Networking in a Nutshell

Two weeks ago (was it so long ago?)  I was delivering some sessions on networking as part of our Careers Fair in Carlisle.

The feedback we got on the sessions was pretty good, so here's a very brief summary of the key points that were covered:

• To give yourself a start, prepare a stock phrase you can use to introduce yourself - ideally something memorable.
• For formal events and one-off opportunities, consider an elevator pitch
• Prepare a list of key questions you want to get answers to.
• Think how you will end a contact and whether/how you will follow it up.
• Use a mind map to help you identify useful people you already know.
• People you meet will know other people who might be able to help.
• Arrange information interviews with experts in the field that interests you.
• Consider spontaeneous networking.  Some networking gurus keep contact details and make quick notes on everyone they meet!
• Business cards are highly useful (and often free) and CVs are pretty much expected at Careers Fairs.
• Social networking is vital - particularly LinkedIn
• It's a mutual process - working out what other people want will give you big clues about what you need to do.

Initially nerves are natural when meeting new people but basically networking is something we do all the time.  If you get the approach right, it becomes easy.

P.s. If you are a University of Cumbria student or graduate and would like to attend a group session on networking, please email us at careers@cumbria.ac.uk 

Carlisle Careers Fair

The Career Ahead- Carlisle Careers Fair took place at the Fusehill Street campus on the 30th January, 2013.

On the day prior to the event the careers staff delivered workshops on creating successful CV's and networking, there was also the opportunity to attend a presentation on setting up as a sole trader. Students registered for these workshops online and attended various sessions throughout the day. Examples of student comments about the workshops are below:

"I feel more confident and more prepared for tomorrow and future networking"

"The CV exercise encouraged us to get thinking of ways to promote ourselves"

"Brought points to my attention that I've missed on my own CV"

"Concise, factual, engaging"

"Clear, concise information. Everything I wanted to know to start me off with CV writing"


The aim of the workshops was to prepare students for the Careers Fair the next day, enabling students to use their networking skills and market themselves more effectively to employers. A mix of 27 employers, agencies, professional bodies and advice and information services attended the event over 2 floors of the Learning Gateway.

As well as providing information and advice for students the representatives welcomed the opportunity to build relationships with the University of Cumbria including the Careers team, Unite with Business, the Student Enterprise Coordinator and many more, developing a greater awareness of university provision.

Students were encouraged to investigate and register for volunteering opportunities in a range of career sectors. Also many employers provided details of part-time vacancies as well as advice on their organisation and future recruitment. Many employers also committed to support Career Ahead - University of Cumbria's Employability Award, by offering opportunities for volunteer placements, mentoring schemes and mock interviews.

Overall, Carlisle Careers Fair was a success, with many representatives commenting on how well organised the event was and that they would be willing to attend similar events in the future.

Special thanks to Joanne Watson (Senior Adviser - Careers and Employability) for all her hard work in organising this event.

Why Would I Want To Teach English in a Summer Camp?

Following on from the  recent post on summer jobs here is a guest post from Helen Hargreave of onlinetefl.com on the advantages of spending some of your vacation teaching english as a foreign language:

There’s snow on the ground…yet now is the prime time for summer job applications. If you’re looking to get some great experience working abroad this summer (yes, with real summer weather!) then deadlines for teaching English in a summer camp are approaching…

Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in a summer camp is just one way to ensure that you have an incredible summer before University starts again or before you start the job hunt! It will not only provide you with some great skills and a decent wage but it will also look great on your CV.

Here are a couple of reasons why you should consider working at a summer camp:

To try it out to see if you want a future in teaching 

Never thought of teaching before? This is a great opportunity to try out something new and exciting!
Summer teaching positions can be anything from two weeks to a full summer so whether you just want a taste of TEFL or a jam-packed and varied summer – the decision is up to you.

One of the best things about teaching at summer camps is the fun atmosphere. Although your role is to teach English, students are also there to have fun! So if your first thought is “I’ve never taught before”  then this is a great environment for you to meet like-minded teachers in exactly the same situation as you – plus you’ll have an instant group of friends!

