studying for.  Also include any courses that you have completed – even things like presentation skills, computer courses, team building courses are all valid here.
• all the jobs you have had including any voluntary work you may have participated in.
• your interests, hobbies, clubs or groups that you are involved with outside the working environment.
• all other significant life experiences – have you ever done something that you now look back on as changing or confirming the direction of your life? Think about things like travelling, relationships, family etc.

Once you have compiled this initial list ask yourself the following questions:

• Why did you choose to do these things? What was your motivation for each?
• Which experiences in each have you really enjoyed and as a consequence made you feel happy and fulfilled?
• Likewise, which experiences frustrated or bored you?
• What do you think challenged you in each and brought out the best in your character and abilities?
• What aspects did others state that they valued your input and valued you for your involvement?
• What do your friends, family and colleagues think you are good at – sometimes its hard to see this for yourself so ask them! Their opinions can help.

From making these lists and analysing each aspect you should start to see some patterns emerging: you should be able to identify the skills that you are great at and that you enjoy using, the environment that you find stimulating and which you perform at your optimum level and the people you like to surround yourself.  This will give you some clarity and will assist you matching a career to your personality and skill set.