University and Empolyablity!!

When I saw this article on guardian my first thought wasn't surprise but concern!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/apr/16/students-criticise-universities-careers-advice

Many of my posts have been about employability linking to graduates this is an issue that isn't going away. Yes there is a world wide recession but as this article states when universities themselves are almost failing to give sufficient careers advice and empolyablity training to students what can be done.

Surely in a time where the economy is doing poorly you would think the government would help universities invest not only in careers advisers but people who actually could actually help them gain jobs and learn about those vital empolyablity skills I spoke about before.

I think this article is particularly interesting because it comes from the perspective of the students not being happy with the empolyablity advice their universities give them. As mentioned before the white paper reforms hope to tackle this very soon. As this is an area that really needs to be looked at. 

Empolyablity is a hot issue for graduates and if you are graduate at the moment always keep thinking about ways of building on those key empoluablity skills. This could be doing an internship,shadowing and getting a part-time job. Please refer to my previous post dated  Tuesday 6th December as this features my article about empolyablity. For for indepth advice and information about empolyablity skills.

Career cake TV

Please check this website out its a really good website. There are many different videos on here with tips to help anyone who is currently job hunting. Really good advice and its very professional. Aimee Bateman is a recruitment consultant herself so the tips she gives are very useful and there are also a  range of videos from other professionals too!! http://careercake.tv/

If you want to contact her yourself you can also email her for any tips and advice as I have done this myself and felt her advice was very helpful.  

What's your USP(unique Selling point)

This may not seem like an obvious one but I really think in a time where the digital era is thriving and as employment is sinking you as graduates need to think about what makes you unique. Or as the lovely abbreviation goes your USP(unique selling point). It may sound gimmicky but when you go to an interview or put your CV online its not just you competing out there!! What skills, experience and talents do you have that make you unique.This is a marketing term but thought it would be cool to think about how you as graduates can market your individuality as well. You have to make your self more innovative and one of ways to do is to think a little bit out of the box sometimes.

A Grad who has done an Engineering degree for example but didn't obtain that dream job he wanted. May also have an interest in Djing.  A USP could be demonstrated to a potential employer by him saying how he landed gigs to pay off his student debt. For example he used a contact he had to connect him to music clubs who be willing to take him on for a trial and then he landed some paid work. The selling point here could be seen as persistence and thinking about the people you know who could help etc. . This person's main ambition may still be that he wants to be an engineer so what could he do after that. If he can then look into internship to sample if its for him and then utilize the experience he had from his Djing work to demonstrate his lack of commitment to something different. This shows he did it so that he could achieve what he really wanted. This will demonstrate to a potential employer someone who is mature and willing to put in long hours so hard working etc. It also represents an individual who has faced certain challenges along the way but has kept at it!! Ultimately a problem solver and this could be another potential selling point.

The other example is an indication of not just one selling point every individual has more then one thing they can offer to a new employer. Its about you thinking about what you can do, so the skills you already have and using appropriate examples where you have communicated with others and been challenged etc. Communication skills are vital for any role you go into and if can demonstrate your strengths and keep on developing your unique self you should be able to obtain that one job you love. If you haven't you can still learn from even the worst of jobs patience is a virtue as they say so keep at it. You also need to know what is best for you. Not everyone is a office type person some people like managing and others want practical jobs it is always a good idea to research and understand what you want.