To get some practice

If you are considering teaching English on a more permanent basis in the future – a summer camp will provide you with a relaxed atmosphere to perfect your TEFL training.

Annie taught in a summer camp in Finland with no regrets!

“I didn’t realise at this point that my time at summer camp was just what I needed to get the confidence and experience in teaching to secure a full time contract at a language academy in Spain later that year.  Summer camp was the perfect way for me to get started and it I would recommend it to anyone!”

A few facts:

How much can I earn?

Residential summer camps will often provide you with free accommodation, food and a wage. Salaries will often vary from country to country and employer to employer but a standard wage would be from €250 a month. For more information on teaching in summer camps try this article.

Which countries can I teach in?

As a UK citizen, you are allowed to teach all over the EU without a degree. Popular summer camp destinations include: Spain, Finland, France, Italy and Switzerland to name a few!
Want to stay in the UK? There are also plenty of positions a bit closer to home.

What sort of training do I need to teach at a summer school?

To teach in a UK summer camp you will need to hold a recognized level 5 TEFL qualification i.e. an EDI CertTEFL, Trinity TESOL or a CELTA. In Europe, you will find that many employers will ask for some TEFL training beforehand – to find out more about getting qualified make sure to download this free Graduate Guide to Teaching English Abroad

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.

Careers Fair Coming Soon

It is just two weeks to the University of Cumbria 2013 Career Ahead Two Day Careers Fair at the Learning Gateway, Fusehill Street Campus.

Day 1

Join the UoC Careers Team on Tuesday 29th January for free workshops on Successful CVs and the Art of Networking. Sign up in advance at www.cumbria.ac.uk/careersfair - first come first served!

Day 2

On Wednesday 30th January between 10.00 a.m. and 3.00 p.m., browse 30 stands in the Learning Gateway offering a mixture of job, paid placement and volunteering opportunities as well as advice on getting ahead in your career, setting up a business and how to impress employers.

Employers represented will include: BBC, Carlisle Youth Zone, Lake District National Park, Cumberland Building Society, Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, Eden Carers, Sainsbury's, Smith's Hotel, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Enitiative Media, Good Companions, Teach English in China, Burnetts Solicitors, Unite with Business...

All UoC students (all year groups and courses) and graduates welsome!

Want a Summer Job? Then start thinking about it now....

As well as being downright good fun, a summer job is a good way of putting some extra cash in your piggy bank as well as providing some useful experience for later job applications.

Do It Now!

Winter, with its floods and gails plus ice and snow probably still to come, may not feel like the right time to start thinking about it.  But as soon as the beach ads start to appear, it's a sign that the holiday job market is about to take off.  Many companies and websites will be advertising summer vacancies with deadlines from February onwards so it is not too soon to start working out what sort of things might interest you.

And if you're thinking of seeking foreign climes, the formalities of passport, visa applications and innoculations all take time, so it really is case of the earlier the better for getting the bureaucracy out of the way.  Don't wait until passport offices and consulates are knee-deep in applications and all the flights are booked up.

Some Points To Think About...

Picking a summer job is a bit like a career decision in miniature, so it is worth thinking what you hope to gain from it apart from a suntan - as well as the fun and cash element.

Without sounding too boring, it's a great opportunity to find out more about what you like and dislike in a workplace and to enhance those vital CV skills.  Just getting there will need some organisation and communication skills.  If you're looking to enhance your customer service experience, there are loads of opportunities to do this.

You may be looking to enhance a particular area of your skills e.g. by coaching sport or working with disadvantaged people with future applications in mind.  And if you are set on a graduate traineeship in areas like law or business, a summer internship may be what you need - even if you end up seeing more of the water cooler than the swimming pool.

What's Available?

