Blogs are good for your career! September 20, 2012
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : Interviews, Publishing, The Careers Group Blogs, employability and skills , add a commentOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
Ok so I admit that writing a blog myself means I might be a bit biased on this subject, but I really do think that blogs can be good for your career. Really.
How I hear you ask?
Well, in a number of ways actually.
1) Write your own blog. Not only is this an excellent opportunity for you to develop your writing skills, but it is an immediate way of getting some additional skills and experience that you can mention on your CV. Along with the obvious communication skills etc, it shows initiative, drive and commitment. Writing skills and experience is not only crucial for roles in journalism, marketing and PR. Whatever industry you want to enter, being able to write in a clear and concise way that is suitable for the intended audience is important.
2) Reading other blogs is a great way of keeping up to date with current trends and developments in the area of work you are looking to get in to. Due to the instant update nature of blogs, you can have the very latest information at your fingertips. Use this information at interview or on an application form to show your interest and enthusiasm for the industry. Make yourself stand out from the crowd by being able to show your commercial awareness and understanding of the market through having current knowledge and examples.
So if you are applying for a finance or management job, you may be asked your opinion on the recent budget announcement or the current economic climate. For a marketing or TV role you may be asked what your favourite marketing campaign or television programme is right now and why.
Mentioning to an interviewer that you follow relevent blogs is likely to make you stand out from the crowd, however be prepared to explain which ones you follow, why and what you have learned from them. The BBC alone has hundreds of different blogs, ranging from general news to science or the arts. The same applies with most newspapers too. Depending on your industry of interest, you could choose to read a blog written by a particular journalist who reports on finance, business, politics or health for example. The opportunities are endless!
Commenting on other blogs can be a great part of networking online. As well as getting writing experience, you can build links with other writers. You can then use these contacts within your network to find out more about a particular job, how they got into the industry, what advice they would give to graduates looking for work experience and so on. You never know, if you play your cards right, they might even be able to help you gain further work experience, or even paid work.
There are jobs out there! June 28, 2012
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : The Careers Group Blogs , add a commentOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
If unrelenting coverage of the eurozone crisis and rising unemployment is driving you deeper under the duvet, take a moment to read the following good news which you won’t find in the press:
- Early signs indicate that employment rates amongst 2011 graduates rose slightly, particularly inLondon;
- JobOnline, the student and graduate vacancy site from the University of London, currently holds a record number of vacancies (1,171 at time of writing).
- Graduate training schemes with the big employers (the ones that market themselves heavily on campus) hire just 10% of graduates nationally. Most graduate jobs are with small or medium sized organisations where the competition for each job is far lower than you’ll read about in the press;
- High Fliers (which surveys these same big employers) reported that 50% are expanding their recruitment programmes in 2012;
- Nationwide graduates still have a far higher employment rate and higher salaries than non-graduates – find out more with the 2012 ONS Graduates in Labour Market Survey;
- And if you’re expecting a 2:2 and worried this means your chances of getting a graduate job are over, you’re wrong – read this excellent blog post to find out more…
So, with your sense of hope restored, here are 3 essential tactics for successful job-hunting!
- Finding your first job can feel like a full-time job in itself – that’s normal, job-hunting is really time-consuming: commit time to it and plan a schedule so you spend at least two hours a day making productive progress.
- Be smart about where and how you look for vacancies. Don’t just focus on graduate training schemes with the big employers (or you’ll count out most of your job options!). Avoid unfocused internet searches. Get one-to-one advice from your careers service on networking and where to look for vacancies in your particular area. An effective approach usually includes all or most of the following:
- weekly searches on the specialist vacancy sites for your area (you can find most of these sites listed here www.prospects.ac.uk/links/occupations);
- weekly searches on JobOnline
- targeted networking;
- use of one or two recruitment agencies;
- direct approaches to employers of interest (and regular checks on their websites);
- a flexible approach (e.g. take an internship if it’s in an area of interest).
- If you need help with any of the above – planning your job hunt, finding vacancies, working out what sort of job would suit you, writing applications, practising interview skills – many careers services are open all summer.There are jobs out there…
Get a unique insight into City Careers May 31, 2012
Posted by Rosalind Kemp in : Finance, The Careers Group, city jobs, employability and skills, further study and training, networking , add a comment
The City Course takes place 17 to 20 September 2012 and offers a fantastic opportunity for students and graduates from The University of London to find out about careers in the city.
The week involves spending time in the offices of major city employers getting a sense and feel of the place and networking with employees. There’ll also be excellent practise at group exercises.
