Rachel currently works as an Early Childhood Teacher in the UK.

She holds a BSc (Science) in Psychology and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching in Early Childhood Education

1. When you were 7 years old you wanted to be... a Veterinarian 

2. Name of the educational institution(s) you graduated from
Auckland University and Auckland University Faculty of Education

3. Why did you choose your major(s) or specialisation?
Psychology and child development were my interests at school and I was good at Biology so that is why I chose the BSc. I started teaching part time at an Early Childhood Centre in Mt Albert by luck to save up money to travel for a year in 2004. When I came back, they encouraged me to complete the Graduate Diploma through distance learning while still working full-time and they supported me through it the whole way.

4. How did you find your first job?
I knew about and got the job through family connections.

5. Describe the interview process you went through to obtain your first position after graduating
Because I had been volunteering and working part-time beforehand, they employed me after graduation without going through the interview process.

6. What training was made available to you by your employer in your first role?
I was given money and support from my work for my entire Graduate Diploma of Teaching as well as getting a grant from the Ministry of Education. When I did graduate with that, my work also supported me through the process of gaining teacher registration with a supervisor helping me create my portfolio.

7. Describe some of the roles you have held since your graduate level position
- Early Childhood Education Teacher (at a community based preschool in Auckland).
- Manager of the Nursery classroom at a primary school in London.

8. Have you found your degree useful in your working career? Why (or why not)?
I have found my Graduate Diploma most useful because it is specific to teaching. I am glad to have done the BSc though because I was following my interests at the time and I didn't know that I wanted to get into teaching. If I had known that I wanted to get into teaching, I might have done a BEd (Bachelor of Education) instead.  The Graduate Diploma I did was good but fast so a lot of my learning has also happened on the job.

9. What are your plans for the next 5 years?
I am applying for Nursery class teacher position at a few different schools in London for the next academic year at the moment. I hope to continue teaching, save more pounds, travel for a year on the way back to New Zealand and then end up doing a Masters Degree in a specialist subject like Speech and Language Therapy or Educational Psychology. The next few years of experience will help me decide exactly what I want to specialise in or whether I am satified to stay teaching.

10. What advice would you give an upcoming graduate looking to kick off a successful career?
Possibly work backwards by finding out the sort of job that you want and then figuring out the training that you need to do. Talk to as many people as you can to find out exactly what sort of jobs that are out there that you might like. If you think that you are interested in teaching in Early Childhood (children aged under 5 years usually), contact a number of your local Early Childhood Centres and arrange a visit. If you tell them that you are a young student interested in getting into teaching, you will find a number of centres/Kindergartens that would happily let you look around to see it during session to see if you could actually picture yourself in a teaching job. It is amazingly rewarding, satisfying work that gives you skills that are transferable to many areas of life.