Student Life | Learning to Fly by the Seat of Your Trousers

Flying by the seat of your trousers (or 'pants' if you are American) is a nifty little phrase I learnt that means to to do something difficult without the necessary experience or ability, or to decide a course of action as you go along, using your own initiative and perceptions rather than a pre-determined plan or mechanical aids.

Why does this matter? Because nowadays there is no room in companies for students or graduates that get by flying by the seat of their trousers. There is no room for error and even the easiest jobs are no longer "entry level". 

Unfortunately this means that for many skills that come naturally but are necessary in a work environment, e.g. communication, teamwork, you need to be able to prove you can do it before a recruiter lets you loose in their company. Woe betide the person who can't demonstrate the use of a transferable skill in a real life situation, preferably done under time pressure or financial constraints. But the point is, flying by the seat of your trousers, when phrased differently, is adaptability, is initiative, and is learning at speed, albeit with a larger risk of failure. However, our generation does have one thing on our side...

That's right. It's almost impossible to not know something with the ubiquity of immediate knowledge that is right at our fingertips. If a job description needs you to have a skill that you've never heard of; Google it. Read up on it. Research ways to learn the basics. Look for recent stories about it so you can engage with the topic if it comes up in an interview. Maybe even invest in a short course if you have the time. Make sure that you are not totally flying by the seat of your trousers, prepare yourself, and let Google give you, at the very least, a bit of padding lest your plane crash out of the sky.  

Let us learn from the very father of seat-trouser-flying himself, a man named Dougas Corrigan who flew from America to Ireland in the Summer of 1938. In those days, aircraft had limited navigation aids and relied mainly on the pilot's judgement. Originally he had submitted a plan to fly from California to Brooklyn, but he claimed his compass was broken, so instead he flew in the wrong direction, finally reaching Dublin 29 hours after taking off. The story of his trans-Atlantic flight was carried by many newspapers in America and the UK, including the following article in the Edwardsville Intelligencer, titled "Corrigan Flies By The Seat Of His Pants."

"Douglas Corrigan was described as an aviator 'who flies by the seat of his pants' today by a mechanic who helped him rejuvinate the plane which airport men have now nicknamed the 'Spirit of $69.90'. The old flying expression of 'flies by the seat of his trousers' was explained by Larry Conner, means going aloft without instruments, radio or other such luxuries." 19th July 1938

Corrigan was consequently nicknamed 'Wrong Way Corrigan' and starred as himself in the 1938 movie The Flying Irishman. A film and national fame aren't bad for a budding pilot flying across the world without full technical support or experience. So flying by the seat of your trousers needn't be a total wreck; you can learn from it and perhaps even make a success of it. But don't bank on it. If you haven't done your research, the chances are there is someone else going for the same opportunity as you who has. Too much reliance on trouser-power may mean you end up flying in the face of danger. 

Student Life | Easy Computing Skills

Computing and tings

Some people are terrified by computers and technology. But we shouldn't be - we are the information generation. It's weird going into an office and showing older people how to tweet and blog, they see you as some kind of Zuckerburg-Jesus. They key to impressing your bosses is knowing the down-low on the downloads, and you don't even need to know HTML (but it helps).

• Gimp - Calm down, dear, it's just a photoshop alternative. Adobe can cost a lot of money to a student, even though they have a lovely discount available. For the majority of us, its infinite tools are just not worth it. Gimp is simpler and FREE. So while employers might not recognise Gimp, you will learn those magical transferable skills, for if you take on a job involving adobe photoshop.
• Anki - free flashcard software. Whatever you're studying, I guarantee that Anki can help you revise it. You create your own flashcards, and it cleverly orders them to show you the ones you find more difficult more often. My law friends use it to revise case studies, I use it for Chinese characters. 
• Infographics - To choose a programme according to your own needs, read this handy guide to infographics. You can link up your Facebook account to Inforgram, so you don't even need to sign up. Being able to gather and represent information has never been easier.
• Dropbox - Far cheaper than an external hard drive, save your work in dropbox so if the worst should happen and your laptop dies/is stolen, it is already stored online for you. Also, it's really useful as a shared space to work on group documents, for example, editing magazines. 
• Learn to Code - There are free sites that can teach you the basics, like codeacademy  and coursera.
• Social Media - Chances are you are probably already familiar with most of the basics anyway. But start thinking about it from a business perspective, and try to be versed in all the main platforms that companies are trying to gain a presence in (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and perhaps Tumblr). Twitter is probably the most important of these, so learn how to use tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Tweetdeck. 
• Blogging - Not technically software, but still technological. If I can do it, so can you. Blogging isn't just for wannabe journalists; the ability to write, structure passages and present information in an interesting way is vital to any job. There are loads of free sites ready to host your blog - wordpress and blogspot are probably the most common.
• Mailchimp - Learn how to manage, write and format your own newsletters, try doing this for a student society you are part of, or show initiative and set one up for your local community!
• Websites - the step up from blogging. Wix, Godaddy and Squarespace take you through from choosing and purchasing a domain name to helping you with layouts.

