Saturday, August 17, 2013

A careers fair by Victoria University and Herald Sun

This is a sponsored post by Victoria  University.
It is on for three days from 16th of August to the 18th of August at Melbourne Exhibition and Convention centre

I had the pleasure of attending this event for free as I signed up online. Normally it would be $12 for an adult and $6 for a student to attend.

Victoria University asked me to write about this. Here it is.




















The event was heaps of fun and I got a lot out of it. About 100 of exhibitors were there, including RMIT with their great marketing skills. There were also many prizes on offer such as a dinner for two and a few iPads to be won.

There were also free makeovers and massages. People also got to see the cakes being decorated at the William Angliss Institute of TAFE stand. People also had fun playing golf at the Holmesglen stall.

For those of you that love wood and plastering there was a chance for you to do that.

For those that need a job there were many careers workshops run by the CDAA (Career Development Association of Australia).

One of them was about Marketing yourself and the other one that I attended was the seven steps to an Interview.

One concept that may be new to others is: " You are your own brand ". When you apply for jobs you are selling yourself. Your resume and your cover letters are your selling point. A successful resume and cover letter gets you an Interview. Your resume should address all the key selection criteria as stated in the PD (position description). Your cover letter needs to be succinct and to the point. Ask yourself: what is it that the employer would like to know about you that fits the job description? What capabilities can you show them?

The main points that I got was to volunteer for an Organisation. You can find these on seek.com.au under volunteering. This way they will know that you have got some working experience.

Resumes and Cover letters:
Resumes are a way of marketing yourself. Don't have any spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes as it will be tossed in the bin. Recruiters only have 7 secs to have a look at your resume. There is now an online checking system that companies use to recruit people. They want to make sure that person is not Fraudulent.

KISS- Keep it Simple stupid. Don't be all pretty with this. In fact try not to have any photos on your resume. Have a very simple font. Arial is fine for this purpose. Companies love resumes with a white background. They hate resumes that are too long or too short. Two to three pages is ideal. Don't make it hard for the recruiter to find the things that they are looking for.

Get the resume right- make sure that your contact details are up to date.

Include an opening statement: that is something that says a bit about you and what you will bring to the company/business.

If you are an International student include the visa information. Some companies may only want hire Australian citizens only.

Keep it relevant- don't talk about things which are not relevant to the job.

No unexplained gaps- the employer may get the impression that you don't have the right skills and haven't kept up to date.

You don't really need a CV unless it is an academic job that you are going for.

Social Media and LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional site where you can network with people. More and more employers are using this to recruit people. Make sure that the LinkedIn profile matches your resume. You can have a nice picture of yourself up there

More and more employers now do a Google search on the candidate to make sure that they are suitable for the job. If you have a Facebook account make sure you don't put any stupid stuff up there. Also make sure that you don't have any photos which are tagged with your name in it (especially if you have gone to a party).

The seven steps to being successful in your Interview
There will be another post on this in the coming weeks
Congratulations you passed the first stage and you got the interview! Now what? Here are the seven steps to getting the job.
1) Do your research on the company
2) Anticipate what they will ask you
3) Use the STAR process. Have a few examples ready to give them- two per attribute in the Key Selection Criteria is ideal
4) Don't be surprised by the questions
5) Practice, practice, practice- Practice with your family and friends. Hear yourself out aloud.
6) Work out what you are going to wear- there will be an upcoming post on what you should wear to an interview
7) Be relaxed and composed


Many thanks to Victoria University and Herald sun for putting this on for the students. Hopefully more people will come this weekend and take advantage of the advice being offered.

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