developing your employability skills career development centre university of ulster
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Developing Your Employability Skills
Career Development CentreUniversity of Ulster
Aims:
Understand the importance of Work Experience
Equip you with the ability to articulate your experiences and skills to employers
Develop skills required for successful lifelong career management
Explore the main pathways open to you
Learning Outcomes: Be able to assess and critically reflect upon your
interests, values, abilities and personal transferable skills, particularly in relation to career and life planning
Know broadly what kinds of skills, qualities and abilities employers seek in potential employees, and how these are measured.
Be able to demonstrate a capacity to collect, organise and apply information to justify future career planning decisions.
Why Work Experience
The majority of employers are looking for more than just a degree from new recruits.
They want individuals with well developed personal skills which they can use from day one.
Why Work Experience? Obtain relevant/real life experience Develop the skills employers look for and add
value to future applications Provides career insight and helps clarify your
ideas It improves longer term job prospects Reduces your debts Increasingly it’s a first stage in the selection
process
What skills? (Skills Audit) In-depth knowledge of your speciality Team working Problem solving Time management Leadership Flexibility Adaptability
Where to find vacancies Career Development Centre website Work-experience site Newspapers Company’s own website Directories from Careers Service Voluntary organisations
Useful Sites http://workexperience.ulster.ac.uk http://workbank.man.ac.uk http://work-experience.org.uk http://www.workexperienceusa.com http://www.bei-ni.com/bei.htm http://www.bps.org.uk http://www.psihq.ie
Putting together an effective C.V.
Prospective employers approach CV’s from the perspective of:
• They are looking for the skills and qualities needed to perform well
• They want to see that you know what the employer is looking for and that you can market your relevant skills and experiences accordingly
http://gradnav.ulster.ac.uk/units/unit-cv040.shtml
What should appear in a C.V.? Personal Details Education Work Experience Achievements Interests & Activities Additional Information Referees (one must be academic)
CV Layout Two pages maximum Single sided, printed on quality paper with no
spelling or grammatical errors Concise writing style –use- Relevant
headings, short paragraphs, bullet points Employers typically don’t read everything and
their first glance could only be a few seconds. A complicated CV may not get a second chance.
CV’s Layout
Avoid Graphics and gimmicks Using tables and charts
Overall, try to: Keep it consistent Don’t overdo underlining Larger font for headings/use bold for emphasis Keep it original and professional
http://careers.ulster.ac.uk Vacancies Events Help with career planning Links to employers, postgraduate studies
opportunities and other useful sites
Career Development Centre Quick Query times: during opening hours
A longer session with a Career Development Advisor is by appointment
Applications/CV/Interview help available