An incredible amount... but if we do try and generalise, some of the obvious niches for summer and holiday jobs both home and abroad are:

• Hotel, catering and bar work
• Shop jobs
• Temporary office jobs
• Holiday reps, tour guides
• Summer camps, playschemes and adventure schemes
• Teaching English as a Foreign Language (especially in China and other Asian counrties)
• Working in farms and gardens e.g. fruit picking and harvesting
• Festivals, events and exhibitions

One slight 'buyer beware' message is however to watch out for providers who charge money for a foreign job or working holiday experience. A small amount to cover expenses may be reasonable enough but you should not need to spend £2000 for the privelege unless you are looking for something very exotic.  On the whole, you should be able to find paid opportunities if you stick with it.

Finding Out More

Many summer jobs are advertised on the University of Cumbria Jobshop and you can also follow up useful links we have gathered at http://delicious.com/skillzone/summer  or, if heading abroad is your plan http://delicious.com/skillzone/abroad

There is also a good number of books to help you research your ideal summer job and you should be able to find a selection of them in University or public libraries.

Your New Career Year Resolution?

New Year always brings a "new brooms sweep clean" mentality as people clear out their dusty mental cupboards and look for new ways of approaching their life.

This made me think that in career decision terms, the obvious equivalent to "ringing out the old and ringing in the new" would be to take a career interest guide questionnaire.  Generally recommended by Careers Advisers to clients who can think of no or very few career ideas that would interest them, interest guides are also a good way of checking if your career wish list is up to date or whether there are new contenders emerging over the horizon.

Invariably online these days, the system you choose interrogates you about work preferences or personal interests, then spews out a series of career titles that potentially match the inputs you have provided.  At which point Careers Advisers usually hasten to add that you shouldn't expect miracle solutions.  A computer can't tell you what to do - you have to evaluate the possibilities yourself by doing some research.

But where do we find the sort of tools we are talking about?

For students and graduates, the most commonly used system is Prospects Planner from Graduate Prospects.  Revamped this year, its key focus is a belt-and-braces analysis of personal interests and motivational factors.  The distinguishing factor is that the jobs it links to all require a graduate qualification or are commonly entered by graduates.

Perhaps less available than they once where, similar products for a more general market are Kudos (aimed at young people) and Adult Directions (for adults as it says on the tin).  The trick here is to find a local careers guidance or similar agency which has a licence to offer them to the end user, normally without charge.  Adult Directions has a few sophistications which allow you to filter opportunities (e.g. by salary or contract type).  When I last played with it, I particularly liked the fact that you could decide how many questions you need to answer before you think you have clear results.

Recently some of the big jobsites have started to offer interest guides in various forms. Possibly the simplest is the Career Snapshots facility offered by Monster, offering some basic job suggestions that link to a particular interest (e.g. working outdoors, writing).  On the other hand TARGETjobs Career Planner facility is a full thirty minute look at interests, strengths, personality and abilities that produces a full report that is free to those registered on the site. I notice that Fish4jobs also offers personality profiling but this is a charged facility at £8.99 a head, which might be enough to encourage most people look elsewhere.

On the basis of a fairly superficial glance, one of the most comprehensive facilities is offered by the New National Careers Service's so-called Skills Health Checklist. As well as covering interests and motivation, it also distinguishes between skills you like doing and skills you are good at (not always the same thing - I seem to remember it can be an important difference!) and a set of Activity Skills, which is newspeak for what we used to call aptitude tests - the sort of tests that were typically used to see if applicants had the right level of ability in particular areas (e.g. verbal or numerical reasoning).

Also with more than half a foot in the aptitude testing camp, the Morrisby Profile is one test that is still delivered via timed paper and pen sessions of some length, as is the detailed career profile which is produced as a result.  Morrisby claims a "depth of analysis that is not available in other vocational systems" but, unless you're lucky, this deluxe approach is likely to be reflected in the price you will pay for it.

One last word on career profile reports from TARGETjobs: "...don't let it languish unused in a drawer or fester on your hard drive. Book an appointment at your careers service. A careers adviser will be able to talk through the findings, shed additional light on your potential career opportunities and help you assess how you can build your skills."

I'm sure we couldn't agree more!  Very few clients come back to tell us what they found out from completing an interest guide, or to tell us how useful they found them.  Perhaps that should be your second New Career Year Resolution?