CAREER PLANNING FOR YOUR SECOND YEAR Jenny Keaveney Careers and

CAREER PLANNING FOR YOUR
SECOND YEAR
Onwards and upwards – and then?
Jenny Keaveney
Careers and
Employability Service
11th June 2013
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/slides.htm
WHAT THIS TALK WILL COVER
•
•
•
•
Why start planning now?
Choosing a career
Gaining experience
Finding out more
WHY START PLANNING NOW?
• Choosing the right career takes time and thought
• As you progress into Stage 2, your academic
workload will increase!
• Many popular graduate recruiters have early
deadlines for graduate jobs and undergraduate
internships
• Internships will be more important than ever in 2015
graduate recruitment - in a recent survey, 30% of vacancies
with major graduate recruiters last year were expected to be filled by
undergraduates who had had previous work experience with these
organisations, such as internships, placements or vacation schemes
WHY START PLANNING NOW?
“Students in their first or second year
at university need to ask themselves
what job they want to do. It’s
important that they do not wait until
their final year to think about finding a
job, especially in the current market”.
Sarah Shillingford, Graduate Recruitment Partner,
Deloitte
Just some of the options open
to graduates in any subject
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Advertising
Armed Forces
Arts administration
Broadcasting
Computing/IT
Finance
Guidance/Counselling
Heritage Work
Information Management
Journalism
Law
Management Consultancy
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Personnel
Police
Public Sector Management
Public Relations
Publishing
Purchasing
Retail
Sales & Marketing
Social Work
Teaching English as a
Foreign Language
• Teaching in Schools
• Transport and Tourism
So where do you start?
Think about yourself
–
–
–
–
–
–
your
your
your
your
your
your
subject
skills
interests
strengths and weaknesses
personal circumstances
likes and dislikes
Help with self-assessment
and career choice
• Employability Skills leaflet
• Employability Skills section of our website www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skillsmenu.htm
• Choosing a Career booklet and web pages
www.kent.ac.uk/ces/which-career.html
• Prospects Planner careers guidance program –
“What jobs would suit me?”
www.prospects.ac.uk/links/Pplanner
GAINING EXPERIENCE
• You can’t learn everything about careers and
employers from books and websites
• Work experience can help you gain an insight
and decide whether a particular career area
is right for you
• If it is, the experience will be especially
valuable for your future CV …
• … but no experience is ever a waste of time
• You are already building up experience!
GAINING EXPERIENCE
•
•
•
•
•
Vacation experience and internships
Part-time work during term-time
Volunteering
Work-shadowing
Extra-curricular activities
SOME GRADUATE EMPLOYERS
OFFERING SUMMER INTERNSHIPS
•
•
•
•
•
•
SEO London
John Lewis
Credit Suisse
IAESTE
Wellcome Trust
HSBC
31
15
16
14
04
13
Jan
Nov
Dec
Dec
Mar
Jan
(these were the closing dates for summer 2013 internships)
SOME MORE GRADUATE EMPLOYERS
OFFERING SUMMER INTERNSHIPS
•
•
•
•
•
•
Chartered accountancy firms
Retailers
Software companies
Government departments
Law firms
Holiday camps/summer schools
• Small businesses www.step.org.uk
See “Employers offering internships” at
www.kent.ac.uk/ces/work-experience.html
NOT ALL WORK
EXPERIENCE IS ADVERTISED …
You may need to make the first
approach, especially for jobs in the
media, advertising, public relations,
stockbrokers and other popular career
areas.
See our booklet, “The Creative Career
Search” for help with this
NOT ALL EXPERIENCE IS WORK …
It also includes courses and events such as:
• Operational Research Careers Day (Nov)
www.theorsociety.com/Pages/Conferences/CareersOpenDay.aspx
• Shell “Gourami” Business Challenge
http://bit.ly/LtZEdx
• “Careers In” events (London University) – include
Arts Administration, International Development, Media,
Medicine http://www.careers.lon.ac.uk/output/Page114.asp
• Target Chances events – law, finance, IT, etc
http://target-events.co.uk
• Business games, competitions etc
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/jobs/index.htm#NEWSLETTERS/
NOT ALL EXPERIENCE IS WORK
- some of it can be fun!
