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Post Graduate Career Advice-Top CV Tips for Postgraduates
Post graduate career advice is very important for any individual that is seeking great employment opportunities that are commensurate with the degree that they have obtained. In order to increase their chances of obtaining employment that they desire, and are qualified for, it is paramount that individuals seek to obtain the best methodology, techniques, and advice, possible in order to make their employment dreams come true. Postgraduate career advisers can be helpful in assisting individuals in obtaining meaningful employment.
A very important CV Tip is to be sure to tailor the academic credentials that you choose to list in your CV, to the specific type of audience that will be reading your CV or application. It is important to get a thorough knowledge of what the employers for the job that you are seeking are specifically looking for from job applicants. Seek to ensure that you list the academic credentials that are pertinent to the job, and the needs of the employers who will be reviewing your application. You should make an earnest effort to list your credentials in order of their priority for the job that you are seeking to obtain.
The work experience that you have is an important component of your CV or job application. In many cases work experience is much more important than academic achievements, due to the fact that work experience shows an actual ability to perform the duties that are required in the job that you are seeking. It is paramount that you include the dates of employment for each job that you have held, and only those jobs that require skills that are pertinent to the job that you are applying for should be listed.
A big mistake that many postgraduate job seekers make is developing a cluttered CV, with the hopes that a great deal of information will impress those that are reviewing the CV. Although it is important to present all of the pertinent information that is needed on your CV, it is equally important to develop a simple and concise CV. Due to the fact that most employers spend less than a minute scanning your CV, it is important that it is easy to read, with all pertinent information being readily available.
Post graduate career advice will save an individual much time and expense. This advice will greatly increase the chances that a postgraduate will efficiently find good employment.
Is Your Job Making You Stupid?
I know in these down economic times when unemployment is at an all-time high it is difficult to even contemplate giving up a job for any reason. In his book “No More Dreaded Mondays” Dan Miller asks, “Is your job making you stupid?” and that is indeed a very good question to ask yourself when you have become extremely unhappy with your current employment situation.
Many of us only thrive when we are in creative mode or are actively engaged in thought processes. Unfortunately, many jobs or bosses tend to try to stifle that trait. The “Do it because I said to do it and do not ask questions” type of attitude is a difficult pill to swallow if you are a creative type. If you are forced to remain in this situation and find yourself repeating the same actions over and over without thought you are effectively shutting down your ability to think on your feet. Over time, performing tasks as if you are a robot becomes second nature.
The old adage, “If you don’t use it you will lose it” is very appropriate for this situation. Once you turn your brain off it is hard to turn it back on again. When you find yourself becoming very dissatisfied with your job and the thought of Monday almost makes you feel physically ill, perhaps it is your brain protesting and it is time to take a look at just why you hate your job so much.
If you decide that your distaste for your job is the lack of input on your part then it is up to you to find a way to inject your creativity back into the workplace. Does your company offer incentives for suggestions on how to improve productivity? If you know that there is a better way to do something, why not offer your solution? Is your boss the type that is sympathetic to their employees needs? If so, make a point of discussing your need for innovative thinking. If, on the other hand, your boss is most likely to respond with, “If you don’t like your job I can think of 20 others who would love to have it.” it is not likely a good idea to let them know you are unhappy with your lot.
Perhaps it is time to consider going out on your own and becoming an entrepreneur? If you feel your job is making you stupid and you no longer can face another dreaded Monday you can take your knowledge, your experience and your creative thinking and turn it into a positive step forward. If there are no jobs available that fill your needs then you should consider creating one.
Do Companies Treat Single and Married Employees Equally?
The truth about singles in the workplace is changing with the pace of the modern world. Do companies treat single and married employees equally? Until recently this has probably not been true. In most cases, the married couples fared better than single persons in the general work population. But that is finally showing signs of changing.
Singles in the workforce now make up just under half of the full-time United States workforce. This is even more complicated by the modern world of diverse family units and different life responsibilities. There are many more singles in the workplace now, some having or not having dependent children. The facts have shown this is such a large group of employees, that the modern employer has to consider this into the new working demographic and wage equation.
