Everybody needs good stuff for application forms

I've just applied to be one of the 'volunteers [wanted] to publicise and support environmental efficiency initiatives within LSE residences'. It's something I've been meaning to do for months, got round to writing a draft of a few days ago, and finally did tonight. I'm not sure if I'll be successfull (I suspect it largely depends on how many people actually want to do it- if there are a fair few then I probably won't be far enough up the list, but if there are scarcely any then they'll just welcome anyone who applies), but at least if I'm not I won't be blaming myself for not getting around to it- plus I've now got a tiny bit more experience with application forms, and believe me, I need all the experience I can get, since I am very bad at it (combination of too much honesty, lack of conciseness, and not a great amount of wonderfully relevant experience to write about), hence why I needed to do a draft of this one first, even though it was only two questions besides all the stuff about name, address and so on:

1. Why are you interested in this role?
2. How can you assist us with environmental initiatives?

Even though I knew why I wanted to do it (see below) and had several brilliant (or so they seemed to me) ideas, putting it all into words in a persuasive, convincing, and not silly sounding way took several hours hard work.

Why was I interested? I made a conscious decision some time ago (pretty much as soon as I knew I had a place in fact) to try and get involved with as much non-academic stuff as possible. Once again, two reasons:

1. Life is much more interesting when you have a variety of projects to focus on (provided they don't all throw sudden large amounts of work at you at the same moment bringing on a nervous breakdown, of course). At UCL, the maths society committee stuff and student tutoring were often the highlights of my week (which is not to say that I didn't enjoy my studies as well). Extra-curricular activities provide interesting experiences that are well worth having for their own sake. But also, taught courses can be quite passive- you spend a lot of time sitting taking notes, some more time (if you are a diligent and conscientious student) looking over said notes trying to make sense of them, then sometimes you have assessed work where you get to have some thoughts of your own- but your efforts are still going to affect no-one but yourself: if you have some brilliant insight (I'm thinking more of essay subjects- with maths there isn't usually a chance to have any brilliant insights that haven't already been had by the person setting the questions) then that will get you a good grade, and if what you hand in is bad or just plain wrong then that will get you a bad grade, and if you do it often enough it will get you kicked out. It's nice to spend some of your week on projects that will have results touching on other people's lives- though being somewhat scared by that, I find it reassuring to do it as a volunteer (provided you don't go so badly wrong that it would have been better if you had never got involved, you can always comfort yourself that the alternative to you was nothing so they should be thankfull you were there at all) and for only a few hours a week (this is why I don't want to get deeply into project management in my working life, as I mentioned before). And if you do something well (especially on those rare occasions where you honestly feel that most other people wouldn't have thought of your stroke of genius and consequently wouldn't have done such a good job), you get a different kind of satisfaction to the way you feel when you do a good piece of academic work. This reason has been the one that's motivated me to get involved with things through school and university.
2. Everybody needs good stuff for application forms and interviews. I used to be against this reason: I would do things because I wanted to, and then use them for that later, but did not want to embark on anything in large part to make my CV look good. Then, last autumn, I encountered the forms with the horrible questions like 'Give an example of a time when you showed leadership' and 'When have you demonstrated team-working skills in the past?' At this point, I realised that although I'd had a great time doing various stuff over the years, (a) I didn't seem to have covered all those skills in a very convincing way and (b) in any case I'd pretty much forgotten the details of how exactly I'd teamworked and so on. Having the wonderfull opportunity of another year at university, where getting involved with a variety of societies, schemes and so on is very very easy, it was obvious that now was the time to try and remedy (a) by going and doing some more stuff, and (b) by writing it all down this time- a pain, but worth it when it comes to those forms. I intend to buy a special notebook and record every meeting/ session/ whatever looking carefully in terms of skills used, so that I won't have to be poking through my memory in future. Of course, this itself is a prime example of Skill No. 274, Learning and Improving- and believe me, if I do nothing better in this field over the next year, I will be making this work its hardest.

So there you have it, a nice mixture of bright-eyed enthusiasm and cynical pragmatism. I'm hoping the latter can be confined to the initial decision to join in and the record keeping; still, I suppose a bit of practicality could come in handy for the projects themselves...

Incidentally, I should add that I'm genuinely interested in the environmental lifestyle promotion volunteer role for itself, as well as because it's something to get involved in- I have some ideas I really hope I get the chance to put into practice, and if I can help reduce our collective impact on climate change by even a small amount, I'll be happy, because it all adds up. I'd also like to mention that, in characteristic LSE fashion (I haven't got time to go into it all now but my impression of the place is that it's not that great with the whole making sense thing), it's not 100% clear whether I'm even eligible for the role, having already got a place in halls- the wording could be interpreted as meaning that you're supposed to apply as part of your residence application, since it mentions 'places reserved in halls' for the position- possibly you get reduced rent or something and they have to assign you to a hall after choosing you as a volunteer. As I say, I'm really not sure- and although I can't deny a reduction in rent would be nice, I'm also perfectly happy with doing it for no financial incentive, should I be chosen. 1) and 2) are reward enough.