Developing Your Employability Skills Career Development Centre University of Ulster

Aims:  Understand the importance of Work Experience  Equip you with the ability to articulate your experiences and skills to employers  Develop skills required for successful lifelong career management  Explore the main pathways open to you

Learning Outcomes:  Be able to assess and critically reflect upon your interests, values, abilities and personal transferable skills, particularly in relation to career and life planning  Know broadly what kinds of skills, qualities and abilities employers seek in potential employees, and how these are measured.  Be able to demonstrate a capacity to collect, organise and apply information to justify future career planning decisions.

Why Work Experience  The majority of employers are looking for more than just a degree from new recruits.  They want individuals with well developed personal skills which they can use from day one.

Why Work Experience?  Obtain relevant/real life experience  Develop the skills employers look for and add value to future applications  Provides career insight and helps clarify your ideas  It improves longer term job prospects  Reduces your debts  Increasingly it’s a first stage in the selection process

What skills? (Skills Audit)  In-depth knowledge of your speciality  Team working  Problem solving  Time management  Leadership  Flexibility  Adaptability

Where to find vacancies  Career Development Centre website  Work-experience site  Newspapers  Company’s own website  Directories from Careers Service  Voluntary organisations

Useful Sites       

Putting together an effective C.V. Prospective employers approach CV’s from the perspective of: They are looking for the skills and qualities needed to perform well They want to see that you know what the employer is looking for and that you can market your relevant skills and experiences accordingly  cv040.shtml

What should appear in a C.V.?  Personal Details  Education  Work Experience  Achievements  Interests & Activities  Additional Information  Referees (one must be academic)

CV Layout  Two pages maximum  Single sided, printed on quality paper with no spelling or grammatical errors  Concise writing style –use- Relevant headings, short paragraphs, bullet points  Employers typically don’t read everything and their first glance could only be a few seconds. A complicated CV may not get a second chance.

CV’s Layout Avoid  Graphics and gimmicks  Using tables and charts Overall, try to:  Keep it consistent  Don’t overdo underlining  Larger font for headings/use bold for emphasis  Keep it original and professional

 Vacancies  Events  Help with career planning  Links to employers, postgraduate studies opportunities and other useful sites

Career Development Centre  Quick Query times: during opening hours  A longer session with a Career Development Advisor is by appointment  Applications/CV/Interview help available