Where to find jobs

As part of our careers series

image courtesy of redstarresume.com

image courtesy of etftrends.com

 These are some of the most common ways for students to find jobs whether it would be part time or full time.
1) Careers fairs such as the Big meet  as advertised in Weekend notes
2) Through your university's connections
3) Through e-jobs- E-jobs is an online site via RMIT where RMIT students can look for jobs. RMIT students and graduates can register to use the site to find part time and full time jobs. At the moment there is 53 part time jobs.

4) Through Information sessions- RMIT runs a lot of Information sessions to assist people with finding jobs each semester, weekly.
Also Careerone has a Job Alerts page where you can sign up using Facebook. Did you know that most of the Jobs are actually advertised on the company's website or Facebook?

Hardly any jobs are advertised though seek and careerone as it is too expensive. Same as with the newspaper.

For most part time jobs have a look at the shop windows next time you're going to uni. And make sure that you have your resume ready

Good luck

Join a Union

As part of our Careers series
The poster below explains why.
There are many unions to join

Participating in Research Projects

RMIT does have some research focus groups and projects for students to participate in. Most of them are run by students for students as part of their research project. Most of them usually offer some sort of a reward at the end such as a free movie ticket.

How is it announced?
1) By email from a lecturer in your course- so it pays for you to pay attention to those emails and if you can participate.

2) On the noticeboard- there are dozens of noticeboards around campus. So next time when you are in the Caf look for the noticeboard.

3) Sometimes through MYRMIT in the noticeboards. Next time when you are in there have a look at some of the classifieds

So do check from time to time as there might be a project that you might be interested in participating in. There is usually a reward for participation.

International student seminar

 The seminar was on the 22nd of March 2013 at the Coburg Library. It started at 2pm and finished at 5:15PM. The library is right near the train station. A few students attended. I was one of them invited to attend. Here is my write up of the event
This post is in two sections.
1) Moreland City council welcomes International students and how Moreland City Council assists new International students.
"We can come together without any harm" City of Moreland
"We all need friends" City of Moreland.

Firstly I'd like to thank the City of Moreland for letting me be a part of this. I really got a lot out of it.

The library for me was really to hard to find so I was a bit late, Sorry guys. More signage would be ideal.

We started off really late at about 2pm. The first thing that was talked about was the report on International students (see point 2). The recurring themes throughout the presentations were costs of living in Melbourne and no transport concessions for International students ( hey the locals think that they don't pay tax when they come as they are a visitor, but it might not be true), housing, racism and not much knowledge about what local council can do for these students

There was a play called "Life's Gamble" and it aimed to illustrate all the problems that International students have when studying in Melbourne. One of the issues worth mentioning is racism and the lack of knowledge about Australian customs. Another one worth raising is the issue of the English language.

AFIS ( Australian Federation of International Students) has been working with International students in the past few years and they predict that by 2020 the number of students expected to come to Melbourne for study is 100000+. They also predict that costs of living will soar and students will struggle.

And then there was afternoon tea.

Then the council talked about what they can do for students (we will cover this in April in a seperate post).

And then another break.

After the break there was a long discussion from a range of people including the police, Fair Work Ombudsman, Housing, International Care Service and ourselves the students. Here we talked about our experiences.

The people from housing talked about a number of ways in which people can be exploited. Ie: being asked to pay for an inspection.
Tenants union does not deal with International students, but students can drop into see them. It is very difficult for students to rent houses as they would need a reference from another Australian landlord or the Uni.

Not many students knows what a scam is and they are easily being conned by people that used to be International students especially on Gumtree and Social Media.

The Fair work Ombudsman said that there is that problem of the "20 hour per week rule", which I reckon that rule is fair during the semester. But not everyone pays the correct rate- some are known to pay about $5 per hour which for students suck. Hence some businesses exploit students and think that they can get away with this

To end the seminar a couple of things were suggested such as safe spaces for students to hang and lobbying universities to alert students to some of the issues of studying in Melbourne
2.The report on International students by Moreland City Council and RMIT University

The research carried out in the report was a survey of 104 international students living in Moreland and surrounding areas.
 The survey covered a few of the major topcis, such as housing, travel, work and community awareness.

Studies suggest that there needs to be more awareness about community activities and housing. A lot of International students can't afford some of the travel to these activities let alone some of them. There needs to be further promotions and research on these things.

