Mission Complete
How dare I have let this poor blog go into disrepair, I meant to do so much to it but yet the last month or so has been so jam packed full of editting issues that I forgot to complain about it!
So a quick summary of what I have learned will have to do:
1. Regardless of how long you have worked there, you are always expendible if you can’t answer a fake interview question as good as your colleagues.
2. The day before you leave your job is seemingly the best day to give you the biggest pile of corrections.
3. Corrections also include rewriting a discussion section based on a “thought” that occured to someone higher up the research food chain than you.
4. My thank you gift for leaving was a chocolate egg and a bottle of wine, both demolished on a Friday night in, because I am not working at the moment (see point one).
5. Other people are in a similar boat to me.
So what now? I heard back from my PhD application, and have been invited to interview. Which is amazing and also scary. But more on that later.
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So after the many hurdles of focus groups (yes I am still complaining about those groups), it finally comes to the analysis.
Data analysis.
And what do you need for data analysis? Especially when analysing focus groups?
Data. Or words spoken by individuals in the group recorded onto dictaphones placed in strategic places in the room.
What don’t I have? Data.
Bloody batteries ran out of the microphones, leaving behind it a trail of static and muffled voices. The battery’s swan song.
Deep breathing, calm waters, I will get over this. These focus groups are my white whale!
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Relief
So much for blogging as I go along. The last week exploded into a flurry of frantic panicking and also sitting around doing nothing. Both of these things appeared to happen at the same time. In a simultaneous attack which meant I was clock watching whilst also commenting on exactly where the time went.
So three focus groups down. No more will I have to photocopy lists of students names, have consent forms stapled to emails from head teachers to satisfy the office staff of my legitimate request to allow me in their front door. No more information letters! I have, in the past month, sent out 40 letters. 40 potential participants for my focus groups.
Actual participants? 12.
Luckily the teacher focus group went very well. News must have got out that we were serving fresh coffee and danishes, because they happily chatted about the safety workshops and what they thought. I even got to give a prompt (as much as I organise the groups, my actual contribution on the day is passing the milk, serving the danishes and taking notes). 10 teachers showed up.
Now I just have to write up what they said. Four weeks until we have to bundle our lives into boxes and leave our desks!
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Focus Group Hilarity
Until Thursday, I had never done a focus group. I’d heard about them, an easy way to get opinions as the participants will remind each other and hopefully start having small conversations with information rich answers to our sporadic questions. Perfect!
I had never done a focus group with teenagers.
Psychologist: So what do you remember from the day?
All 6 teenagers: …
Psychologist: So, nothing then? No one can remember?
All 6 teenagers:…
Psychologist: You were away from school for the day? You were taken by bus?
One teenager: Oh yeah, the bus thing.
Are you kidding me?! The bus thing. That was the most salient memory? Jeez. After the ball started rolling, slowly, we got some good answers out of them. It will be discussed that these teenagers didn’t know each other and may have been anxious. Other studies used friendship group structures, where its more “bring a friend” but then would that affect the quality of answers?
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Any spare jobs
It’s finally Saturday, finally away from the “slowly driving myself insane trying to fix this damn results section” feeling that has been weighing me down. I now have three ideas for how to organise it, but I haven’t picked my favourite yet.
So bustling down Byres Road, trying to pick up bits and bobs I get stopped by some charity fundraisers, who are from Save the Children. “Oh please, I’ve got two months left in a work contract and then I will be unemployed, and whilst £2 a week is okay, I’ll be needing that soon enough to scrimp my rent!” I implore.
But no, I decide to talk to the boy, who seems really interested in his charity work. He starts talking about basic rights children have. Could I, a mere member of the public, know what these may be?
“If we are basing these in the UN convention of rights for the child, there are definately more than five, but I’ll guess these are FOOD, WATER, EDUCATION, HOUSING and then guessed NO WAR UNTIL 16. The last one was HEALTH CARE. Which was an obvious omission on my part. (My three months as a children’s rights worker seemed to come in handy, but I felt like a bit of a smartarse saying it).
Impressed by my knowledge, he asks about my background, and then says if I wanted a job with them I could.
Not research, just on the street fundraising. Which sounds good, but its not what I want to do. Maybe come the end of my contract I will change my mind.
Also handed in an application for a policy worker post in Childrens 1st. Amazing sounding but you never know…
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Hitting a wall
From complaining about not having enough to do, to slowly driving myself insane with lists and deadlines that may well be impossible.
