What Use Is (Made of) the University Careers Service?

Somewhat contrary to the views expressed by certain journalists, some recent research findings suggest that users of Higher Education Careers Services are increasingly happy with what they are offered.

Recently graduate research project Futuretrack found that, although 44.4% of final year students never visited their careers office, 84% of those that did said it was very or quite helpful (36.7% very; 47.3% quite) and only 3.1%  said it was not at all helpful.

Meanwhile GTI Media, looking at the networking efforts of students and graduates, found that 54% of those surveyed had networked with employers or professionals working in their area of career interest. Of these, 46% said that the contact had been arranged by their careers service.  This represents a rise of 23% of over the last six years.*

An Underused Resource?

The question would seem to be why less than half of final year students use the service in the first place. While Paul Redmond, current AGCAS President has justifiably pointed out that many students simply do not need to seek out detailed careers advice, there is still a feeling amongst Advisers that their services are underused.

Many graduates who received careers advice after completing their course wished they had done so earlier. But careers advice needs you to make a positive step to engage with it, and one that is surrounded by some uncertainty and not obviously enjoyable. Hence another great truism that the average person spends more time planning their annual holiday than their future career!

Misunderstandings also abound.  Some students are reportedly not aware that they can ask for careers advice.  Advisers note that some believed that they could not ask for help unless they had decided what job they wanted to do, whereas others said they thought the careers service could only help those who had not yet made a careers decision.

At this point, the debate clearly becomes absurd as all University Careers Services will work with both groupings.

Or is that terms like 'careers service', 'careers office', 'careers advice' are just too boring to catch the imagination? At the University of Cumbria we have found that our new Career Ahead Award - which talks more directly about the skills you can gain from engaging with careers has had a very enthusiastic reception from students and staff alike.

*Incidentally an interesting insight from the GTI survey, was that although 97% of respondents realised the importance of increasing their employability, they mainly looked to the internet and email as their main way of communicating with employers - suggesting that students still underestimate the value of social media as a source of employer contacts.

Employers Try New Assessment Tactics

Following a recent post on the dissatisfaction of applicants with their experience of psychometric testing, it was interesting to read in "Graduate Recruiter" that Barclays Capital have moved towards using an online business simulation exercise during their half day assessment centre programme.

The exercise aims to test candidates' responses to realistic work situations using an interactive tool which feeds them information from a variety of sources, rather in the manner of the old 'in-tray' type exercise, complete with deadlines, distractions and last minute changes.

Meanwhile GCHQ have had the innovative idea of asking potential applicants to crack a code on an anonymous website and publicising the event on blogs, twitter, youtube and other social media.  Those who successfully cracked the code without hacking the site illegally could access details of the code source as well as current employment opportunities with GCHQ.

Apparently this campaign attracted 94 million hits, a record for a recruitment website. However, only 236 people succeeded in cracking the code. Presumably at least some of them are by now working for GCHQ.

Using Social Media To Find Jobs - Start Now!

Recent articles in "Graduate Recruiter" magazine emphasise that it's never to early for students to start sussing out possible employers using social networks.

Employers are actively seeking to meet potential employees through the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in increasing numbers and increasingly early in your academic career.  There is even a new buzzword for this trend - Recruitment 4.0.

Statistics quoted in "Graduate Recruiter" show that:

• 89% of employers surveyed plan to recruit staff via social media - up massively from the current 8.2% who already do.
• 55% will increase spending on social recruiting while a third will cut back spending on more traditional methods (jobs boards, agencies, etc).

Fascinatingly, a separate survey indicates that 25% of employers using social media to find employees want to make contact with first year students and 14% even look to contact students who are still at school.

It's not quite a case of apply as soon as you start your studies, but clearly digging for employers on Facebook and elsewhere and following their tweets is a strategy that could pay off later on down the line.

Can Facebook Get Me A Job?

More and more students and graduates are using social media to search for jobs and make themselves known to potential employers.

If you would like to know how, come along to this free lunchtime workshop for University of Cumbria Students and Graduates - presented by Colin Taylor of LISS – Careers.

When: Thursday 24th November, 12.30 – 1.30 p.m.

Where: Room CH8, Bowscale Building, Fusehill Street Campus

The session will include an opportunity for hands-on practice

N.b. To avoid disappointment, please book in advance via careers@cumbria.ac.uk as a limited number of computers are available on the day.