The Sneaky Student

Career – Sort Yours Out Now!

Lucy — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:48:44 +0000

At the back of every Uni students mind is the thought that the surreal sheltered world of Uni is going to give way at some point to harsh reality. What’s more YOUR GOING TO HAVE TO GET A JOB. The chances are if you’re at Uni you don’t plan on getting just any old job and spending the rest of your days asking ‘would you like fries with that?’. Whatever stage you’re at in your degree you need to be thinking about what skills and requirements you need to meet to get your dream career. Here are the top tips to sort your future out:

1. Decide what you want to do – Very few individuals know exactly what they want to do with their career path. There is no definite one answer, don’t be afraid to try something and change after you realise you hate it. If you truly have no clue what to do get yourself down to careers fairs and visit recruitment stands on campus, these companies will be happy to provide you with as much information as you want on specific roles offered within their company, this will give you a plethora of jobs to wade through and choose and reject as appropriate! If you still have no clue I went through the Uni graduate job vacancy list and found my ideal career lurking on there. However you do it, the earlier you decide what you want to do the longer you have to prepare

2. Research – Once you’ve decided it’s probably best to do as much background reading as you can in the specific job/company you have chosen. Even better than reading is speaking to a real life individual who does the job, they can offer you unlimited insight into what exactly your chosen career entails and might help you decide whether you want to spend the next 45 years doing it!

3. Get external help – Go and see your tutors and careers staff, they are there to help. They have probably seen others trying to do what your doing and may be able to offer you advise and tips that are not readily available anywhere else. Listen to what they have to say, keeping on their good side may open up a wide variety of contacts and opportunities, use everything you can to help you get started in your career.

4. Ensure you tick all the boxes (and a few extra ones!) – All jobs require more than just a degree, transferable skills and other specifics are normally necessary, my chosen career for example requires a reading level in French and German – guess what I’m doing at the weekends! By being as qualified as you can possibly be for your job you are making your life immeasurably easier once the time to apply for jobs comes around.

Obviously this isn’t a comprehensive list of everything you can do to guarantee your dream career but it is a good start; there are plenty of other things you can be doing. Remember though at your interview it is far better to be yourself and totally honest than lie through your teeth and put on an all singing, all dancing show. You will be employed as yourself and because you are the best candidate for the job, so try and relax and dazzle them with your natural charm. Hopefully you’re all getting back into the swing of university life, so now is a good time to start investing in your future to give yourself the best chance of landing your perfect career. Good Luck!

Why Fiction Should Be Required Reading

Alex — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 08:14:14 +0000

There is at least one assignment to finish, exams are always around the corner – when you may ask are uni students supposed to read for pleasure? However you manage it; in the bath, just before bed, on the bus it doesn’t matter as long as you do squeeze it in. I love to read, in the holidays I can quite easily whiz through a good chick lit novel every couple of days but the minute I return to my uni city it grinds to an immediate halt.

I’ve realised that I shouldn’t let this happen, every book is an escape into another world it activates your imagination and stimulates your creativity. Reading as a past time is dying out among young adults and even more depressingly amongst children.

The getaway

Novels act as a portal into another time, place and experience. Your imagination is a powerful tool, but there’s no harm in using it to escape once in a while: everyone needs downtime. I’ve only recently got back into reading fiction (it is just after the holidays after all!), and started with The Picture of Dorian Gray. Bringing back memories of reading it when I was younger as well as making me want to read more varying novels, I’ve decided next I’m going to branch out into The Time Travellers Wife. There doesn’t need to be any pattern or logic to your pick of fiction it is simply a case of choosing whatever you fancy and enjoying it.

Knowledge gathering

The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of the past centuries. Descartes

Despite reading fiction being a pleasurable fun activity the vocabulary and language structure you can gain subconsciously can benefit you throughout your life. With the plethora of electronic gadgets distracting people from reading the future is looking bleak for a wide and interesting vocabulary. There are various studies taking place that link reading to all sorts of benefits including better self-confidence, easier job obtaining and all sorts of unlikely things.

Whether these studies prove conclusive or not, there is one reason why you should turn off the TV for half an hour and lose yourself in a novel – it’s fun! This is one of the best ways to spend half an hour, I defy you to find anything better than sitting in front of a fire on a horrible winter day lost in a good book! Whenever you get the chance, try your hardest to read at least one book this holiday, be it in your lunch break, commute, or at home relaxing. Enjoy!

