Kick Start Your Career

Successful Strategies and Winning Techniques

Lee Smith, John van Genderen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351656856
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

For new graduates, the key challenge remains how to secure that first career-related job. Full of guidance and tips on how to handle the complex field of job hunting, Kick Start Your Career can help navigate an ever-changing job market and secure your chance at your desired career. It is a valuable investment in your future. It advises the reader on how to:

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• stand out in job applications;

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• use social media for job searching;

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• create resumes and cover letters that stand out;

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• succeed at interviews.

It provides a practical, hands on, step-by-step approach. With an integrated Personal Plan that helps create key job search documents it directs soon-to-be graduates towards achieving their career aspirations. Accompanying online resources include examples and templates, which can be downloaded in Word format to help you prepare resumes and other job search documents.

This book will help graduates progressively build up job-hunting resources – skills, achievements, resume, cover letter and interview responses – and turn this into a practical outcome: a new job. It is a key companion to any student or recent graduate exploring the job market.

1

Getting prepared

1.1 Introduction

A key challenge for new graduates is making a positive transition from tertiary studies to their first career-related job. It is the first stage of finding career-related employment and building a successful career. Our aim is to help students acquire the job search preparation and job hunting skills to achieve this.

Acquiring the education provided by a degree or tertiary studies is in fact the first step in a life-long journey. The next step involves getting a job in your chosen profession.

Whose responsibility is it to equip under-graduates with the skills to acquire a job in their chosen employment? Is it the university’s or is it the student’s? The responsibility is ultimately the students to seek out these skills. Some tertiary institutions, which have the welfare and career interests of their students at heart, will encourage additional training or resources to assist prospective graduates’ transition to employment.

One of the challenges students face when enrolling in a tertiary course is the expectation of a job and career as the ultimate outcome. Economic cycles, excessive student intakes, oversupply of some courses and the varying demands of potential employers are all key factors that affect employment opportunities; they directly affect potential new graduates’ hopes for job and career opportunities.

In the book, we will cover successful strategies for job search preparation and winning techniques for job hunting and securing a job. The focus of the book is on practical help, to assist you with achieving your personal plans for your transition to employment.

Despite our best intentions, after reading a valuable book or attending a worthwhile course we can fail to implement the things we have just learnt. This is often owing to the demands of busy lives and time pressures. For this reason, the material has been structured to allow students to progressively develop their personal plans. The book has been designed to be tailored to each student’s personal needs (via the Personal Plan in the Appendix).

This introductory chapter will help you maximise your job search results. It will prepare you for the challenges and issues ahead. It teaches you to break a large task (job hunting) into smaller components and take one step at a time.

Chapter 2 on adaptable strategies will help you handle diminished work opportunities. It will outline alternate strategies to ensure your expectations are realistic and can match available job opportunities. You will learn ways to rebrand yourself and explore alternatives.

Chapter 3 on personal abilities explores ways of developing important personal skills for job hunting. These include adaptability, resilience, flexibility and endurance. The chapter provides encouragement.

Chapter 4, entitled Job hunting: key factors, will introduce you to the key considerations for job search preparation, including your achievements, job criteria, personal development, through to the role of a good resume and cover letter.

Chapter 5 is a key chapter, and will help you in locating job opportunities.

Social media is crucial in modern job searching. Four major platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter) are covered in Chapters 6 to 8 to help you use these powerful options.

Good decision making is very important as you weigh up complex and often difficult options when undertaking job searching. Three decision-making tools are included to help you (Chapter 9). Through the Personal Plan you will identify your achievements. These are the “selling points” used in your job application (Chapters 10 and 11).

Progressively you will compile your Foundation Resume that contains all your achievements, qualifications, work experience and abilities (Chapters 12 and 13). It is a key resource for your job hunting. Resumes or CVs vary between countries and within regions. The book will outline the key differences (Chapter 15). This will help you select a format that is appropriate and culturally right. You will be guided through the creation of your job application Targeted Resume and cover letter.

