{"id":8488,"date":"2025-09-10T14:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=8488"},"modified":"2025-09-10T14:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:57:07","slug":"overcome-challenges-and-achieve-your-goals-like-proud-ou-graduate-jade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=8488","title":{"rendered":"Overcome challenges and achieve your goals like proud OU graduate Jade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Life is full of ups and downs, tests and bumps in the road. Jade achieved a first-class honours degree in Psychology and Counselling while managing to juggle motherhood, work, study and severe long-term health problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was feeling a little lost after completing my degree and not yet well enough to return to work,\u201d<\/em> says Jade.<\/p>\n

Whoever you are and whatever challenges you face, discover the support that\u2019s available<\/a> regarding equality and diversity in the workplace to help you overcome potential barriers and achieve your career goals.<\/p>\n

Find your goals and the confidence to achieve them<\/h4>\n

\u201cI reached out to the OU\u2019s Careers and Employability Services,\u201d<\/em> Jade added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s never too soon to start building your confidence<\/a> and figuring out your goals using the 3-minute careers check-in<\/a> to generate your personalised \u2018Actions towards goals\u2019 checklist.<\/p>\n

Get help with your next steps, like Jade<\/h4>\n

There\u2019s such a wide range of career opportunities for psychology and counselling graduates<\/a>. After graduating, Jade needed guidance to work out what to do next. She worked out her next steps with the help of the OU\u2019s Careers and Employability Services. Commenting on her experience, she said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe adviser I spoke to was so empathetic, he spoke to me about the bits of my course I enjoyed and what I wanted from my career. That conversation made me realise that I want to use my lived experience to help implement change.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jade is now studying towards a Master of Research (MRes) degree at Queen Margaret\u2019s University in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

Read more of Jade\u2019s story<\/a> on the School of Psychology and Counselling blog.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Julie Emery is a Development Coordinator in the OU\u2019s Careers and Employability Services. She supports careers-related activity both within the service and across the University, helping students to achieve their ambitions and fulfil their potential. Explore the rest of our blog for more articles from your careers team.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life is full of ups and downs, tests and bumps in the road. Jade achieved a first-class honours degree in Psychology and Counselling while managing to juggle motherhood, work, study and severe long-term health problems. \u201cI was feeling a little lost after completing my degree and not yet well enough to return to work,\u201d says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8488"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8504,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8488\/revisions\/8504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}