Top Tips to beat Freshers Flu

Lucy — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:00:14 +0000

So you’re having a wild time, out every night partying and having the best week of your life. Then reality hits, lectures start and the dreaded freshers flu kicks in. Here are the top 5 best ways to avoid being struck down…..

Eat well – no-one actually achieves five a day at uni, but if you try to hit at least 3 then you are on your way to helping fight off all those nasty bugs floating around. Try and balance your diet so that it includes pulses, dairy and lean meat; this will ensure that you build up your immune system sufficiently to fight off the freshers flu!

Multi-vitamins – not instead of but as well as a healthy diet these will boost you up on the vitamins and minerals you’re missing out on and give you that extra boost to keep healthy and on top of all those lectures, seminars and tutorials.

Exercise – not only will this help you to boost the old endorphins and make you feel great but it will also help you build up valuable immunity and boost your blood flow, helping your white blood cells attack those nasty viruses super quickly. A must to keep healthy, even taking the stairs instead of the lift will help your immune system out!

Sleep – it doesn’t matter whether you manage to get the full 8 hours a night, but try not to build up too much of a sleep debt. Sleep is the time when your body repairs itself and in preventing illness it’s best to be in peak physical condition, sleep not only makes you feel good it’s required to bump up your immunity!

Hygiene – I’m not saying you should go O.C.D and start cleaning door handle and refusing to touch things you haven’t sterilised but just keep on eye on how grubby and invested things you touch might be and wash your hands before putting them near your mouth. So after a bus ride or going through a particularly public area make sure you wash your hands before lunch.

Whether you do one or all of these tips, they will hopefully give you some help in avoiding the dreaded freshers flu and allow you to continue your trail of partying and having fun. Just don’t forget to get to the lectures in the morning! Let us know if any of these tips help you out…..

Top tips to Survive Freshers…..

Lucy — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:21:57 +0000

Freshers is the highlight of pretty much everyones first year at uni, these 4 tips are here to help ease you through what will be one of the highlights of your uni career;

Be available; from the minute you arrive leave your door open and say hi to everyone you see, you may think this makes you look over eager and way to keen but I promise everyone just wants to make friends. If you collect a massive group of acquaintances in freshers then you can spend the next few weeks whittling them down to a core group, if however you leave it till after freshers you have to try and nudge into ready formed friend groups – why make life difficult for yourself?!
Don’t drink too much; a stupid tip in freshers I know but first impressions count. Do you want to be remembered as the idiot who passed out in the street and vommed everywhere? You also don’t know people well enough to expect them to hold your hair while you puke! Drink by all means but stay within your limits and just have an awesome time instead. True ‘cool’ people won’t care if you don’t finish the entire row of shots, prats will!
Go to everything; after all the late nights and partying don’t forget to go to all your inductions and enrolments. These are crucial so you know what is going on after the fun of freshers. This is the first time your departments meet you so at least bother to turn up! Ensure you have any paperwork you need and MAKE SURE YOU SET THE ALARM!
Have a ball; freshers is for fun. Play as many games as you can and fully embrace every fancy dress opportunity. This is your chance to let your hair down and celebrate the start of your new independent life! This is your chance to make impressions on your new flatmates even if partying isn’t your thing join or you’ll get the reputation as a kill joy. Don’t be pushed into doing things you don’t want, just make sure you’re having a good time and meeting as many new interesting people as possible.

Enjoy freshers week, grab as many freebies at the freshers fair as you can and most importantly make friends for life! Get back to us with your experiences of your freshers week. Now, go party!

Best Student Bank Account Autumn 2011

Alex — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:36:02 +0000

It’s coming up to the time of year when it’s best to sort out next Uni years finances; whether your a fresher or not it’s best to check you’re getting the best deal out there.

Here are the guidelines to ensuring you get the most for your money and ultimately can afford an extra pint or two!

1. Get the most money on you can on a 0% overdraft – As long as you have the UCAS offer letter in hand most banks will be able to open your student account now, why wait until you’re trying to pack or even worst until you arrive when you can have it all sorted now?! Another plus being you can start using it straight away

I’m now going to point out that this 0% overdraft is NOT free money, you have to pay it back at some point so don’t go mad, it is useful to have if you’re going to be clever with it!

2. Utilise everything your bank will give you – if you do get a large 0% overdraft that you know you won’t require mid way through the year then use the money to make money! Depending on how long you have the overdraft for an ISA or similar scheme can earn you interest and at the end you just pay back the overdraft with a little extra spending money in your pocket!