Job interviews are a critical part of winning a job (Chapter 17). The key tips to succeed are included.

The Appendices: Resources provide valuable resources to assist your job search preparation.

The Appendices: Personal Plan is a key part. They help you convert the contents of the book into your personal action plan and produce key job application materials you will need.

eResources – the book’s digital web resource – is a valuable source of digital resources to assist you.

1.2 Aims

Wisdom teaches us that if we do not have a travel plan we are unlikely to reach our destination. It is important to set goals – our aims.

This book aims to:

● equip prospective graduates with the skills to transition to successful employment;

● assist tertiary institutions to help their graduates into careers;

● allow the reader to develop their Personal Plans to win a job;

● explore Internet and social media techniques for job hunting, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter; and

● provide added valuable digital resources via the book’s eResource webpage.

1.2.1 Structure

The book is organised to provide material in a structure that relates to the two main phases:

● job search preparation; and

● job hunting and securing a job.

The intent is to break the activity down into smaller, more manageable parts, to allow students to undertake the job preparation phase and then build on this for the job hunting and interview phases.

The graduate will learn:

● how the job market operates; and

● new skills and techniques to win a job.

1.2.2 Group discussion/tutorial

● Discuss the benefits of clearly setting your goals.

● What are the potential barriers or challenges to achieving these goals?

1.2.3 Personal Plan

There are two options for completing the Appendices: Personal Plan:

● hardcopy option in the back of the book; or

● digital Word option via the downloadable digital Appendices on the book’s eResource web...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Starting your career!
• Collaboration note and about the authors
• Preface
• Who will use the book
• eResources: added digital resources
• Full programme or fast-track?
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Getting prepared
• 2 Adaptable strategies
• 3 Personal abilities
• 4 Job hunting
• 5 Locating job opportunities
• 6 Social media
• 7 Social media
• 8 Social media for job hunting
• 9 Personal development
• 10 General Achievements
• 11 Achievements Extended
• 12 Preparing your Foundation Resume
• 13 Preparing your Foundation Resume
• 14 Referees and references
• 15 Preparing your Targeted Resume
• 16 Preparing your tailored cover letter
• 17 Interviews
• 18 Conclusion
• Appendix Resources 1 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)
• Appendix Resources 2 Career assessment reports
• Appendix Resources 3 General Achievement examples
• Appendix Resources 4 Achievements Extended examples
• Appendix Resources 5 Foundation Resume example 1
• Appendix Resources 6 Foundation Resume example 2
• Appendix Resources 7 Cover letter example 1
• Appendix Resources 8 Cover letter example 2
• Appendix Resources 9 Interviews – experts’ advice
• Appendix Resources 10 Targeted Resume – Australian example
• Appendix Resources 11 Targeted Resume – United Kingdom (UK) example
• Appendix Resources 12 Targeted Resume – USA example
• Appendix Resources 13 Targeted Resume – European example
• Appendix Resources 14 Targeted Resume – Asian example
• Appendix Personal Plan 1 – aims
• Appendix Personal Plan 2 – challenges and issues
• Appendix Personal Plan 3 – one step at a time
• Appendix Personal Plan 4 – job selection psychology
• Appendix Personal Plan 5 – locating jobs
• Appendix Personal Plan 6 – Social media online profile
• Appendix Personal Plan 7 – SWOT analysis
• Appendix Personal Plan 8 – Decision balance analysis
• Appendix Personal Plan 9 – force field analysis
• Appendix Personal Plan 10 – general achievements
• Appendix Personal Plan 11 – Achievements Extended
• Appendix Personal Plan 12 – Foundation Resume stage 1 key points
• Appendix Personal Plan 13 – Foundation Resume stage 2
• Appendix Personal Plan 14 – Targeted Resume (county format)
• Appendix Personal Plan 15 – Cover letter
• Glossary
• Index