What life skill do you wish you'd been equipped with to help you face the world of work? Share your thoughts with MN and Barclays...

[AnnMumsnet]

Here at MNHQ we are pleased to be involved with the Barclays LifeSkills programme.

This is a new programme giving young people the skills, information and most importantly the work experience opportunities they need to get ready for the world of work.

LifeSkills employs hands-on learning to give young people from the age of 11 to 19, the confidence they need to get started" . It's paid for by Barclays but works with loads of partners to develop and promote the programme.

Mumsnet will be supporting this initiative by hosting students at MNHQ for work experience, so we'd like you to share your top tips and experiences on this thread.

~ If you could go back and whisper in your own ear the day you started work, what would you say?!
~ What skills do you wish you'd had before you started work?
~ Who helped you before you started work with advice and support? What sort of support do you wish you had?

All comments very much welcome and we'd also love you to pledge your support for LifeSkills - just click below

If you're a teacher or have connections to children aged 11+ please also do spread the word and sign up here

If you're a business owner you could make a real difference for young people in your area, by offering work experience opportunities through LifeSkills register here

Or get in touch with your boss or HR department to see what work experience opportunities they can provide to help young people.

And remember, getting the message out there to schools, friends, family, whoever you can will give LifeSkills the push it needs to start moving. This is a nationwide move to get young people ready for work, and it needs your support.

thanks, MNHQ

Knowing where I was going at the start of a job and how to progress through the ranks would have helped. It's quite easy to get stuck at a junior level unless you really push and I now recognise that the smart cookies went into the first job with A Plan and A List of skills to acquire and boxes to tick.

I wish I'd known about business in a broader sense, rather than just my little cog of business. I also wish I'd learnt that skill of putting oneself forward without pushing oneself forward.

No-one really helped before starting. It was finding role models once I was there and emulating them that made the difference. Having that opportunity before would probably have helped but I'd have needed to ability to see what it was that made them good too IYSWIM, so being able to think critically about their abilities and how they achieved.

I kind of fell into my career and whilst I have been relatively successful in it, I do sometimes wonder if I should have tried other things first. With regards to lifeskills, I wish I had known more about budgeting, more about how interests rates etc affect finances etc as well as learning how to cook using minimal ingredients. Also, planning for times in your life such as maternity would be useful as that time of work for me had a massive financial impact for me.

I wish I had understood how international bankers enslave the rest of the world by buying political power and manipulating the business cycle.

to be very careful about who you talk to and trust. to take time behaving very neutrally and get to know the politics and dramas before opening your mouth too much. to understand power dynamics, how to deal with bully boys assertively but without sticking a target on your back, how to deal with being young, female and good at your job and getting good results without putting the said target on your back etc.

i started working from a really young age in part time jobs of all manner of levels of shitness, fun, weirdness and 'other' so i wasn't short on work experience. i was kind of unaware of how fucked up, bitchy and full of hidden power lines the supposed grown up world of professional work could be - was quite a shock.

NumptyNameChange:

"how to deal with being young, female and good at your job and getting good results without putting the said target on your back etc."

this one really is a bastard.
It's hard to know what to tell young people because you don't want to make them cynical before they have started. yet you do need to have active self-preservation mechanisms that go beyond the simplistic "be good at your job and people will like having you around". I have no idea how to approach this.

• A willing, 'can do' attitude. I had to learn this by watching a colleague. She was more senior than me, but she did whatever needed to be done - and with a smile. I went in there expecting to do 'my job', but as part of a team you have to be willing to turn your hand to anything - even making the coffee or other menial tasks.

• Feeling like the world owed me a living and a good job with a good salary and reasonable hours of work that allowed me to have a life outside work. I started work in the late 1990s when jobs were easy to come by, but the hours expected of a new graduate and the money I earned doing those long, long hours were a nasty shock. It took me several years to start earning the kind of money that allowed me to have any spare money once the rent and bills were paid, yet my life up to that point had not prepared me for those tough, early years of work.

Oh yes, and playing the office politics game as numpty says. I was so naive and open when I started work. I thought I could have a bit of a moan and it wouldn't go any further - yet any kind of a negative attitude is really not tolerated. You can't really afford to have a 'bad day' like you can at school or uni or in your private life. You have to keep you true feelings hidden, wear a 'poker face' a lot of the time, be very careful what you say to whom.

• When you start off, you'll inevitably have to do things that seem mundane. Do them well and you'll rapidly get more challenging and interesting work.
• If you don't understand, ask. Much better to check that you're on the right track rather than spending hours doing something that's wrong.You may also discover that if you don't understand something, nor does the person talking to you.
• Being a nice person to share an office with goes a long way. However, chatting too much or over-sharing personal information can be deeply offputting.
• Be a team player, but not a doormat. Help others where you can, but don't overburden yourself in the process.
• Think very carefully before starting a relationship with anyone in the office. No matter how long it lasts, people will still be talking about it for years afterwards.
• Brutal as it sounds, you are not entitled to a job and it is not your employer's job to entertain you. If you're lucky, you'll have a job which, most of the time, you enjoy and find interesting, but there will inevitably be times when it's tedious - stay positive and crack on with it and your effort will be appreciated.

