 |
 |
| |
|
|
|
| |
Archive for the ‘STUDENTS AND GRADUATES’ Category
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
- It does help if you have undertaken some work placements as an undergraduate. This can be a formal part of your degree, e.g. a sandwich course. You can also apply for summer placements with companies.
- If there are some career paths you are interested in see if you can shadow a key member of staff for a day or a week. You will learn far more about your particular possible career through this than you would if you were doing lower level temping.
- Temping whether it be in an office or factory can give you experience in many key areas. When you complete the assignment, make a note of what you have learnt from it ready for when you apply for jobs.
- Employers want to recruit people who are team players, so look to demonstrate these skills in your work placement. Be helpful and look for ways to get involved.
- What skills and abilities would be helpful in your ideal job? Look for ways to develop some of these skills in your undergraduate life. Could you take on a leadership role in a club or society? What about fundraising for developing certain skills?
- Think about the impression you will give if you can add only limited details on your time at university. If you can only list socialising what does this tell a future employer? Then think about what employers will think if you are an officer of a society, or have been involved in some voluntary occupation. Whatever you do, it doesn’t have to be a 3 year commitment, and does not have to cover many different societies, so choose a couple of societies that interest you and that you want to be involved with.
- Don’t feel that you have to fill all your spare time with work and activities, being a student is a wonderful time so make sure that you allow some time to build friendships and to make times for your friends.
- After a work placement make a note about what you enjoyed and would like more of, and what you didn’t get a chance to do. See if you can get these needs met next time.
- Placements can lead on to permanent job offers or graduate training schemes, so make sure you demonstrate good personal qualities while you are there. Even when asked to do what you consider menial tasks, do so with good grace. Be helpful.
- Do you know what your abilities are? You could choice to have these assessed via a qualified psychologist. See http://www.amazingpeople.co.uk/highlandsabilitybattery.htm
Want some help, have a comment, use the comment box below or get in touch with me at www.amazingpeople.co.uk
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
Email This Post
|
 Print This Post
|
Permalink |
Comments (1)
Spread the word:
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
An article in today’s Independent Newspaper says that the graduates of 2010 are going to struggle to get a job when they graduate next summer.
Graduate jobs will still be available, and published figures from High Flyers Research says that for the first time in 3 years the number of graduate jobs is set to rise, but many of these will go to last years graduates. Either because they had been offered a job which had been deferred or because over this year they have gained relevant work experience.
But there will still be graduates from 2009 who have yet to find their ideal job, and alongside this years graduates there is a need to do everything possible to secure a job.
I encourage all my younger clients to start thinking about a graduate job before they go to university, if I’ve started work with them at 16-18. There’s a need to be savvy, thinking about where you can gain relevant experience to enhance their CV – both from paid work and also through activities gained at university such as involvement in voluntary work and societies, and the more relevant this is to the sort of job you want to do the better.
The Independent article says: ‘Half of student job-hunters have little confidence they will find a graduate position and a third are planning to remain at university for postgraduate studies. "For those who have yet to begin job-hunting, the chances of landing a place on a graduate programme in 2010 are looking increasingly slim," added Mr Birchall.’
But staying on for a masters degree may just be postponing getting a job and not doing much to enhance job prospects. It has to be a well thought through decision or you will be a year or two older or even more in debt.
- entry level positions
- voluntary work
- paid internship
- unpaid internship
All of these will lead to great examples to include on your CV and thus help in your quest for a decent job.
I’ve also written a few articles that you may find interesting
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
|
Permalink |
Add Comment
Spread the word:
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Graduate Talent Pool is a new initiative developed by the Government to help recent graduates gain relevant work experience.
I’ve been in London today talking on a number of radio stations to move beyond the information provided and to answer questions. Radio presenters differ in style and approach and some like to throw in a ‘curve ball’ but anything to do with helping people get a job is well within my area of knowledge!
The current situation is that there is a greater number of graduates looking for work at the same time as a reduction in the number of job vacancies thus making getting a job more challenging – it’s a very competitive market out there. So graduates can’t assume they will get a graduate job and need to think more widely. So there is a need for different options such as:
· non graduate jobs, so you can work your way up
· paid internships
· unpaid internships
· voluntary work
· work placement
· setting up own business
· overseas travel including teaching English as a foreign language
· further study
The focus of the radio interviews was on the internship option.
