Archive for January 2012
Best Kept Secret to Career Success
Sometimes our best resources can be found right under our noses. How many times have you delighted in discovering something new – a new book, new event, new friend, new company, new place to visit, new product etc and realised that in fact, this information had been right there all along but you just hadn’t seen it or taken any notice of it?
So… let’s have a little think. What might be one of the BEST ways to jump-start your career? Where do you think you can have access to potential employers, cool jobs, work experience and job coaching?
Are you keen to…
- Find out where the graduate jobs are
- Meet with employers and recent graduates and learn first-hand about real life work experience
- Get tips on how employers select students and graduates from hundreds of applicants
- Develop strong communication and interpersonal skills
- Have access to the best career resources
- Gain valuable work experience
If you answered yes to any of the above, you don’t have far to look for these great opportunities. If you are a currently enrolled student apply now to be considered for Vic’s Volunteer Career Assistant Programme. Students who have gone through the programme have told us how much it has helped them with career success. Find out more about the programme and how to apply by going to our ‘Get Involved’ webpage: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/st_services/careers/career_development/get_involved/index.aspx
What are you waiting for? Rock your future by getting involved!
Talking to Potential Employers on the Phone – When and How.
In last week’s Dominion Post dated 28 January, an article titled ‘Phone manner can make or break you’ caught my attention. Graduates are being urged to brush up on their telephone skills as phone interviews become more common in the recruitment process. A tip for job hunters from Hope Millar, Parker Bridge Recruitment:
The main thing to be mindful of is the interviewer’s inability to read body language, which means the tone of voice is very important. Some graduates come across incredibly well on the phone, others not so well but, either way they all need to remember this: make sure you have a good energy and a good tone in your voice. Don’t use colloquialisms, no yeahs and nahs, and definitely no swearing. Just be very professional.
With the new year starting up, Graduate Recruitment is just around the corner, happening in March (Go to the Graduate Recruitment Schedule and Careers Events page on http://careerhub.vuw.ac.nz). Employers, often use telephone interviews as a way of identifying or short listing candidates for employment. You may be interviewed, or at least screened for interviews, through telephone calls. Also, to be aware that service industry jobs such as in customer service, call centre operators, sales and marketing or media and advertising, effective verbal communication skills are a strong competency sort after by employers.
A great job may be just a phone call away. If you follow basic phone etiquette you may be surprised by how many doors you can open. If finding a great job is important to you, don’t miss out on an opportunity because of a silly mistake like making an inappropriate comment or being disrespectful to the receptionist. Be prepared – check out guidelines on phone interview etiquette.
I don’t have a plan – Is that a problem?
People always ask me: What’s your plan? What do you see yourself in three, five or even ten years time? What’s your short/long term goal? What do you want to achieve before you reach 30, 40 and/or 50?
Big questions! …but have I told you I have a syndrome called “plan phobia syndrome”?
No? Well, as the name explains, I will have serious terror/fright when I get questions relating to the word “plan” and/or anything similar to it. And I will go to great lengths to avoid it… Don’t even ask me what I’ll do tomorrow or the next day after, because I don’t have a plan! Experts on such topic would probably be horrified to hear this, but personally I don’t think that’s too much of a problem. Without the restriction of a plan, I find myself with more freedom to manoeuvre, I can also afford to take up some opportunity that I may not have considered.
So, if you are panicking because you haven’t got a big master plan in line for 2012, you are not alone, we’re in the same boat!
I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it without knowing what’s going to happen next. – Gilda Radner, actor
We all have ‘personality flaws’ – what’s your biggest and can you fix it?
We all have ‘personality flaws’ or respond ‘automatically’ to certain situations in negative ways for reasons that we don’t really understand. Often we can even anticipate our response or behaviour, because we know that certain of our responses appear hard-wired. We accept that this is ‘just who we are’ but can we afford to be complacent where these responses impact on others even more than on ourselves? Our hard-wired responses can lead to others labelling those responses as cute and endearing, irritating, maddening or so truly awful that they avoid us. I think that most people recognise their own flaws, and even more readily see flaws in others.
