Starting Again
Some of it has changed. Usually less than you fear.
After a year or more away, every job posting seems to mention a tool you have never used. This session has practitioners who are working in the field now walk returners through what has actually changed — tools, practice, ways of working, and hiring itself — and help each participant choose the few things worth refreshing first.
Explore this page6 sections
The fear is usually larger than the gap.
Returners often try to catch up on everything at once: every new tool, every certification, every trend. It is exhausting, it delays the return, and much of it turns out not to matter for the role they actually want.
Meanwhile the fundamentals — judgement, knowledge of the domain, the ability to work with people — have usually held. What has moved is narrower: particular tools, some practices, and the way work and hiring are organised.
The quickest way to find out which is which is to ask somebody doing the job now. That is what this session is.
What to check
28 topics across 6 areas. Six areas, ending with a plan you can start next week.
Tools of the TradeWhat your kind of role uses day to day.4
- Software that replaced what you used
- New versions of familiar tools
- What is genuinely expected, and what is nice to have
- Where to practise without a job
AI in the WorkNeither hype nor dismissal.5
Practice varies widely by employer and by field. The practitioner in the room describes their own workplace; participants should check what their target employers actually use.
- Where AI tools are used in your kind of role
- What they do well, and where they go wrong
- What employers may expect you to be comfortable with
- Where judgement still matters most
- Using them honestly in a job search
Ways of WorkingHow a team runs now.5
- Remote and hybrid arrangements
- Messaging and collaboration tools
- Video meetings and work done asynchronously
- How work is tracked and reported
- Security and data-handling habits
Your Field's Rules and PracticeRegulation, standards and methods.4
- Changes in regulation or compliance
- New standards or methods
- What clients or customers now expect
- Where to read up reliably
How Hiring Works NowOften the change people notice first.5
- Online applications and screening
- Video and recorded interviews
- Take-home assignments and tests
- The part LinkedIn and referrals play
- Recruitment scams to watch for
A genuine employer does not ask you to pay to get, hold or start a job.
Building the Refresh PlanTwo or three items, in order.5
- What the target role needs
- What you already have
- The smallest set of gaps that matter
- A course, a project or a practice routine for each
- A date to start applying, set before you feel ready
What can usually wait
- Certifications nobody in the target role asked for
- Tools used only in other parts of the field
- Every new trend at once
- Learning with no project attached
What participants leave with
- A list of what changed in their field
- A refresh plan of two or three items
- A resource for each item
- A start date for applications
- A practitioner's view of their target role
How the session runs
A practitioner working in the field now describes what has changed in the last few years, and what has not, then takes questions. Where participants come from several fields, the session splits into smaller groups by field. Each participant writes their refresh plan during the session and leaves with it. Evenings or weekends, in person or online.
What your students leave with
- A specific picture of what changed in your own field
- A list of what to learn first, and what to leave
- A grounded view of how AI tools are used in your kind of work
- Familiarity with how teams now work day to day
- An understanding of how hiring itself has changed
- A refresh plan measured in weeks, not years
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.
Find out what moved, refresh the few things that matter, and start.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.