Help for Newly Qualified Teachers

The job situation for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) has slowly been worsening over the past few years and even highly skilled leavers are now having to fight hard to find the right opportunity in some parts of the country.

With this in mind we have used our account on delicious.com to gather together a 'stack' of key links that are likely to be helpful to NQTs in their search for work. You can view them at http://delicious.com/stacks/view/INRflp and we hope they help our own and other students to break into the teaching profession.

Incidentally, you can view stacks on an increasing number of key related themes by looking up http://www.delicious.com/stacks/skillzone

Mini Careers Fair At Fusehill Street Campus

Here is some slightly delayed news from employers who attended this event, which took place in the Gateway on 2nd May:

Hays Recruitment

Full and part time work opportunities for students and graduates including reception, administration, project support and project management. Employers include NHS, schools and colleges, Riverside Housing, Cumbria County Council and manufacturing companies such as James Walker and Northern Food.

Event Guides

Have short term summer work on sales support on event publications and three permanent graduate vacancies.

Inspira
Recruiting summer volunteers for National Citizenship Service, working with 13-19 year olds.

Carlisle Youth Zone

Have volunteer and part-time roles working with children and young people.

Nestle, Dalston

Graduate scheme and quality assurance roles on offer. Looking mainly for candidates from science/technology backgrounds.

Are job interviews decided in the first minute?

The ‘Making an impact’ DVD from the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) attempts to answer this question.

Interviews are nerve racking affairs but the main message from the DVD is that if you come prepared there is nothing to fear.

Interviewers are interested to know what you can bring to the organisation you are applying for and so will analyse how you sell yourself from what you say. It is important you have researched the company you want to work for as they will check for career motivation, enthusiasm and an understanding of their business.

Key Tips:

1: The interview is a natural extension of the CV you have sent to an organisation and you will be expected to give more detail of it at the interview.

2: Employers test you on competency based questions at interviews. A competency based question is when you give specific examples of past behaviours that show how you behaved in certain situations in an interview setting. Do not be general in the answers you give to a competency based question. 

3: Maintain eye contact and answer the questions as quickly as possible. Silence is ok but not prolonged silence.

4: Before the actual interview check the competencies that the organisation looks for on their website and practice examples of them using the STAR approach*.

5: When answering questions never say ‘we’. Interviewers are interested in how you handled each scenario as you will be the one they will hire.

6: Research the company and get the dress code correct by understanding the ethos of the organisation.

7: Telephone interviews are a low cost initial screening of candidates in some companies to take through to a face to face interview and you must treat them seriously and come across as confident, articulate and give clear detail. 

8: Build rapport with the interviewer at all times and make sure you leave a good first and lasting impression.

*  P.s. The STAR approach is:

S – Situation, background set the scene
T – Task or Target, specifics of what's required, when, where, who
A – Action, what you did, skills used, behaviours, characteristics
R – Result – Outcome, what happened?

If an interviewer starts probing you, this is a clue you are not giving enough information (such as names, role, project, feedback, who, what, when, outcome).

Thanks to Cheryl Copeland for providing this article.

Note:  University of Cumbria students can access the "Making an Impact" video via the Jobs&Careers tab on Blackboard.

Employers' Use of Testing Alienates Graduates

Another recent article from "Graduate Recruiter" (view earlier post) quotes research by Talent Q UK to suggest that candidates for graduate posts are becoming alienated by employers' use of psychomentric and ability tests.

It all seems to come down an issue of poor communication.  According to the research, employers frequently make basic mistakes like:

•  not explaining why applicants are being asked to take a test and how the results relate to the job
•  not offering feedback on candidates' performance, which breaches requirements of the British Psychological Society
• not telling people why their application failed, which may or may not be down to a poor test result

An additional problem is poor record keeping, resulting in duplication and frustration for applicants.

I am sure many Careers Advisers can report meetings with students and graduates who have been fed up with the sometimes apparently random nature of the tests they were asked to take and the opaque, remote nature of the whole process. Online tests seem to be particularly loathed.  But is there much consistent evidence that candidates with superior test scores really do perform better in the workplace?

Yorkshire Graduate Recruitment Fair

Also on the Careers Fair trail, The Yorkshire Graduate Recruitment Fair takes place on Thursday 31st May between 11.00 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. at The Edge, University of Leeds and is open to graduates of all UK universities.

There will be over 90 employers, CV checks and a series of 10 minute workshops.

Find out more at http://careerfairs.leeds.ac.uk/ygrf/

Manchester Graduate Recruitment Fair

We have received the following reminder notice about the above event from Manchester University:

• Hundreds of graduate jobs (local and national) starting June onwards (mostly permanent and paid, but a handful of voluntary positions too) plus some postgrad course opportunities, all on offer at:  The Graduate Recruitment Fair, Manchester.
• Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 June 2012, 10.30am - 4.00pm, The Armitage Centre, Fallowfield, Manchester.  DIFFERENT EXHIBITORS EACH DAY .
• 160 companies and institutions - with graduate vacancies for this year. Attend on both days if you want to see all the exhibitors.  BRING COPIES OF YOUR CV.
• STUDENTS & GRADUATES FROM ANY UNIVERSITY WELCOME.
• FREE bus from Piccadilly Railway Station to the Armitage Centre and back.
• For details and to register to attend, see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/graduatefair

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The Manchester event is probably the biggest Graduate Fair within easy travelling of Cumbria, so it's well worth booking a place.

Adzuna Graduate Competition 2012

The following post was adapted from an email recently received from Mei Chou, of Adzuna:  

Adzuna is pleased to present its first Graduate of the Year Competition 2012 to all recent or soon-to-be graduates. You stand to win a one week placement with one of the leading companies in the UK including the likes of eBay, Sony and L’oReal as well as some CV mentoring. On top of that, you will receive a combined salary and cash prize of up to GBP 1,000.

We are looking for an outstanding individual among the recent graduates from a recognised UK university. Whether you excel in arts, music, sports, a particular academic, language or are an outstanding student union member, leader, or social contributor, we want to hear about you and why you deserve to win. For more information and details on how to apply, go to http://www.adzuna.co.uk/jobs/graduate-of-the-year.html

Deadline is 31st May 2012 and the winner will be selected on the 1st of July 2012.