Internships are a great way of gaining relevant work experience to help enhance a CV and thus help a graduate get the job they want. They have always been available but now 10,000 extra placements have been created and some of these have deadlines in December, hence raising this now.
You can read my whole article here: http://www.amazingpeople.co.uk/pdf/Grad_Talent_Pool-1.doc
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
|
Permalink |
Add Comment
Spread the word:
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Parents will often contact me to ask for some advice about their son/daughter. Recently I had an enquiry from the father of an 18 year old. What I said to him was:
18 can be so young to have to make decisions about a young persons future. When young people lack motivation it can be hard for us on the side lines. We want to help but we can’t give them our enthusiasm. It was great for him to be offered a place at music college but also scary, especially if it meant having to learn to read music.
So he is currently working as a door supervisor and helping out at the pub but what next?
I’m regularly approached by parents who want help for their child, and the question I always ask is: ‘does your son/daughter want help’ and as you have indicated maybe your son doesn’t want help.
Probably the best thing to do is to direct him to my web site: http://www.amazingpeople.co.uk/students.htm and see if he wants to get in touch. If he did then I’d be able to help but unless he is willing to put in some effort it will be money wasted.
I work very well with young people and have had some great results and helped young people work out what they want to do and get there but there is a need for them do things to. I’ve been disappointed in the past when clients haven’t taken action and so seek to ensure clients are motivated before I take them on.
I hope this is helpful
Kind regards
Denise Taylor
Winner of 2 National Career Awards – The Gold Career Programme (November 2007); The Job Search Support Programme (November 2009)
Author of www.howtogetajobinarecession.com; ‘Winning Interview Answers for First Time Job Hunters’ and the forthcoming ‘Now You’ve Been Shortlisted’, out January 2010.
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
|
Permalink |
Add Comment
Spread the word:
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
Reading a recent issue of the BPS Research Digest was an interesting article. It talks about how university students will put off writing an essay because of other, more pleasant things like watching Bargain Hunter of Ricki Lake. There is always tomorrow to get something done. This is not just students, I know many people who do this in their working life, i’ve been tempted to do it every now and again as well!
The article says that people plan to work smarter and harder when they start work, but a longitudinal study found that students who looked for ways to avoid doing work related tasks were more likely to be pessimistic later on in life – to feel disengaged from their job and to report experiencing work-related burnout.
Katariina Salmela-Aro and colleagues recruited 292 students and had them complete the "success expectation scale" and the "task-avoidance scale" and then followed them many years later and asked them to fill in measures of work burnout and work engagement.
Turning the results the other way around, students who were optimistic and focused at university tended to be more engaged in their working lives and to avoid burnout. The researchers said that so-called "achievement strategies" are more modifiable than personality traits and that there could therefore be value in university interventions that promote optimistic strategies and reduction in task avoidance.
"No previous study has examined how achievement strategies contribute over longer time periods or examined the consequences they have for people’s working life and career adaptation," the researchers said.
Read the full article using the following link
Salmela-Aro, K., Tolvanen, A., & Nurmi, J. (2009). Achievement strategies during university studies predict early career burnout and engagement.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75 (2), 162-172
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.03.009
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
|
Permalink |
Add Comment
Spread the word:
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
As students go up to University, what can they do to help with their future career prospects? Read on …
1. It does help if you have undertaken some work placements as an undergraduate. This can be a formal part of your degree, e.g. a sandwich course. You can also apply for summer placements with companies.
2. If there are some career paths you are interested in see if you can shadow a key member of staff for a day or a week. You will learn far more about your particular possible career through this than you would if you were doing lower level temping.
3. Temping whether it be in an office or factory can give you experience in many key areas. When you compete the assignment make a note of what you have learnt from it ready for when you apply for jobs.
4. Employers want to recruit people who are team players, so look to demonstrate these skills in your work placement. Be helpful and look for ways to get involved.
5. What skills and abilities would be helpful in your ideal job? Look for ways to develop some of these skills in your undergraduate life. Could you take on a leadership role in a club or society? What about fundraising for developing certain skills?
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
|
Permalink |
Add Comment
Spread the word:
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
I worked with a younger client yesterday. Wondering whether she should go to University or not. There seems to be so much pressure on young people to go to university but is it the right thing for someone to do?
There really is a need to weigh up a number of things
- Why do you want to go to university – do you really want to spend 3 years studying a particular subject?
