From Campus to Career
Sessions end with intentions. This one ends with a dated plan
A student who has attended six good sessions still leaves with nothing written down. This is the closing session: each person names a target role, audits what they actually have, and leaves with a week-by-week plan they can be held to.
Motivation decays in about four days. A plan does not.
Every session in this programme produces a room full of people who intend to act. Almost none of them write anything down, and by the following week the intention has been replaced by the next assignment deadline.
This session exists to convert the intent into something specific enough to fail visibly — a target, a list of gaps, and a small number of dated commitments. That is the only part that survives contact with a semester.
What each student builds
27 topics across 6 areas. Six steps, done in the room.
Name the TargetOne role, written down.4
Not a field. A role, of the kind a job posting is written for.
- Which role
- Why that one
- What evidence I have for it
- What I am not aiming at, for now
A student who cannot name it has their first task already.
Audit What You Actually HaveHonestly, against that role.5
- Fundamentals I can explain
- Projects I can defend
- Any work experience
- Evidence that is visible to somebody else
- What is on my resume that I could not defend
Name the GapsOnly the ones that matter for the target.4
The point of a target is that most gaps stop mattering. A student aiming at data analysis does not need to close their gap in embedded systems.
- The one fundamental I am weakest in
- The evidence I am missing
- The thing on my resume I need to remove or learn
- The skill the role assumes
Choose Three ThingsNot ten. Three.3
Ninety days realistically holds one project, one revision effort and one visible improvement. A longer list is a way of avoiding all of it.
- One thing to build
- One thing to revise
- One thing to improve or publish
Put Dates On ThemA plan without dates is a wish.6
- Week 1–2
- Week 3–6
- Week 7–10
- Week 11–12
- What is due when
- What I will have to show at the end
Decide Who Will AskAccountability that is not self-supplied.5
- A friend doing the same thing
- A senior who will check in
- A faculty member
- A group that meets fortnightly
- When you will report progress
Almost nobody sustains this alone. The students who do it in pairs finish.
What a finished plan looks like
- One target role, named
- Three commitments, dated
- One thing being built and how it will be published
- One weak fundamental and how it gets revised
- One person who will ask about it
- A date to review the whole thing
Where students usually go wrong
- A list of ten things, which becomes none
- A target so broad it does not narrow anything
- Plans that need somebody else's permission to start
- No dates, so nothing is ever late
- Nobody to report to, so nothing is ever reported
How the session runs
Mostly working time rather than talking. Students draft the plan in the room, in pairs, with practitioners circulating to challenge targets that are too vague and plans that are too long. Each person reads their three commitments aloud, which is the part that makes them real. Colleges that keep the plans and review them at week six see markedly better follow-through.
What your students leave with
- One target role, named and written down
- An honest audit of what they can currently demonstrate
- The gaps that actually matter for that role
- Three commitments rather than a list of ten
- Dates attached to each of them
- Somebody who will ask how it is going
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Sessions end with intentions. This one ends with dates.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.