Employers taking part include:
- PwC
- Bloomberg
- ICAEW
- Accenture
- Standard Chartered
- Slaughter & May
- Bank of England
- FSA
- Barclays Capital
- Lloyds
This is a massive opportunity to develop your knowledge of what careers there are in the City and how City sectors work together.
You can find out more, and apply, at www.careers.lon.ac.uk/city and follow the Careers in the City Facebook page for updates. Deadline for applications is 22 June 2012.
Science jobs – think outside the laboratory box May 24, 2012
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : Science & Engineering, The Careers Group Blogs , add a commentOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
If you are a student studying a life science degree you are probably aspiring to work within a laboratory after your studies. Why wouldn’t you? That is what a life science degree trains you to do, right? Well that is one option, but, if you think more broadly there are many more alternatives. Just think beyond your laboratory skills and knowledge.
You will have developed your written and spoken communication skills during your degree, especially if you have been involved in some of the many societies in your university. As well as developing a scientific knowledge, you will also have developed the language and jargon that is used in a scientific environment. This language will prove very useful within a scientific organisation.
With this in mind, think about which organisations deal with science and/or life science. These organisations will employ many people, many of whom do not do laboratory research. Your science knowledge and vocabulary will be welcomed in these environments. Jo Brodie, who is a science communicator, has drawn up a comprehensive list of organisations that are associated with science, with links to their job sites.
This site is well worth a look to spark your imagination and encourage you to think beyond laboratory research. Look at the job options, see what skills they require, then think about how you can develop these during your degree!
Finance Industry Insight: what is interdealer broking? April 2, 2012
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : Finance, Finance & IT, The Careers Group Blogs, city jobs , 2commentsOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
In careeers you get to find out about new areas of work and new job titles all the time. These come about because of the way industry has to respond to the rapidly changing world. A friend of mine is a Social Media Monitoring Officer. These jobs didn’t exist a few years ago! Sometimes it can be hard to find out about what particular or specialist job involves, because there is so little information out there. One question we had recently was about interdealer broking. This is what we found out:
Interdealer broking is about bringing buyers and sellers together to execute a transaction. In this field there are two kinds of broking: electronic broking and voice broking (human brokers). With the electronic broking the most common deals are FX-transactions ? these are foreign exchange transactions. It?s easy to buy and sell on the FX market. For more complex products, you need a person to negotiate before an agreed transaction can be reached. In these instances voice broking is used. For example, if two banks were to trade with each other the interdealer voice broker would transact the bond based on instructions receive from the traders at each of the banks.
Due to the recent financial crises there is a lot of new legislation around transparency, which the industry will have to adapt to, as well as greater obligation to transact through electronic mediums. Technology evolving rapidly also means that the broking industry has to constantly adapt.
Going digital – The future of working in marketing… March 22, 2012
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : Marketing, The Careers Group Blogs , add a commentOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
Are you interested in working in marketing? Marketing has moved far beyond billboards, magazine ads and radio and television commercials. Like everything else the marketing industry is getting increasingly digital and data-driven. Marketing is all about finding the target audience and increasingly, like you reading this now, marketing has moved online. Advertisements can be found cleverly woven into blogs, social media sites, emails and text messages.
What does this mean for your future jobs?
As marketing becomes more and more focused on digital content, the marketing industry is looking to recruit people who have experience and a clear understanding of the potential of digital marketing. Being able to understand and target your particular demographic via Facebook, blogs, and Google searches is now a crucial skill for many marketing roles. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a fancy name for where your website ranks in Google searches. Companies of all sizes are spending a lot of money to ensure their website ranks high and grabs visitors.
Digital marketing also gives marketers endless data to analyse and use in order to target their key audiences. Google Analytics for example, can tell a business who looks at their website, what they looked at, for how long and when (among many other details). Marketers use these details to target their campaigns like never before.
How do I get digital marketing experience?
The plus side of digital marketing is it’s not just for the big brand names. Companies of all sizes are using Google Adwords or Facebook ad campaigns to get their businesses recognised. Google Analytics is free for any website. Any organisation or person can create a Facebook, Twitter or blog. Employers will be impressed if you’ve done any online marketing for clubs, societies or events. If you are working part-time at a shop or restaurant you can always ask them if you can help with their social media or website.
Where are the jobs? The latest facts and figures… January 13, 2012
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : Industry Focus, employability and skills , add a commentOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
We’ve looked into some of the facts behind the headlines about job market prospects for 2012. Here are a few points you may like to keep in mind as you seek employment or work experience.
Recent research
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) published a UK employment outlook in November 2011. You might be surprised to know that despite the current economic situation, at least 60% of organisations represented definitely do intend to recruit over the coming months.
Take a look at the full report here.
So where are the jobs?