The incentives that it takes to keep a single employee at a job are also different from with married couples. Most importantly is that a single person needs higher wages and better benefits to stay with an employer for the long-term. This is sometimes more expensive for the employer, especially if the single person takes advantage of overtime hours throughout the year. The single person becomes both an asset and a possible liability if they stay with an employer long enough. Salaries are somewhat less enticing to single workers, but benefits are generally not.
Singles in the job market has become a population that has social needs and encouragements which translate into work friendly policies for singles. Modern employee demographic categories now are addressing single parents, childless married couples, unmarried couples living together, and unmarried singles. The large numbers of singles in the workforce has brought on the need for policies that reflect this group in the job market of the new millennium.
Today more than ever the workforce in the United States is populated by single persons, but many of them are supporting children just as married couples. The income of single workers is having to meet the needs of both their lifestyle and often they are also paying for child support. Nothing can make the single person keep working for an employer who does not recognize their needs. The modern cost of living for any single person is more expensive than it ever has been before. Singles in the workplace today have more options and rights that are finally being addressed with long overdue equality.
What is a Career Coach and How Can They Help Me Find a Job?
What everyone should know about a career coach
A person who specializes in helping other people find, reach and achieve their career dreams is known as job or career coach. This field of profession is continuously growing due to the fact that there are plenty of people who are dissatisfied with their current job. If you are in a position that you need to re-enter the working world, find a the suitable position for you or find a job that perfectly fits your personality and desired lifestyle of choice, then you are a prime candidate for hiring your personal career coach.
At the initial stages, a job coach typically asks a several questions that are specifically designed to draw out information about the client’s life goals and job experience. Another purpose of the questionnaires is to allow the job coach to determine the client’s personality and qualifications for potential positions. During these questions, it is normal for the job coach to record the whole event. After assessing the client’s answers, the job coach then talks to the client. Informing the client on his or her weaknesses and strengths, and consulting with the client in formulating future goals.
Although, the job coach and client work together, but in the end, the client has the last say on what goals he or she is going to set and pursue. The goals can be setup in a way that one goal is a stepping-stone to reach another goal. An example of these goals can be like a goal to move higher in the corporate ladder, or goal to attain higher level of education. These stepping stone goals are designed in such a way that the client will land himself on a job that he or she truly loves and enjoy doing. After the goals are in place, the next aspect that needs to be discussed would be the timeline of achieving the goals.
After the timeline setting of the goal, the client can proceed on achieving such goals, while the job coach offer advice and encouragement. A job coach’s encouragement may come wide range of forms. Sometimes a simple congratulations greeting would do, while sometime the occasion may demand for a more involved and complex form of congratulations.
Another useful aspects of having a job coach is that they help a client find a job by providing critical information about possible job openings, and imparting specific strategies and advice when it comes to applying for a specific position. Also, a job coach helps a client put together the vital paperwork to make a great application. The career coach may also do simulation interviews to help the client through the process.
A Career Coach Can Help You Through Your Career Transition
Think about this: for the first fifteen to twenty years of our lives, most of us grow in a structured environment under the supervision of mature educators. Then when it is time to start earning a living, that support structure is dropped right out from under us. Think about all the things you learned between birth and high school. Now imagine what you could do if you had a personal teacher to help you learn a new, more profitable career! It is certainly cheaper than going to college and could be done throughout the rest of your career.
A career coach may bring to mind the super motivators who put on conferences and yell things to get you pumped up, but I want to separate that image in your mind from the often humble, unassuming people who care about others and were born to help them through a life-altering career transition. These people can help and are interested in working one-on-one with you to figure out what lies ahead. They are interested in long-term relationships that are beneficial for both people and ultimately make the world a better place. It may sound cheesy as you read this, but really is that not what everyone would like to see happen as a result of their contribution to the workplace?
Job Search Tips – How to Overcome Your Lack of Experience
If you are new to the job market, your lack of experience may be holding you back from employment. But how do you get experience when you have never had a job in your current field? It is a catch 22 situation. You need a job to get experience but you need experience to get a job.
There are several ways you can gain pre-employment experience. Internships, volunteer work and collaborations are great ways for you to both make valuable connections and gain that all important experience for future employment.