There also needs to be some involvement in some of the workplaces where they employ international students like for example RMIT and Krispy Kreme. Maybe there could be some research on other areas like Highpoint and Melbourne Central where they have local businesses.

The report also mentioned that travel is quite expensive and most students can't afford it when not necessary.

It is also suggested that some of the students feel unsafe particularly in areas like Dandenong and Footscray. Do you agree with this?

How to write a good resume

As part of our careers series (note there is no picture for this)

Here are some of our hints to writing a good resume for any job.

 Layout and Grammar
Check the spelling of all the words. Also check the grammar. Get someone else to. Use the RMIT careers service if need be.
If you volunteer with the Student Union you can also ask them to check your resume for you.
If you join any associations to do with your course and the job that you are applying for is relevant to your degree you could ask the association to have a look at your resume. Most industry associations do have resume checking sessions from time to time to assist job seekers like yourself.
It will take about five seconds for the employer to read the resume.
The layout needs to be simple, clear and concise. You can have a look at some sample resumes on the Careers site.

You might have to go to a few careers seminars. RMIT holds them weekly via their careers service  Their careers service has got quite a few good resources on writing resumes and interviews etc. There are also other job seminars all year round.

Also seek and Careerone has some good examples of these for you to look at

Content
End the letter with "I'd like to hear from you soon about a possible interview" and "Yours sincerely . Address it to the right person.
Your personal details go at the top of the resume. Never have an email address with sexy, naughty or something like that as that is seen as unprofessional. you want it to be professional as possible. And don't put your blog works in there unless it is a professional writing job or marketing job.
As with your work experience only list the ones that are relevant to the job that you are applying for
Make sure that you have the relevant experience needed for the job. If you need some, volunteer with Student Union etc. Because the employer sees this as the number one top priority rather than academic grades. They want to make sure that you can do the job.

Referees
Make sure that you have at least three good referees. And don't forget to list their contact details. What might be another good idea is to see if you can get a reference from them

Internships paid or unpaid

image courtesy of memery.com.au

Which ones would you love to have? Paid or unpaid? Overseas or local?
Most of the overseas ones are paid where as most of the local ones are not paid. But you work a normal 9am-5pm day or sometimes longer or shorter. And this goes with breaks.
For the local ones you should be be paid for those as you have to give up your part time job to work in internships. Most internships are part of your RMIT program but some people are lucky and they only have to do 3x 4 week blocks of Industry placement. I was lucky I got the latter
I guess this unpaid internships is still a necessity because experience counts when you start real work and questions will arise in a job interview about work experience. And you can also list it in your resume.

image courtesy of muovo.blogspot.com

You also learn all the skills that aren't taught in the classroom such as working in teams and other things related to your course. You also learn what the industry does and thus it is viewed more favorably in the employers eyes.
It is agony as you might have to give up your part time job in favor of more study and you might have to live off your parents for a while.  You cannot socialize as much as you want. One of my friends who studies Accounting did internships and she didn't like it because she was not paid and forced to give up her part time job in favour of more studies and she did not like begging for money from her parents who are already poor.
So if you can try and get a paid one or go overseas to do it.

Volunteering for RUSU's Chill and Grill

As part of our Careers series.
Volunteering at RUSU's chill and grill events are always fun, but you need a food safety/responsible service of liquor certificate. RUSU runs these free courses for their volunteers.

The chill and grill is on Wednesday mornings. Volunteers turn up at 10am for a free breakfast and then they go to help out. This can be in food preparation and service or serving alcohol.

They also wear the cute Purple T-shirts.

There is a student DJ at the event and I think RUSU employs them for the event. Email: renee.thompson@rmit.edu.au if you are interested

At the end of the day there is always drinks to thank you for volunteering.

So what are you waiting for? Pick up a form from the Student Union and sign up. The more the merrier. You can also make heaps of friends this way as well as pick up new skills.

Volunteering at Student Union

As part of our careers series

Volunteering at the student union is fun and a great way to make new friends whilst at Uni. Half of my friends are from the Union.

The Student Union are down to earth and the staff there are lovely to work with.

There's quite a few areas in which you can volunteer in such as being on the front counter. When I was volunteering there it was a lot of fun. And it also assisted with my blog for International students and a research project that I was undertaking about RMIT.

At the end of the semester there is a free party to thank you for volunteering. I remembered the fun times when we all went to what used to be called Miss libertines. There was free food and drink and lots of fun.

The student union always needs volunteers.