Graduate schemes continue to exist and are mainly (though not solely) run by large organisations, making up around 20% of graduate recruitment annually. Competition for places can be fierce. Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) will get around 30,000 applications from graduates this year for a few hundred places.
Don’t let this put you off applying. Do let it motivate you to put in an outstanding application and have other options in your search strategy. Come and have a Quick Query session with Careers to discuss how. There is a trend for large companies to recruit from the pool of graduates they already know from internships and placements, so think about building your work experience and getting an internship too.
Graduate jobs are not just found in large companies offering graduate schemes. Over 20 million people are employed in the UK* in SMEs (Small to Medium sized Enterprises**). These organisations make up 99% of all UK businesses, yet these vacancies are often overlooked by graduates. Often this is because these companies are not as visible on campus and can be harder to find.
How to include SMEs in your job and work experience search
SME opportunities are not advertised as widely as those with major corporations. They certainly exist, so your curiosity and research skills will help you find them. A great first step is to get to know who’s doing what in your sector. Trade and industry publications (like The Economist, Marketing Week and The New Scientist etc) are really useful for undcovering companies, alongside talking to anyone you know in the industry.
To find out how to identify useful resources for finding unadvertised jobs including trade associations, directories and more, book a Quick Query session take a look at the Resources section of the Queen Mary Careers website.
Take a look too at the STEP programme at www.step.org.uk which links ‘talented and ambitious graduates with project focussed placements’ in the SME sector. Current roles advertised include Deputy Venue Logistics Managers for the 2012 Olympics.
*Source: HECSU report 2010
** SMEs are defined by the European Commission as having less than 250 employees and annual turnover under Euro 50 million.
Graduate schemes in unlikely places April 19, 2011
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : Arts & Heritage, Marketing, Advertising & PR, Media, Third Sector, arts administration , comments closedOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
Are you looking for a graduate scheme outside the private sector?
A stumbling block for many students and graduates is finding paid opportunities in sectors like charities. Often it seems that graduate training schemes are ring-fenced for sectors like finance or engineering. It is important to remember that not every organisation who offers training programmes can afford large advertising campaigns so you may have to look a little harder. Here are a few that you may not have heard of to start you off.
Charity Works is in its third year of placing graduates in 12 month first level management roles within its group of twelve charities. The 2011 programme opened at the beginning of the month and closes at the end of May.
Cancer Research UK is one of the few large charities to run a graduate recruitment scheme. Cancer Research is a large business and the scheme covers a good range in its four streams Corporate, Fundraising and Marketing, Scientific Services, and Communications.
Did you know that places like universities and art galleries can be charities? Local to us, the Whitechapel Gallery has six traineeships in Development, Education, Exhibition, Communications, Visitor Services, Operations, Press and Marketing and Exhibitions. Applications close on 4 March.
Many housing organisations have charitable status and some offer graduate training posts. You may have to look up individual organisations for specific schemes. Have a look at this recent Q&A about graduate housing careers.
The National Skills Academy for Social Care hosts a management trainee scheme that helps graduates gain the skills needed to build careers in the independent social care sector. Social care involves aspects like nursing and dementia care homes but graduates do not need any experience of the sector to apply to the scheme which has been running since 2009.
Look around for more opportunities and read more about routes after graduation.
Your first step to working in TV? March 3, 2011
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : Media , comments closedOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
****Be aware this content is over two years old****
Don’t want to be stuck in an office? Think you’d prefer filming to filing?
Sometimes being stuck in an office everyday can be really dull. Imagine having that dream job where you get to work, whilst meeting celebrities and people from your favourite TV shows. Wouldn’t that be amazing!
The Network offers an opportunity to see just how exciting working in TV really is. This thrilling opportunity is the chance for you to go to Edinburgh this August and attend four days of FREE masterclasses, workshops and career advice sessions to help you start a career in TV. Interested? Then apply for The Network.
The applications will be closing on the 15thApril 2011 so don’t miss out on this fantastic prospect.
For more information visit: www.mgeitf.co.uk/thenetwork
For top tips on a career in TV, from CV tips to getting your foot in the door, download a fantastic PDF ‘On Success On TV’ produced by the Network and the BBC Academy.
EU Careers February 10, 2011
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : Languages, civil service , 1 comment so farOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
****Be aware this content is over two years old****
Thinking about using your langauge skills in your work?
Have you wondered what an EU career would involve and how to apply?
On Monday, the Foreign Office launched “EU Careers Month” to raise awareness of career opportunities in the EU Civil Service. The campaign’s website contains answers to the questions above, along with “day in the life” films, case studies, top tips, competitions and more.
Find out more from their pop up website (live for 6 weeks).