3. Free gifts aren’t always worth it – Some student bank accounts offer gimmicky free gifts like rail cards or insurance. However if their overdraft and rates are rubbish then it’s so not worth the effort. For the sake of a £30 rail card you can earn way more by implementing stage two so don’t get blinded by all the shiny paraphanalia that banks shove under your nose.

4. Do your homework – a quick search of price comparison websites can save hours tramping up the high street. Moneysupermarket.com can give an overview of current and student accounts that could save you time and effort and allow more time in the beautiful sunny weather (!). Money saving expert is also an excellent website they have last years best student accounts tabled and hopefully will update to this years soon, surprisingly Co-op came out top with the best deal – somewhere most of you probably wouldn’t have bothered looking.

This is one of the easiest ways to save and even make money at uni, there are however some rules:

Never ever go over your overdraft limit – astronomical fees and bank charges, up to £35! Also beware of your 0% limit some accounts offer you a large overdraft with only some covered by the 0% and the rest with stupidly large interest rates guaranteed to sting you if you’re not careful.
Don’t borrow the whole whack unless you are using it in a saving scheme to earn interest, you WILL have to pay it back and it’s one less headache on graduation if you don’t have to add a massive overdraft to your uni debts.
This overdraft malarkey WILL count towards your credit score so be reasonably sensible. You will be rated on all your financial data so any massive overdrawing or stupid mistakes could cost you loads in the future, a messy credit rating will be hard to rectify so it’s just easier to be sensible and stick within the limits!
Learn to budget without your overdraft, your overdraft should never be counted as income. It’s should only be there as a backup, in case of emergencies or a short term quick cash option that you have the income to repay.

The ultimate message is shop around and look deeply into what you are being offered. Some of the superficial bells and whistles are rubbish compared to the rates offered by other establishments. Please don’t spend all of your overdraft or even worse go over the limit, if you think this is likely do what I do; have your student account just for your student loan and a normal no overdraft current account as your main account, that way you can’t spend money you don’t have!

Always remember as the customer you hold all the power, keep looking for the best deal and don’t be afraid to swap. After graduation don’t just stick with the same bank because it’s easier, look around for the best graduate bank account and ensure you get the best for your money. Good Luck, let me know if you find an excellent deal out there that you can recommend to others.

How to do battle in the sales

Alex — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:31:36 +0000

This is the perfect time of year to stock up on essentials you’re gonna need for your coming year at uni, be it clothing, kitchenware or electricals. The added bonus being it’s summer sales time – you can nab them all for a bargain price!

There are so caveats to the above statement though!

Things are only a bargain if you actually need them – there is no point buying clothes to grow into/lose weight to fit into. These will sit unused in your wardrobe and remind you what a failure you are at gaining/losing weight. Don’t do it to yourself. Buy things that you’ve tried on and you know fit well.

Buy quality while it’s affordable – by spending you’re normal clothes budget in full it may not seem like you’re getting a bargain but by buying designer you are ensuring the clothes will last longer and in most cases will fit better and allow you to look your best all the time.

Buy Practical – boring thought it may seem, white at uni is never a good idea. So instead by bedding and towels that disguise rather than emphasise a stain or mark. Another plus of doing this is that these colours and patterns tend to end up in the sales as most people play it safe. I’m not suggesting you buy some hideous psychedelic print or all dull grey but a cool navy or pretty flowery print are just as practical and add some individuality to your room.

Time your trip carefully – go towards the end of the sales. There will still be loads of choice but the mad-eyed sale nutters will have gone home. Another plus being that many stores add further reductions at the end of sales to clear their stock. If you time it right you could end up with exactly what you want at an unbelievable price!

Don’t expect too much – accept the fact that some things won’t be in your size. If it’s not there check out the website as many stores hold large amounts of sale stock online. You never know, you might go into the next store and see something even better!

There is only one last thing to say – enjoy it! If you aren’t having fun then there is no point going out to the sales, the endless racks of random sized clothes, the jumble sale feel will depress you instead of spurring you on. If you know that this is your idea of hell then do it all on-line from the comfort of your sofa. Whatever you choose, I wish you the best of luck and with the money you’re saving you can treat yourself to a glass of wine!

Do YOU know a B****berry bore?