1. Focus Groups
Sweet focus groups, everyone’s chance to get together and chat about what they want to see change for the programme next year. Teachers love the programme and they are very enthusiastically returning my calls with a “yes I will take part”. Students…not so much. In FG1 I have six young people saying they have no idea what I’m talking about (so that’ll be a no then) and another two who don’t want to come (thats a definate no then). Oh, and two say yes. FG2 I cant get anyone in. So thats a bit of a stress in itself.
So now I have to invite eight new people to come along. Hurrah!
2. The publication
Literature review done, once again I feel I am an expert on the rubbish hand that care leavers are dealt in life. But now my next task is condensing 10 pages of word heavy qualitative data into two a4 pages which can be easily read. Did I mention my 6 section divisions so the reader can easily see the post school destinations (work, education and unemployment) for both looked after at home and looked after with accomodation.
Blankly staring at my screen does not seem to work.
Stress eating does not seem to work.
I may have to actually work my way through this like a professional.
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This is not the first time I’ve worked for the council. I was there this time last year, which means this time around I feel like I know how everything works. First time round I didn’t know what to expect, I was put at a desk and given my project: interview young people who used to be looked after (in care) and find out what they’re doing now they’ve left school.
Why young care leavers? Only 1% of them will end up at uni, over 40% wont have a standard grade qualification and a high percentage end up in long term unemployment. Thats why.
The project was over last March, it was published on the council website and made me appreciate the Scottish Labour party for all they did to help young people. Not good in other areas, but you cant deny what they tried to do for young people.
Now my boss wants it published in a journal.
I haven’t done any publications before, its really been either data collection or writing small reports for internal use. So this is quite a challenge. But “think of the CV”. I can finally put a reference to a piece of work without having to say “available on request”. It will be out there.
So I have to find a journal to contact. My two possibilities are “the journal of post compulsory education” and “education and training”. Not very psychological sounding, but the content of my project doesn’t have a lot of psychological theory.
In fact, as it was internal for the council, there was no need for theory. It needed to have relevance to Scottish legislature. So to put it in a journal, I will need to find previous theoretical explanations to why these young people are falling through the gaps of the system and what it will take to help them.
Then there is the issue of the word count.
My work count: 11,000
The accepted word count: 5,000
Yikes.
This is just a side project though, my research work (the one I am getting paid for) has been put on the backburner for a fortnight until the focus groups come along. The introduction, method and references are complete (for now, no doubt they’ll need changed further down the line).
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Gatekeepers
My desk is currently a mess of post-it notes and highlighted names on spreadsheet style A4 paper. I have four interviews (on the phone) and have to arrange a focus group (my first) for some time at the end of February.
So the preparation starts now, I have a tickbox sheet on my desk (just another piece of paper to add to my madness), I have told the psychologist that they will be taking it, booked the rooms and spent far too long personalising each letter (read: copying and pasting details of 30 participants into a standard letter format) of invitation. Now I just need the people.
My only task for the next week (and I have given myself a week to do this) is to tell the head teachers about it, so they can write it in their diaries and talk to a staff member about my focus group.
The average focus group is around 6-8 participants so I am inviting 11 because no doubt some will drop out for various reasons. This would all be great and easy if I could get through to the head teacher. For, to get through to the head teacher, you need to pass the gatekeepers. The office staff.
Before they even check to see if my headteacher is in, the usual script is asking my name, what I do, where I’m calling from, how do I spell my name, where I am calling from again, does headteacher X know I’m calling, have I spoken to the headteacher before, what communication have I had with them…oh and why am I calling today.
After I have passed all their tests, they put me on hold to see if I can pass the final challenge. Panpipe music. If I can just get through the 45 seconds of the panpipes I can finally…“hello again, headteacher X is actually away just now, can I take a message?”.
The message is the exact same questions as above, but with a friendlier tone. Now, in the year I have been an RA, no one has ever returned a phone message. So I slump at my desk realising that I need to do another email and call again tomorrow, where the gatekeepers will test me again. Not that they’ve forgotten who I am, they just like the game.
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First Post
This is just meant as the “why am I doing this blog” post. I have been working as a Psych Research Assistant (RA) for a year now, in that year I have had 4 jobs. FOUR. All in psychology, all very interesting. But I have had four of them.
Whilst you have all had more hot dinners than I have had RA jobs, four in a year is pretty good going. Well, good going for my CV. Not good for my nerves, or for my nails, as I anxiously bite them to the core when it comes to the end of another 3 month contract and I am forced once again to trawl through the job websites hoping to come up with something more long lasting.
It’s like sex and the city, but instead of shoes and men, I have spreadsheets and reports.
So really, I am just doing this blog to chart the life and times of a RA who “has tea mug, will data collect”.
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