-Many young people like you will have come through the doors before and they have all had to work hard and prove themselves - you are not an exception. Your brilliant degree/A level grades/extra-curricular activities have no doubt made your parents very proud, but they are pretty irrelevant to your colleagues unless you are able to use what you have achieved to make yourself useful in the world of work.

I worked weekends and h

Oops pressed too soon!

I worked weekends and holidays at a family run cafe throughout high school, sixth form and part of Uni. To be honest my experiences there did help set me up in some aspects of working life:

• gain confidence in dealing with customers, dealing with difficult people and resolving problems
• gain confidence in handling money
• learn that even in days when I didn't feel like working, I had to buck up and get in otherwise I would be letting people down and not earning my money!
• learned that whatever happens, anything bad, difficult or rude people, that tomorrow is a fresh day
• learned that everyone has their strong points or things we can learn from - this was from talking to staff and colleagues of all ages, races, religions and backgrounds
• learned to keep my cool, if situations escalate remain calm and try to resolve

If I could go back and say something to my younger self, it would be that it's ok to not be the 'team player with excellent interpersonal skills' that everyone puts on their CV. Not everyone is a natural extrovert and as long as you work pleasantly and cooperatively with everyone you will be just fine.

I wish I had been better at those soft skills that don't make it to the CV: separating work and social life, masking emotion, sidestepping office politics, having the confidence to say when something made me feel uncomfortable and walk away, working with nasty people. I work in a very corporate environment and am always amazed at how horrible and devious people can be in their attempts to get ahead or push out someone they don't like. Giving enough effort while not giving too much of myself is a difficult balance.

I had an excellent, friendly manager when I first started who spent time talking me through my work and was always available to help me through queries. Building up a network of people who bounce ideas and problems off each other has been the work of several years but has made my life a lot easier.

I wish I hadn't been taught to be polite and stand back. I wish I had been taught to push myself forward and lie a little bit.

Project management, by which I mean planning and organisational skills. And how to condense anything written down into a short brief. Agree that assertiveness and confidence building would ad useful for many people too.

That it matters whom you work with. Try to get a mentor. Having senior people who like you (in the most popularity-contest sense of the word) is as, or more, important than being good at your job. If you don't have that, or don't have a suitable culture, move. it is ok to move. It is not ok to be miserable and disliked. work is not something you have to put up with, like school. work is a thing you can chop and change until you shine.

I wish someone had taught me to type. Was frowned upon at my school.

~ If you could go back and whisper in your own ear the day you started work, what would you say? - You will still be here in several years. This job really isn't for you & you know it. Get some further training while you're still young enough, & find something you can enjoy. People are more likely to be interested in you, and what you have to say, if you're interested in it as well.

~ What skills do you wish you'd had before you started work? - I wish I'd been a lot more confident in myself, my abilities, less unhappy with my appearance (which exacerbated my shyness) & more aware of how to actually talk to people without stammering or sounding like I was reading out a book report.

~ Who helped you before you started work with advice and support? What sort of support do you wish you had? - Not the 'careers advisor'. Useless. She basically told me to choose subjects that interested me & they would lead me to a relevant job. Seriously. I did an Honours degree in History & now work in... mortgages.

I wanted to learn typing at school but was co-erced into learning Commerce ..... only the less able students were allowed to type

We had something similar aristocat. The childcare qualification was cancelled when we were in year 10/11 because we were considered a "more able" year group so they didn't want us choosing it over the other subjects

agree with learning to be politely assertive and non-wavering: particularly as so many of us need to deal with misogyny or sex discrimination in the workplace still.

Basic bookkeeping and typing should be drummed into everyone, not just the non-academic girls.

I wish I had learned early on that excelling at a rubbish job means that you excel, not that you are rubbish. I worked in clothing retail directly after finishing school and always put myself down and let the permanent staff know I felt the job was crap. Firstly that was rude, and secondly it wasn't true. being good and cheerful at everything you do makes a better day for everyone, and gets you moved upwards faster. It's as simple as that.

Little advertising there ?

Nice if you can afford it. Let them eat cake eh?

Be nice. I went to a talk by Alexandra Shulman & she said her biggest tip for getting ahead was to be a nice person! Also don't try & get away with things.

I was lucky, although I started work in 1987 I had been taught word processing & how to use spreadsheets, I think those skills are vital.

I wish shop staff were still taught how to hand back change rather than just giving you a fistful. I think teens should be taught about PAYE, Unions, debt, credit cards etc when they are in yr10.

My parents & college but I was naive & believed my parents rather than employers who offered to sponsor me through uni.

Definitely budgeting, money management and how to be assertive in the workplace.
Still struggle with those now

Active listening skills
Networking skills

Great subject MNHQ!