Written by Jem Knight, a 3rd year History student
Being in my final year at Lincoln, I have found myself having more “what am I doing with my life!!” moments, so I decided to book an appointment with the careers advice service. This post will hopefully convince a few more students to make the same choice I did and take some more control over their future career journey! In my case, I know the career path I would like to take so I booked an appointment to help with concerns I have about accessibility in the workplace, having a diagnosis of ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and a chronic illness. The careers service allows you to tailor your appointment to the areas you are the most concerned about to maximise the help you can get in your appointment. They do this by asking a couple of multiple choice questions on their appointment booking page, which you can get access to once you have logged into https://careers.lincoln.ac.uk/.
When booking an appointment and narrowing down what you would like to talk about they will also find an advisor best suited to your needs - in my case an accessibility advisor - so that the advisor you are talking to will also have a deeper understanding from the start about what you may be coming to them about. At this stage you can also decide if you would like an in person or online (run though Microsoft Teams) appointment. For me I chose to have mine done via Teams as I find in person meetings with new people stressful at times and it also guaranteed that I could attend even if I was feeling unwell on the day.
Another brilliant thing about the careers advice service is that it is completely confidential (unless there is concern for your wellbeing) so there is no worries about your appointment being something that anyone will know about, unless you decide to share how well it went with your friends!
In regards to the actual running of the appointment, meetings are 40 minutes in length, though there is no pressure to use up the entire time. On the flipside, if you feel you didn't get to talk about everything then you can book another appointment to pick up where you left off. They are an impartial advice service and cannot offer concrete suggestions to students but can refer students to services they are partnered with who will be able to do more than offer advice. In my case I was referred to EmployAbility, a service that helps disabled students and recent graduates with issues such as reasonable adjustments in the workplace, educating them on their rights and working with them during different stages of job applications, such as when to tell a potential employer about a health condition or disability.
As well as having an incredibly helpful appointment with the careers advice service, my main takeaway is that I hope students take the opportunity to meet with the advisers while they are here at university. If you are anxious about going into the job market, have accessibility requirements you would like to go through, or would just like to talk through your career ideas and the path you may need to take to get to them, I can honestly say that the careers advice service is here for you.
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