Alex — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 08:38:38 +0000

I admit I’m a little bit of an old woman when it comes to technology, as far as I’m concerned a phone should do exactly that; phone people and text when required. I do have an I-pod touch so can see the appeal of as many apps as you can shake a stick at but never has my life revolved around the amount of wi-fi available or how many smurfberries (they even sound ridiculous) I’ve collected.

I used to mock people who were surgically attached to their phones but now I am a Blackberry widow. You might have inferred that from one of Alex’s last posts about the top 5 student apps, as they are fairly blackberry heavy. There is nothing I can do to compete with the wonder of this phone, some of you are now going to assume I am just the worlds most boring person and that my boyfriend only got the phone to escape the hell of having to be bored by me. However that’s just not true, I just don’t feel the need to check my e-mails every fifteen minutes and be ruled by a ridiculous flashing red light.

An ode to useless information checks

I’m not knocking the technology, should I ever need to know the temperature in Japan when I’m up a mountain or ‘check-in’ to Facebook in the supermarket I’m sure I’d call on the Blackberry to fulfil my needs. What disturbs me the most is the fact that people can’t walk twenty minutes into Uni without being connected to the world wide web, it’s just unnecessary! Plus, the only topic of conversation is now, Blackberry speak.

“I’ll just check that on my Blackberry.”

“I’ll just put that in my app on my phone.”

A little less conversation, a little more action please

The list is endless. I wouldn’t mind but surely the main focus of human communication should by face-to-face, we are programmed to read into every nuance of facial and body language as well as the actual words. I heard a really worrying programme this week that reported that some primary school children not only didn’t know what there names were but didn’t actually realise they had one. Surely that is enough to encourage us as a nation to put down the phones a bit more and engage in ‘normal’ conversation, if you don’t know the temperature in Japan does it really matter that much?

But, if you can’t beat’em…

Oh and you know the worst part of my blackberry bore boyfriend? He’s gone and bought me one, I’m trying hard to resist but did I tell you about this new app I got…

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Do you know a blackberry bore? Are you one? Comments below.

Harness Your Full Brainpower with Productive Obsession

Alex — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:35:51 +0000

Obsession is a dirty word, to put it bluntly: like addiction, to obsess is often to be irrational or unproductive. Yet, if you go too far in the opposite direction, you’ll literally get nowhere. What is needed is something called a productive obsession. A productive obsession is about finding the balance between what you are driven to and enjoy doing (and therefore, will happily obsess over), and something that adds value (be it in a business situation or in your leisure time). Indeed, Psychology Today reports that cultivating a productive obsession can be one of the best things you can do.

Having read their article, I was able to distill three main reasons to utilise your healthy obsessions:

They allow for super-focus

This is one of those things that everyone tends to lack noawdays in teh age of ‘everything must be multitasked‘. I can barely sit and do one thing for five minutes without a mobile phone beeping, or a phone ringing. Whilst those things are controllable, an obsession means that your mind will be not want to wander off in the middle of your task, which is a big boost or your productivity.

(Productive) Obsessions are usually big ideas

If you’re thinking big, and get the chance to act on those thoughts, the results are likely to be big. Not often does anyone truly get to do this, not because they don’t think big, but because they don’t take the action required. Your drive with an obsession should be massive, and so you really get the opportunity to reach for the moon here!

Your own interests become your top priority

This is a breakthrough for some people. When does anyone really get the chance to put themselves truly first in their lives and not feel bad about it for a moment? Getting the chance to turn yourself over to these goals is an awesome opportunity for your own growth, and should be relished.

In short, don’t worry about feeling a little bit obsessed witrh your latest project, because that will drive you to absolutely nail it! Just make sure you are able to successfully turn on and off, and switch between your obsessive persona and your relaxed, chilled out one, but this shouldn’t be a big deal.

Eric Maisel, Ph.D., and Ann Maisel write about obsessions in their new book, Brainstorm: Harnessing the Power of Productive Obsessions, so if you want to find out more about this fascinating subject, make sure to check it out.

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Have you found your productive obsession yet? Tell us all about it, comment below.

11 Language Learning Resources You Wish You’d Found In College

Alex — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:41:34 +0000

I know a lot of people who get to University and still don’t have a clue about the language they are studying, especially in joint honours courses. I’m no exception: spoken french has always been my sticking point, and my language marks are what I need to improve the most of the next few years.

That being said, anyone interested in learning a language, or required to, can benefit from the resources I’ve found and compiled for you below. They range from vocabulary tools for learning by rote, to useful flashcard websites that are compatible with mobile devices, to language hacks that allow you to understand around 80% of a language in very little time at all, just by learning the most commonly used words.