While these types of situations do not pay a salary, you gain the benefits of work related experience and you build relationships with team members, employers and sometimes clients. When the time comes, you can call upon those people as references or get referrals for jobs with other companies. Although you are not technically employed under these circumstances, the references you get from your internship or volunteer connections will carry the same weight on a resume as a previous employer.
Quite often these internships turn into job offers. When a company you are interning with has a job opening, they will offer the job to the most reliable source. Since you are already involved with the company, they have seen your work and they know your work ethics, it makes sense for them to offer you a job rather than spending time and money searching for an unknown person.
By doing an internship or volunteer work, you are setting yourself up to be in the right place at the right time. If the internship does not result in a job offer, simply ask for a referral. If you have done a good job during your internship and have built a positive relationship with the company they will be happy to recommend you to other businesses.
Job Search Tips – Informational Interviews for Post-Grads
The competition for jobs for post-grad students is often very stiff. The influx of fresh faces in the market with a limited number of positions available can make it challenging to get a relevant position right off the hop. Using Informational Interviews as a tool for giving yourself an advantage over your peers is time well spent.
What exactly is an Informational Interview?
An Informational Interview is a business appointment you will make with prospective employers within your industry where you can gather information about the real-world circumstances of your field of interest. Generally during this type of meeting, there is no job position being discussed. This gives both you and the employer the benefit of not being under any stress and the advantage of possibly asking questions that you would not typically ask during a job interview. You are free to ask about salaries, vacation and benefits. You may also get to speak with others who are currently employed in your desired position and get a good sense of what the daily duties of the job really are.
Often we find that the real-life experience of working in the field is far different than the one we have pictured in our minds. The Informational Interview will help to clarify the expectations that employers will have of you when you begin working in your industry.
Conducting an Informational Interview
If you have made your intent well known when you have set up the appointment, you will be meeting with a pleasant and helpful worker who can give you a tour of the business and introduce you to various employees that you will be interested in speaking to.
Remember that this interview is being conducted during the normal hours of business so you should expect to spend a bit of time waiting in lobbies or waiting rooms for employees to clear up some time in their schedule to chat with you.
Dress for the Informational Interview as you would if you were working in their office. You do not want to dress too casually or overdress for the meeting. You need to look like you belong there so do a bit of research ahead of time to discover what their dress-code is. Generally speaking, dressing in business casual attire is fairly safe.
Know the name of the person you will be meeting with and make sure you know the proper pronunciation of their name. Do a bit of research on the company ahead of time so you have a good understanding of what products they sell or what services they provide.
Prepare a list of questions you wish to ask ahead of time. You will have different questions for the various people you may talk to during the appointment. Your questions to the employees will be different than the questions you may have for supervisors.
You want to spend as much time as possible during the interview engaging people in relevant conversation. Don’t spend a lot of your time writing during the interview. Instead, make notes as soon as possible after the conclusion of the meeting while everything is still fresh in your memory.
Following up after the Informational Interview
After the interview, follow up with a thank you note addressed to the person who gave you the tour of the company as well as the original contact person. Thank them for the positive experience and for the insight it has given you. At this time, you may wish to submit your resume for their consideration should a position within their company arise.
If you have made a positive, lasting impression during your informational interview, they will put your resume at the top of their list of people to call when a position is available. This gives you a very definite advantage over any other applications they may receive as they can already visualize you in the position because they can put a face to the resume.
Job Search Tips – Job Interview vs Informational Interview
If you are newly entering the employment market within your field, you should consider doing a series of informational interviews with companies that interest you. An informational interview is different than a job interview in that you are not interviewing for a specific position. The goal is to establish a contact and to discover whether you are truly interested in working for that specific company.
Many job seekers consider informational interviews to be a waste of their time because you spend a great deal of time waiting around in lobbies and only speaking to people for a few moments at a time when the company may not even have any job postings available. The smart job seeker will understand the importance of making a face-to-face impression on a potential employer. When a position within the company arises, you will have an advantage over all of the other resumes the company receives in that they will already be able to put a face to the piece of paper.
Giving yourself an edge in today’s job search market is becoming more and more important with the increase in the number of applications that every employer is receiving. Competition for every job posting is at an all-time high. You want to be the first person they will call when an job opening does present itself.