For some of their volunteers such as the Chill and Grill guys there is a free breakfast and a little party afterwards.

 

Check out: www.su.rmit.edu.au for more information

Capi soda drinks

These are not like your normal soft drinks. Instead these are fruity and fun with loads of vitamins in it. They are about $3.50-$4 a bottle and the bottle just fits in the smallest of bags just perfectly. They come in seven different flavours and you can buy them from some cafes.
They are made in Melbourne.

Image courtesy of capi.com.au

Being a blogger

As part of our career and business development series.

Being a blogger is fun but its also stressful as there is always deadlines to meet. For some people it can be very hard to find the motivation to start one. But once you start it is very easy to keep writing.

There are no set hours for this, instead like school work there is set deadlines.

Some people choose to just have pictures and others choose to have words and pictures for this. There is a million and one topics to blog about.

But it is also really fun and can take you places that you have never been on.

For a really good blog and to attract traffic you need to spend some time learning and using ADobe Photoshop for your pictures. At first when we started we had no idea of how to use this, but when Katherine took Desktop Publishing at RMIT we finally learned how to use it to our knowledge. We learned of its tricks and tools to use. We are still experimenting to this day.

You can earn money via adsense, but there isn't much money.

You can start one for free.

The rewards that you get by being a blogger is that warm feeling that you are helping others out by telling them things which are good and the things which are not so.

Go on start one today!

Melds Little book of discounts

Meld Magazine has just released a new book called "The little book of discounts". Now $25, but after the 1st of April it will be $30.

These students worked really hard on finding discounts from businesses which contribute to the student lifestyles in the city and outside of it.

There are discounts from:
* Krispy Kreme (saving of $2.50 for the doughnuts)
* Bentoya (saving of $40 altogether ($10x 4 coupons)
* Pepper Lunch (free drinks with meals and 10% off the bill)
* Ganache (saving of about $12-$15)


You can buy yours online at http://www.meldmagazine.com.au/little-orange-book-of-big-discounts/

Chatime's new opening in QV by Katherine

Chatime has just opened in a new location: QV. Now they have an opening special of buy one get one free and also free tea samples.

Here their shop is open and spacious, not like the Melbourne Central one which is small. They are also clean. There are no bathrooms inside, but they are in the shopping centre just one level below.

The server barely spoke any English. He barely understood it. I guess it is just their early days so give them some time.

This place is cash only but there is Woolworths downstairs. My tea was just $4.50.
Here I had the grapefruit and green tea (iced). Mine had no ice to it just the way that I wanted. But the grapefruit flavour was overpowering. You can choose how sweet you want the tea to be as well as the level of ice.


But I'd give them some time to settle and if ever I was in the area and wanted tea I'd give them another go.

The business chic little black dress project

As part of our careers and business development series.

This event is on all throughout March.

Little black dress project is a website run by a Melbourne lady. It started in 2010 and they have about 1000+ likes on Facebook.

Its aim is to inform and inspire women about dressing for work.

They had an exhibition in Melbourne Central as part of Loreal Melbourne Fashion festvial and I was invited to attend.

Here they sold their book for $30 and with it came a free crossaint from Le Petit Gateau.

Here are the pictures

 For more information check out this site

Two Birds One Stone by Katherine

Two birds one Stone has been opened for about a year now. And already itsbeen talked about by various blogs and Melburnians.

It is close to South Yarra station and is about 1o mins from the city. And itsaboutaone minute walk from thestation

On this sunny Wednesday morning the place was buzzing full of people. They are a big place with indoor and outdoor seating. This place was on my list for some time now. I had wanted to get away from the protest that was going on at RMIT and in the city as itwas disrupting my work and becoming scary.

Most meals are priced around $10-$20 and they are homemade. Sweets are about $5 each. They do have vegetarian meals as well as meat.

I chose a very interesting percorino and polenta mealwith mushrooms. Mushrooms had been talked about for some time on My Kitchen Rules,a show on TV. There were quite a few different mushooms in the meal today.They used shitake, enoki and other mushrooms and it was really nice with the pecorino cheese. Pecorino is a type of cheese from Italy. It is quite salty and its like parmesan.

The polenta melted in the mouth.

The long black I had was good too. It was smokey flavoured. It came out way before the polenta.

The lime tart was homemade. It wasnot too sweet and it melted in the mouth.

It was a good spend of $26. Although this place is really expensive it is worth a visit. I would love to try their pulled pork bun