Qasana
http://www.qasana.com/cgi/content.pl

LiveMocha
http://www.livemocha.com/language-learning-method

FlashCard Exachange
http://www.flashcardexchange.com/

How to Learn Any Language in 3 Months -Tim Ferris
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/01/20/learning-language/

Understand What Words You NEED To Learn First
http://www.lextutor.ca/research/

Language Learning Community Busuu
http://www.busuu.com/

Interactive Language Learning With LingQ
http://www.lingq.com/tour/

>>>Consult this for even more:
http://www.suite101.com/content/free-language-resources-a328882

Also important:
http://www.wordreference.com

Zen Habits Guide:
http://zenhabits.net/fluent/

Fluent in 3 Months Language Hack:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/fluentin3months

Now, that should be plenty to get you started!

However, if you’re really looking for a quick fix, or, the easiest way I’ve ever come across to start learning a language in immense detail from day 1, then you need to look into the Michel Thomas Method. These courses are fantastic, and frankly, should be used in schools globally. If this method was used in schools, then their pupils might actually be able to speak well in that foreign language within a year or so, instead of having to relearn everything as they go up through college.

Michel Thomas’ courses are quite expensive, but when you understand the quality of them, you’ll understand that their real value easily outweighs their monetary one. Top tip: some public librarys actually stock Michel Thomas audiotapes, so take advantage of this and pick them up for free!

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So, what do you find the best ways to improve your language skills are? Vocab? Watching TV? Comments appreciated.

Top Student Apps Of 2011

Alex — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:46:36 +0000

Modern students have an “always on” mindset, that is, we like to be plugged in to email and social networking round the clock. Indeed, a majority of students now wield some sort of smartphone or ultraportable device, be it a blackberry or an iphone.

With that in mind, here’s is our list of the top 5 mobile-accessible apps for students. Our list bridges music apps to organisational ones, the essential student staples.

1. Grooveshark

We were considering a number of apps for our music app spot, but in the end Grooveshark won us over, because of the price and native blackberry support (be it slightly buggy). This is really the only viable Blackberry music app as of July 2011. Its mobile app has offline track support, and for $9/month is cheaper than Spotify for a U.K. user. Yet, one clear drawback is that because music is uploaded by the users, bitrate and quality can vary quite a bit, and there are numberous duplicate files when searching for popular tracks, some badly labelled. Spotify is a good alternative for anyone a little more retentive about these things.

2. Remember The Milk (RTM)

This is a fab list making web-app is compatible with basically any ultraportable device you have, including the iPad. The unique selling point of RTM has to be it’s smart-list feature, which allows for some very clever list sorting. For those with seive-like brains, lists are a complete life saver, and now, you can never forget a list again!

3. Evernote

Now considered by many to be the benchmark for note-taking web apps, this is one of the most useful applications available to a student who values having all their work available to them on the go. ertainly anoyone who takes notes on their laptop needs to be doing so on an evernote client, and most people who still handwrite their notes would still benefit from evernote, coupled with a good document scanner, such as a fuji scansnap.

4. Lastpass

With all those new passwords and accounts you need to keep track of at uni (library account, webmail account etc.), and in keeping with the recommended strengths of such passwords, it’s easy to either forget them or not make them as strong as they should be. Enter, lastpass. Though recently hurt by an attempt to access their servers, the various walls of security implemented by lastpass mean that your data is extremely secure. Lastpass asks only you remember one, strong, password and it will remember and autofill ALL your other data needs for you. I also paid for premium, which allows unlimited detail storage, and also allows mobile access via their mobile platform apps (iOS, Android and Blackberry).

5. Dropbox

Are you still carrying around a USB stick with your important data on it? Well, even if you are I can’t recommend Dropbox file storage enough. Dropbox is easy cloud storage, that is, you upload any document or digital file you like, and therefore, can access it anywhere you like as well. Great for easy, pain free access to CVs, presentations and essays due for printing. The free service is plenty for word documents, but those with bigger intentions of media uploads will want to fork out for the premium service.

Honorable mentions go to:

Stanza – ebook reader
Mint – budgeter
Gwiz Flashcards – as described
Facebook -duh!
Braintrainer – Lumosity’s mobile app
Spotify – the excellent music subscription service

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What are you personal picks for top student mobile apps this year? Comments are welcome!