If you have left a positive impression with the company during your informational interview, they may not even post the position. They will remember you and will call you for an interview before opening it to the general public.
Often what starts off as an informational interview will turn into a job interview so be prepared. Make sure you have your resume and a list of references with you and are ready to answer any questions they may ask you.
Job Search Tips -How do you find a job by networking?
Although there is a great deal of buzz about the internet being a great source for job leads, the fact is that almost 90% of jobs are filled through “networking”. In an on-line survey of 3,000 job site users, only about 4% found their last job through the Internet, 6% through temp agencies, 23% through newspaper ads, and 40% through referrals.
Fortune magazine reported that one search firm site attracted 250,000 applicants who each spent about three hours filling out an online form. Out of those people only 350 actually got interviews. From those 350 people, only 70 of them ended up with jobs. Those are the odds you are facing if you only look to the internet as your source of job leads.
Effective strategy for creating and utilizing your network effectively.
Begin by thinking of everyone you know that may, even remotely, help you find employment. Include as many people as you can think of. These “contacts” do not have to be CEOs of companies, but just everyday people who know you and might be able to help.
Examples are:
Alumni
Drs, Dentists
Faculty
Service Groups (Rotary and Lion’s Club)
Fraternities and Sororities
Religious Groups
Neighbors
Friends
Family
Past or present co-workers and supervisors
Fellow job seekers
People working in your desired field or a related field
People living in your geographic preference
Get the idea? Don’t exclude anyone that may not work in the field. You might not think you know a lot of people, but you are in contact with people everyday that may know be of help.
Next, contact these people. Don’t say “I’m looking for a job”. Instead, tell them you would like their valued advice. You may have just graduated or you may have just lost your job. You want to firstly let these people know you see them as a seasoned professional that can give you guidance on how best to use your education or experience within your field.
Let the conversation naturally lead to the topic of employment and if they know of any positions or people you may contact. Ask if you may use their name as a referral and reference. You might even ask if they could facilitate an introduction.
From these conversations you will be able to put together a list of prospective employment opportunities that you can follow up. The “friend of a friend of a friend” situation may seem a bit outdated, but the statistics show that it is still very relevant to today’s job seeker.
Job Search Tips – Keeping a Job Search Log to Increase Your Chances of Getting Hired
A Job Search Log is an important key to any successful job search strategy. You can use your day planner or a simple calendar to track your application submissions and followups.
When you ask for a job application always ask for at least two. One will be your draft copy and the other is the final copy you will send to the company. Use the draft copy to fill in your information and then have someone proof read it for mistakes. The final one you submit should be flawless, written in black or blue ink and be mistake free.
Deliver your application in person. Dress for the job any time you have face-to-face contact with the company. Don’t show up in jeans to drop off your application if the dress code for the company is business dress. You must look like you belong there.
Whenever possible, get the name and phone number of the hiring manager anytime you submit your application to a company.
In your Job Search Log, record the date you dropped off the application. Then also place the followup information two days later in your planner. This is the date you will contact the hiring manager to inquire whether they have received your application, if there are currently any positions available and if or when they would like you to follow up on this conversation. Make note of any details in your planner including notes about the person you spoke to. This will help you be more personal and friendly when you contact them again.
Be sure to write the date and manner the hiring manager specified for you to be in touch again about employment with the company. More importantly, make sure you DO follow up exactly as the hiring manager indicated.
Ask for an interview. This might sound silly, but often times just asking for what you want will get the desired results. Your request may initially be turned down, but it might just mean that the hiring manager is not yet prepared for the interviewing stage.
Add the contact name to your planner to call the following week. Stay in touch until the position has been filled. Hopefully you will be the successful candidate, but if not, do not take it personal. Instead, use it as a learning process.
Ask the hiring manager their reason for not selecting you for the position. Do not get defensive. Tell them that you really want to work for their company and ask if there are any skills you could work on improving that would have made a difference in their hiring decision.
This is valuable information. You may think you have great qualifications, but there may be a key component of your skills that you have overlooked. Getting feedback directly from those who do the hiring is invaluable. The important thing is to take that feedback and take action.
January, 2010
(June 2009 issue, page 95)