And any other activities you get involved in:
• Sports
• Societies
• Kent Union
“Join three societies and become actively involved
in at least one”
Alan Richardson, Graduate Recruitment, Royal Bank
of Scotland Group
“WORK EXPERIENCE” ALSO INCLUDES
• Volunteering
–
–
–
–
teaching
social care
media
development
• Work shadowing
• And all those part-time or casual jobs
you do just to bring in some money
WHY?
“The more you enjoy university life, the more you’ll
get out of it. Employers like you to have what they
call “customer-facing experience”. You’ll get loads
of that if you take a part-time job or work as a
student volunteer. It’s a terrific help if you can
understand how businesses work, show you can get
things done and apply simple common sense. It was
my work experience that gave me all these things,
not my academic course”
Kate, marketing officer with a PR agency
WHY?
“If you’ve spent time at university finding out
what you enjoy and what you are good at
(or the opposite!) it will help you to develop an
idea of what you’re aiming for when you leave.
Even if the picture of your ideal job is still hazy,
you’ll know enough to avoid drifting into one
that’s completely wrong for you”
(Association of Graduate Recruiters)
OTHER WAYS TO HELP YOUR CAREER
• The Careers Employability Award
• Employability Points Scheme
Careers Employability Award
• This will greatly improve your career planning and
jobhunting skills, giving you strategies to make
appropriate career choices and will increase your
chances of getting a graduate job
• Takes about 12 hours to complete – all done on-line
via Moodle
• Assessed by quizzes and assignments with feedback
provided online
• www.kent.ac.uk/careers/moodle.htm
THE CAREERS EMPLOYABILITY AWARD
How it works:
• Register at http://moodle.kent.ac.uk/moodle by
Friday 14th June
• Complete the quizzes, three assignments (including
submission of a CV for critique) and a feedback form
• On completion you will receive a University of Kent
Careers Employability Award certificate
• Available off-campus: you can start on the award as
soon as you register but it cannot be carried over
until next term so you will need to complete by the
end of June
EMPLOYABILITY POINTS
• The Employability Points scheme rewards students
at the University of Kent for active engagement in
extracurricular activities such as:
–
–
–
–
–
Active involvement in societies
Completion of a World language module
Tour Guide for prospective students
Course, School or Faculty rep
Attending CES events and skills training sessions
www.kent.ac.uk/employabilitypoints
WHAT NOW?
1) Think about yourself, what you want
from a career and which careers
might offer this, using:
–
–
Prospects Planner
www.prospects.ac.uk/links/Pplanner
Choosing a Career booklet or website
www.kent.ac.uk/careersChoosing/ChoosingCareer.htm
WHAT NOW?
2) Research careers and employers
- who offers the jobs you are looking for?
- what are they looking for?
- how and when do they recruit?
- what relevant work experience can you
get with them?
How to get to the top of the pile in a very
competitive market place? Do your homework.
Research, Research, Research. (Carl Gilleard, Association of Graduate Recruiters)
WHAT NOW?
3) Start to plan ahead for next term
- deadlines for vac work/internships
- getting involved in activities
- part-time work
- starting to note your skills and
interests
USEFUL INFORMATION SOURCES
• Careers and Employability Service website
www.kent.ac.uk/ces
– including:
– Timeline: when to do what:
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/timeline.htm
– Work Experience
– www.kent.ac.uk/ces/work-experience.html
– Employability skills – what do employers want?
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skillsmenu.htm
– I Want to Work In – brief introductions to 100
different career areas
www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin.htm
USEFUL INFORMATION RESOURCES
• Careers and Employability Service booklets on
Choosing a Career; the Creative Career Search;
Applications and Interviews
• Prospects.ac.uk -sections on special interests
(including Working Abroad) and detailed
descriptions of a wide range of jobs
• TARGET Jobs advice by sector on specific industries;
Employer Insights into individual companies plus
graduate jobs, placements and internships across
every major sector http://targetjobs.co.uk/
The Careers and
Employability Service …
•
•
•
•
•
.. is open throughout the vacation
Careers Resources Room
Careers Advisers – book an appointment or just drop in
Networked PCs and IT resources
Opening times:
– 10.30 – 5.00 Monday
– 9.00 – 5.00 Tuesday-Friday
• or email us:
– careerhelp@kent.ac.uk
• or phone 01227 823480/1