Student Life | Money Matters

Making Money

Students are generally poor. Not all of us can be born Alan Sugars with blood type AB Hustle. However, I'm going to share some simple things you can do to make a few extra pounds.

I know it's hard to part with, but selling your old, unwanted clothes and possessions clears space and makes you money. There are a number of different sites and methods you can use, depending on how much time you want to commit to selling. eBay is of course the online marketplace behemoth, but recently some of the things I've listed that would have been snapped up  before haven't sold at all. Saying that, if you sell something highly desirable (e.g. anything from Topshop), you're going to get a lot of attention. If you have an alternative or vintage wardrobe, you might want to try ASOS Marketplace or Etsy, which attract that kind of audience. Recently I've discovered an app called Vinted, which allows users to swap or sell clothes, and it seems to have a very young and active audience. Try Amazon for your books and DVDs, and gumtree for furniture. The negatives of all these sites are that it is time consuming to photograph, list, and add descriptions to each individual items. Then you've still got to deal with postage and feedback.

Car boot sales offer a way of getting everything off your hands in one morning with no commitments after the sale. Look up boot sales in your local area, pick a day when the weather is clear, and turn up with a boot full of your junk. Unfortunately, this does mean waking up at an unholy hour and standing in a field while strangers rifle through your belongings. Also, you are likely to only make a couple of pounds per item, so the key here is quantity, not quality.

If you're too busy/posh to bother with a boot sale, try using a company that buys your clothes, bags and accessories by the kilogram. I used Return to Earn with all the stuff that didn't sell at a boot sale. Sign up on Facebook (you get 70p per kg instead of 60p for liking their page) and they'll send you a sack. Fill it up and arrange for collection. You can receive your payment via cheque, paypal, or, if you're feeling generous, donate your payment to St Mungos - a charity for the homeless. I got my payment straight into my paypal after a couple of days. Having been through it, I can say it's definitely the most hassle-free method, and after looking at some of the other places that offer the same services, I'm pleased I went with Return to Earn.

Many of you might skip this suggestion, but here goes: crafting. Yeah, you heard me. If you've got a free day why not use up all your scrap paper, card and stickers to make greetings cards. Try covering boring note books in fabric, or turning the dangly earrings you never wear into phone charms (you can buy 20 straps for £1.80 or less on eBay). There are practically infinite options for turning your old junk into stuff people might buy, and you don't have to be an artist to do it.

Saving Money

The sad truth is you'll be poor, but you'll still insist on shopping because your eyes and fingers are conspiring against you, and before you know it you've accidentally filled up a basket and clicked the 'buy now' button. So make the most of this inevitability, and love your points cards.

• Loyalty points cards - get them and make the most of them. For example, you can sign up for a Nectar and use it to do your weekly shopping in Sainsburys, and link it up to your eBay account too! Also, everyone should definitely have a Boots card.
• 16-25 railcard - a definite must have if you're likely to travel (studentbeans offers a discount on the yearly cards), or student oysters for london based uni students. A lot of people don't realise you can link up your Student railcard to your oyster and get discounted off-peak travel. National Express also runs a young persons coachcard
• Unidays - If you shop a lot online, Unidays is a great way of verifying your student status and checking which stores run student discounts. They also have an app for when you're on the high street and have forgotten your student ID. 
• Renting clothes - Do you have a big event coming up that you have have have to wear the most gorgeous and possibly designer dress to? Have you considered renting a dress rather than buying one? If yes, say hello to Girl Meets Dress or Wishwantwear, one hell of a lot cheaper than a designer dress. Let's face it, how often are you really going to wear that full length ball gown? Of course, if you have have friends, try borrowing clothes of them for free.  
• studentbeans.com - I recommend joining Studentbeans for the offers page, it's pretty good and frequently updated. I won free Special K cereal and Palmers moisturiser in the space of a week. Needless to say, it was one of the proudest weeks of my existence. Studentbeans also has some useful hints and tips pages to get you through uni.

Also, uni is full of events with free refreshments and snacks. Stuff your face and gather biscuits like so:

For the culture vultures, don't worry, it's not all about shopping.

• Entry Pass - a scheme run by the National Theatre, allowing students and young people into theatres for just £5.
• Mousetrap Theatre Project - a charitable organisation, offering 19 to 23 year olds the WestEnd 4 £10 scheme. There is a catch though, you need to have attended a non-fee paying, non-selctive school, which, to be honest, is most of us. 
• Timeout - y'all should know what this is already. They keep a good twitter feed. 
• YPlan - a great app for finding stuff on in London and making spontaneous plans