Sharing experiences of job applications

[LaraHuzjan]

Break into groups of 3-5 and share between yourselves what your experience of finding employment? This can be any job/application you've done.

Discuss as a group, what the differences in your experiences are, there may be differences in:

• How you found out about the role (word of mouth, online, through friends and family, newspaper etc.)
• How you applied for the role (met the manager, handed in a CV in person, online, through an app etc.)
• Your interview experience (or lack of one?) - (informal discussion, formal interview, behavioural/technical tests, psychometric tests etc.)

Come back as to the main group and discuss the differences you found between the people in the group.

Stretch discussion:

• Discuss how you think the job application process for a software developer might be similar/different to your experiences
• Discuss the benefits/fall back of different application processes
• Discuss what skills you might need to develop to improve your application skills

Task for the Coaches - Active listening to the trainees' experiences

• How do they differ from your expectations?
• Does everyone have similar experiences or are they varied?
• What differences can you see between the trainees' experiences and what they'll experience apply for dev roles?
• What strengths and weaknesses can you see in relation to applying for a Dev role?

[LaraHuzjan]

This is a new exercise targeted at Coaches and their trainees'. It's a useful exercise for the PD coaches early in the course (HTML/CSS maybe?). It should benefit the trainees but also be a good primer for the coaches.