If you need a copy of the insurance letter, it can be downloaded from the 'latest news' page of the blog.
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I spent my two weeks of work experience working in two very different areas, cooking and working in an architect firm. Both of which I enjoyed thoroughly. My first week was spent at “Studio D” which is an architect firm. I had always had an interest in buildings and in both art and T.G which are equally important in this field of work. My work began at 9:30 every day, however I always seemed to arrive earlier than some of the staff which I learnt was not necessary as the working environment was quite relaxed. On my first day I drew up plans for the building in which we worked and then transferred it onto the computer. I also spent a few days working in interior designs and visited a few sites over the course of the week which were very interesting. Over-all I found the week very interesting and extremely beneficial. For my second week my cousin Nick and I spent the week working in the kitchens of “Ballymaloe” cookery school. We were extremely lucky to get a place at such a prestigious school and were honoured to have had such an opportunity. Because of its location in Cork we stayed the week in a B&B just minutes from the school which was very handy especially in the mornings. At the beginning we were given very mundane jobs like cleaning and chopping vegetables but as the week went on they gave us more responsibilities and we made some recipes. At lunch we would eat the food prepared by students taking the 12 week course. The food that week was delicious. We spent the afternoons looking in on the demonstrations given by the head chef or by one of the famous Allen family. The whole thing was a great experience although I was a bit disappointed with the amount of cooking we did but I suppose cleaning is part of the job! The two weeks of work experience were insightful and eye-opening. I learnt many things like how it’s important to be polite to your colleagues until you have become comfortable enough with them and know them well enough. I also have some brilliant memories. The one I definitely won’t forget was Nick almost chopping his finger of at Ballymaloe. Text: KS For my work experience I worked in the Four Seasons Hotel in Ballsbridge. This work experience appealed to me because I was curious to see how a hotel operates , and how the different departments worked and what they did for the guests.
In my favourite department, room service, I was given tasks such as preparing a trolley, setting the table, bringing the dishes and cutlery to the stewarding department to be cleaned, cleaning up the workplace and refreshing the rooms ( this involved polishing and cleaning all glasses and also making sure the coffee facilities were in place. The longer I was there the more they trusted me and gave me tasks to do on my own. These included going around in the morning collecting all the trolleys and trays that had the left overs from the night before or taking the amenities orders. I learned that obviously punctuality is very important, you should always leave home early in case you miss the bus. I also learned to greet everyone you see. Always be confident, if you have a question ask or if you think something is wrong, tell them. No matter what, you should give 100% because it makes everything easier for you and for everyone else working with you . Be polite and ask if people need help with anything. I found working at Room Service was very time consuming , interesting and complicated at times. There are only 3 people working at once, because of this there is always something to be done and this makes your day go very quickly. I like to think I was professional in my work and that I don't stress out in pressurized situations. I would one day like to return there to work there part-time during college because it is a great job with good pay and wonderful people. Text: LKG I did my work experience at Roughan & O’Donovan a civil engineering company in Sandyford. I got this placement because I sent a letter outlining why I would like the opportunity to work there and I also sent them a copy of my Curriculum Vitae (CV).This work experience first appealed to me because I was interested in becoming an engineer and I wanted to experience a wider variety of engineering.
I was assigned to the print room for the day, in which I did small jobs like making coffee for the directors while they were in meetings, getting the post from reception and giving it out, printing and binding documents for engineers. My boss’ name was John, who was in charge of the print room and doing the jobs listed. Also, every day I went to two engineers, one before 12 pm and one after. These engineers told me and showed me what projects they did and were currently working on. I even had the chance to go on-site with an environmental engineer. We went to a railway line and scanned up and down, taking pictures of buildings that would be affected by dust created by the rebuilding of the railway. I learned that in the world of work if you make one mistake, you may have to do it all over again, regardless of how long it took and will take. I also learned that you must be punctual, enthusiastic and polite every day, especially if you are dealing with customers. I learned that there is a very wide variety of engineering inside civil engineering alone. These include structural engineering, environmental engineering and geometrical engineering. I also learned that work environments can go from safe to unsafe very quickly, along with relaxed to stressful. I learned that my strengths include: being decisive, having an ability to work in long stretches and finding solutions quickly. I also learned that I am ambitious to work in bridge design, because I enjoy working with computers and designing things; I really would enjoy this as a profession. Text: FT Between the 7th and 11th of October I went down to Schull, west cork to do a sailing training week. My five training partners and I stayed in the accommodation above the sailing centre. We had Lithuanian coach called Giedrius Guzys, he was given the nickname sunny though.
