Working in the UK after Studies

THREATS

WEAKNESSES

OPPORTUNITIES

STRENGTHS

ME AS A GRADUATE FROM A UK

UNIVERSITY

How To Sell Yourself

What Are Employability Skills?

“Future Fit”, a document produced by the Universities UK and the CBI

defined Employability Skills as:

“A set of attributes, skills and knowledge that all labour market

participants should possess to ensure they have the capability

of being effective in the workplace – to the benefit of

themselves, their employer and the wider economy.”

KNOW YOUR EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS – KNOW YOUR

STRENGTHS!

What do Employers of Graduates

Look For What Do Employers of Graduates Look For

Willingness to Learn Commitment

Dependability Self motivation

Teamwork C o-operation

Communications skills (written)

communication Skill (oral)

Drive/energy Self-management

Desire to achieve Problem-solving

Analytical ability Flexibility

Initiative Can summarise key issues

Logical argument Adaptability (intellectual)

Numeracy Adaptability (organisational)

Commercial awareness Time management

Self confidence Ability to influence others

Creative Thinking

Employability Skills

What Employability Skills have I developed from my degree?

Where Else have I developed Employability Skills?

How To Sell Yourself

PricewaterhouseCoopers, a global financial services company, has a

very useful set of vidcasts on their website demonstrating how the

skills you have gained through sporting activities and through shop,

bar, restaurant and charity work can be relevant to their business:

http://www.pwc.co.uk/careers/student/employability/employability.j

html

A Simple Strategy for Answering

Situational Questions

Situation

Task

Action

Result

Star Approach

Situation

or

Task

Describe the situation that you were in or the task that

you needed to accomplish. You must describe a

specific event or situation, not a generalized description

of what you have done in the past. Be sure to give

enough detail for the interviewer to understand. This

situation can be from a previous job, volunteer

experience, or any relevant event.

Action you

took

Describe the action you took and be sure to keep the

focus on you. Even if you are discussing a group

project or effort, describe what you did - not the efforts

of the team. Don't tell what you might do, tell what you

did.

Results

you

achieved

What happened? How did the event end? What did you

accomplish? What did you learn?

Recognising Your Gaps

What was your employment situation at the

time?

“ Grim!!! The economic climate in UK was very

difficult and I found it extremely difficult to find any

job, including the general student part-time jobs as

working in retail stores, call centres.

However, due to the reason that my employability

skills were not well developed and presented in a

structured manner at that time to fulfil the UK

graduate employers' standards….

Hence I could not manage to get a graduate IT

analyst/software developer job in those early days”

Rahul Dutta Roy – MSc Information Systems 2011

Currently Information Systems Analyst - Centrica

Using the STAR Approach

Anything particularly you learned from the help you received that

you would like to share with other graduates?

“For the competency/ motivational questions in application forms and

later interviews, the answers should be concise, focussed on the

main point of questions being asked. ……And a graduate must

prepare specific, real-life, meaningful examples targeting each

competency as teamwork, leadership etc,; to prove the competencies

employers are looking for ...

For competency based interview, my advice will be to follow the STAR

(situation-task-action-result) format.”

Rahul Dutta Roy – MSc Information Systems 2011

Currently Information Systems Analyst - Centrica

Speed Dating Exercise

Three groups will have the opportunity to spend 5 minutes with each

alumni.

Make use of check list questions to start conversations

Feedback to whole group at the end