- How much debt, realistically, will you get into – how long will it take you to get straight
- What job do you want to do? Is the degree essential?
- How else could you get relevant experience? If you want to work in tourism and think your first job after graduation is likely to be as a hotel receptionist, could you get a job doing this through applying direct
- If you don’t know what it is you want to do then it might be worth taking this next year to get clearer on what you want?. Talk with people who are doing a job that interests you via fact finding interviews and listen to what they say. Does the job really interest you?
If you have no idea what you want to do then spending some time with a careers advisor is likely to help – get some ideas based on your interests, abilities and personality and then spend some time reading up on these options.
Going to university is a great way to make friends and have a wonderful social life, but it is also a very expensive way of doing this – is it worth it, especially if within a year you realise you have made a wrong choice and drop out.
Don’t forget – so many people leave university with 20k plus of debt, and still no idea what it is want to do, and also a degree alone is unlikely to differentiate you , you still need work experience and people skills.
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
|
Permalink |
Add Comment
Spread the word:
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
This past month I’ve been contacted by 3 parents, all of whom wanted advice on behalf of their sons. One of the emails is typical: “I am looking into what assistance there is available for my son. He got a 2:1 B eng degree in Sports Engineering last summer, but is still at home working in a pub. We are not clear what his motivation or direction is?”
It’s so hard isn’t it we want our young adults to find a career that suits them but it isn’t always easy, and we can’t do things for them. Some young people have worked so long and hard for A levels and a degree that they need some time to chill out a bit and reflect on what they want to do in a career.
This can be time well spent if people are looking into what they want to do but too often the weeks turn into months and then a whole year has gone by. This means when they start applying for graduate jobs they are competing against the current graduates as well.
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
|
Permalink |
Add Comment
Spread the word:
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
I don’t work with many school leavers, and direct them to Connexions as the service they provide is free, but I do appreciate how hard it is for people leaving education at 15, 18, 21+ getting their first job.
Companies want people with experience, and for many jobs that school leavers used to get – shop assistants, junior admin workers etc., companies can now take on older workers with years of experience and are choosing these instead.
Much more help should be provided by the government, but getting government to take action is like watching the titanic try and steer away from an iceberg.
In The Guardian today they write ‘Among those leaving school at 16 or 17 – a group with few rights to benefits – fully two-thirds are now classed as either jobless or dropouts’ and let’s hope that the government offer of training for this group does happen. For many of this group, they need basic skills training.
Since the recession began, unemployment among under-25s has risen from 700,000 in February 2008, to 928,000 this June, with a jobless rate for those aged 16-24 at 19.1%.
So what can be done? Graduates are taking on intern jobs, unpaid work experience, but you need parental support to help with living expenses. I was listening to someone on the radio the other day who has been an unpaid intern for a year before getting his first job, few can afford to do this.
We all need to do what we can to help the young people we know develop skills to make them more employable and to ensure they present themselves well when they do get an interview – to make sure they look presentable, and know how to answer interview questions by giving specific examples. It’s also about enthusiasm, and interest in the job, whatever it may be.
It is a tough time, and thankfully I have a job, but if I didn’t I’d be putting time into developing myself, making sure I could type, and develop other relevant skills. Money is available from the government to pay for training so seek advice from Connexions or Job Centre Plus.
And don’t give up … things will improve, it will just take time
Posted in STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
|
Permalink |
Add Comment
Spread the word:
Friday, July 17th, 2009
If you know what you want to do, but can’t get a job doing it why not create your own? Many companies will take on Interns. Sometimes there is a formal programme, but other times a company may be open to you creating something – you get work experience to put on your CV, they get an enthusiastic member of staff. In The Wall Street Journal careers section (May 5th) there is a write up on Nora Cook who is on a 9 month, 20 hour a week internship and she stands a good chance of getting a paid job once she has this experience on her CV.
You need to find someone to talk with in the company, go in for a fact finding interview and then be proactive to suggest how you could help. The more you have found out and find out about the company, the easier it is to see how you could fit in and where you will learn relevant skills.
If you would like to find out more on how to undertake fact finding interviews, there is a chapter in my book – How to get a job in a recession.
The article is very good and I recommend you read it.
Posted in Job Hunting in a Recession, STUDENTS AND GRADUATES
Email This Post
|
Print This Post
|
Permalink |
Add Comment
Spread the word:
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