We spent six days intensively training .This included sailing, fitness and video analysis of our training on the water. None of our parents were staying with us so we had to cook for ourselves...mostly pasta. I was sorted though because of my exceptional pasta making skills learned in Home Ec for the Junior Cert! The main focus of the week was on boathandling, which envolves tacking, gybing and rounding marks, along with slow speed manoeuvres on the starting line. Unfortunately this involved getting dunked into the water ... A LOT! Overall the week was a lot of fun, it was hard work but I learnt loads. If this sounds like your thing, check out UCD's TY Physics Week. See the details on our 'latest news' page or check out www.ucd.ie/physics
Are you interested in aviation, aviation technology, aerospace engineering etc.? If so, you might be interested in Trade Air's offer of a one hour trip in a Fokker F-100 followed by a one-hour Q+A session with the crew and a chance to look over the aircraft's cockpit, engine and undercarriage. At a cost of €99, this is definitely for the dedicated enthusiast. For more information check out www.facebook/AirlinerExperience. While January may seem like a long way off, you need to make sure you have your work experience organised. So if you've been putting it on the long finger, you need to getting moving. Check out the link in the presentation for parents to find out more. Ms Fitzpatrick is running a careers module alongside the Home Economics module but you can make an appointment if you need more information.
I probably had the best two weeks I’m going to have this year whilst on work experience. I did my first week in RTE and my second week in a whole host of places such as the criminal courts, a TV production company, a TV and advertising post production house, a sound engineer's and a radio show. I would guess it’s safe to say I had one of the most varied experiences out of my year.
On the first day of the first week I came into RTE eager and nervous, wearing a freshly ironed shirt and a new tie. I was then briskly shoved into a car With a camera man named Padraig and a reporter named Coleman. We went to a press conference about litter and clean towns - it was safe to say it wasn’t as exciting as I had dreamt of but I was with two great guys and I learned a lot. I then went out with an RTE satellite van, a different cameraman and a different reporter to shoot a live segment for the Six-One News. The week that followed was packed with adventure, excitement, reports and a host of rotating RTE officials but one of my friends joined me for 3 of the days. On Tuesday I worked a 12 hour day on Prime Time. On the Wednesday I was covering the BT Young Scientist with 3 different branches of RTE - News2day, Mooney Goes Wild and the Six-One News. On the Thursday I was an extra on Fair City and on Friday I covered Ireland having the European Presidency for 6 months. Then started week two, I spent the first two days in the Criminal Courts together with another of the Transition Year students. We watched a court case about a young boy who had been stabbed two years prior and died. It was a very interesting experience but law I subsequently decided, is not for me. I then worked with a TV production company called Piranha Bar that edit TV ads and do anything you could ask for in media. I l loved Piranha Bar. I could work there tomorrow, with no pay for 12 hours a day, 5 days a week and still love it! It was by far the highlight of my week simply because it involved computers, amazing people and it just could not have gone better. Work experience was nothing like I thought it was going to be, it was exciting and people were helpful. It showed me the positive side of human nature. It's the people that I'll remember from those two weeks, the sheer fact that not all people are rude and abrupt but most are genuinely nice and caring. Text: H.L. It was my first day of work experience in Dundrum garda station, I started on the Friday before everyone else. I arrived at the front desk at around ten o’clock which is when I started. Then I was told to come up stairs, when I got upstairs Kevin sat me down at a desk with a computer. I thought to myself 'this doesn’t look fun', but he opened up this video with surveillance from Dundrum. I was looking through all the videos of people taking stuff from shops. I thought it was really cool. Then suddenly we got a call from someone to say that we need to be in town, so we got in the car and left for town. When we got there, we went into a jewellery shop and I was very confused as to why we were there. They explained that we needed to search the place for a piece of jewellery but we couldn’t look for it until we got a search warrant. So we waited for a bit not letting anyone into the shop. When our search warrant came the guards started to search the shop top to bottom. After a few hours we found what we were looking for so after that I was dropped home but there were still a few guards there cleaning up when I left and that was only day one of five days! The second day I came in for the same time but that day was different because I only went out in the car. It was a very quiet day and that was the same for all of the days bar the last day. I was told the day before to come in at six. I was working the late shift and what I did was go around in the car from six till twelve. It felt cool being in the back of a unmarked guard car at night but nothing really happened that night bar a few people speeding and that was it. Text: J.B. |
AuthorChoose a job you love, and you will never have to Archives
January 2015
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