One of my (many) new year’s resolutions is to confront myself a little more honestly and be as self-aware as possible; without totally disappearing inside my head. I won’t give you the complete list of my personal flaws but I will share one that has an impact in the workplace, hopefully more on me than on my colleagues. I dislike, with a passion, standing up as part of a ‘group presentation’. I sulk, often quite visibly, when I have to do something that involves this. I’ll deploy subtle but effective avoidance tactics. When actually presenting I can appear to enjoy it, and I hope that I appear reasonably professional…but the truth is I am so, so, so glad when it’s over.
Why January is a good time for students to do some career planning
We all tend to have new resolutions at the beginning of the year and we are lucky in the Southern hemisphere that it is summer so we may take a holiday too. Even if you don’t get away the days are longer and the sun is out so we feel happier. In this goal setting mood and with a smile on our faces, it is a good time to begin some serious career planning before the start of the academic year.
First year students are getting all excited about starting out at Uni and you are sure going to have a good time. However, before you start, read through the guides explaining what support there is while you study. Also make a note of what you have been doing over the summer and set some goals for what you would like to achieve in addition to your studies in the first year. At Orientation listen out for info on your University Careers Service and make sure you know how to find out about the part-time jobs and where to get help with CV checks.
Making the Most of the Long Weekend
Well the work year is winding back up and there’s still a few people trickling back to work. The process has been made so much easier by having a long weekend after only two weeks back into the grind.
For a long time I didn’t really know how to take long weekends to relax – long weekends were for achieving something big usually something around the house or developing new skills related to my professional development. I once dedicated a long weekend to learning JavaScript and pretty much said to my wife I was going to be in my own little bubble of concentration for the weekend. She was pretty good about it and mostly left me to my own devices. That worked really well actually, I did pick up a new skill which was endlessly useful and it only took a few days.
These days I don’t have that sort of time, I have a little one to look after for one and that alone takes up the majority of my time in the weekends. I still take time to concentrate on my own projects and develop new skills but downtime doing something fun which doesn’t have to be particularly constructive from time to time means that I’m not burnt out for my own projects or during the work week.
What I’m saying is pretty obvious really, it’s about balance and long weekends are a great way to bring things back into balance. That might mean catching up with skills development or catching up with friends – have you been neglecting one of those lately?
“Tell me about a time when you…” A guide to Behavioural/Competency Based Interview Questions
Let’s face it, job interviews are not high on the list of things we love to do but they are, or will be, required of you throughout your life.
I had a chat with a student this week who had been preparing for his interview but he was worried about answering the behavioural/competency based questions. These days these types of questions happen at nearly every formal interview so it is important to get to grips with how to answer them.
Behavioural/competency based interview questions are “designed to probe your previous experiences in order to determine how you might behave in similar situations in the future.” You will give examples of stories from your past which will be “evaluated for evidence of your intellectual competence, leadership, teamwork, personal skills, adjustment and flexibility, motivation, communication skills, administrative skills, and technical abilities.”
“A thorough answer should describe the Situation, the Tasks with which you were charged, the Action you took, and the Result of your action.” This STAR model will provide you with important structure to your answers.
This article from The Drexel University in America describes in great detail what the STAR model is and how to use it to prepare for these questions. See here: http://www.drexel.edu/scdc/resources/STAR%20Method.pdf
What I will add to the above article is to practice your answers! Read as many practice questions and answers as possible and practice them out loud. I’m a big advocate at doing this because the answer always sounds different in your head. If at all possible get someone to listen to your answers. An objective appraisal of how you sound is great feedback.
If you get asked a question you haven’t practiced or anticipated try not to let it throw you off course. It is perfectly acceptable to take a few moments to think of an answer. If necessary, simply tell your interviewer that you “may need to think about this for a few moments”. A few seconds of thinking about what you will say is much better than 10 minutes of rambling. When answering questions you hadn’t anticipated or practiced it can be very easy to let words like “um,” “ya know,” “well,” “like,” “yeah….no” slip into your answer. These are all words we use without thinking but they can indicate uncertainty and a lack of professionalism so be aware of your grammar.
Finally, if you want to see some visual examples of these questions we have some great behavioural/competency based interview DVDs here at Vic Careers that you can come in and view at any stage.
Quotes taken from The Drexel University Careers website.
