PT Vacancies – Applications Advisers

We’re now looking to recruit more paid applications advisers to help with the flood of undergrads and postgrads who use our Quick Query service for CV and application feedback – details here. There’s not much time until the official closing date (3rd July) but I’ve negotiated an extension for you – if you get your application in by 7th July, you should still be considered.

If you’ve used the service yourself, you might not have realised it, but our Applications Advisers (as opposed to our Careers Consultants) are generally our current postgrads, mainly PhD researchers working with us part-time. They’ve all got skills and experience which make them ideal for helping other student with job applications, often with prior recruitment, HR or coaching/counselling experience or at least experience of training or teaching so they can empathise with our students and get information across to them (we know what a multi-talented bunch our postgrads are).

It helps if you’ve applied for jobs before, so you understand the application process. It’s also quite pressured – 1-1 discussions with students you’ve never seen before, where you have 15 minutes to establish rapport, understand their issues, read their application(s) and give them feedback to help them improve – and then it’s straight on to the next 15 min appointment. You get to see students from all disciplines and at all levels but most of the basics of applying for jobs are common across the range.

You also get to see all nationalities, which can be a delight and a challenge. You will need excellent written (and spoken) English – you don’t spell or grammar check or re-write CVs, but you do need to be able to point out where a CV needs the student to go away and do some work on the wording or punctuation, as well as the content or layout. However, this certainly doesn’t exclude international postgrads from becoming applications advisers – we’ve had excellent Greek and Canadian applications advisers, who can bring the extra dimension of knowing how tough it can be applying in a language which isn’t your first (OK, Canadian English probably bears some resemblance to UK English but you get the idea).

If you’re interested, I’d strongly recommend coming in and booking a Quick Query session yourself before applying (if you haven’t already used us). The applications advisers and careers consultants running quick query over the summer have been forewarned that you might want to talk about these jobs, so come and talk to us.

You’ll need to be here for the next academic year, so this excludes most current Masters postgrads, though if you’re doing your Masters part-time over a couple of years and can commit to being a student here and available for work at least from August to the Christmas vacation, do contact us. The hours are quite “bitty”, where you might be needed for a couple of hours in the morning, then a couple later on, so it also helps if you’re on campus a lot of the time.

It’s an interesting role, great for your CV, full training is given and you get real appreciation from all the students you help.

If you think you fit the bill, full details are on our website.

Job Hunting in New Zealand

It can be challenging finding jobs on another continent, but it can be done – here’s the evidence and tips on how to do it, particularly if you’re looking for research jobs.

Belinda Bray, who worked with me on the UK GRAD programme, and in the Faculty of Life Sciences on their Widening Participation programmes and the national Researchers in Residence programme, has now headed back to her home country. As she’s from New Zealand, she couldn’t just nip off for the afternoon for a quick interview, so here’s how she did it (and if you’re wondering why you’d want to go to NZ, I’ve included some visual clues).

 

Guest Post : Belinda Bray

“After living and working in the UK for the past four years, circumstances dictated that it was time to return to my home country of New Zealand. Good news, except that it did require yet another job hunt and this time from a distance. How did I do it?

Well, I have to say the internet is a wonderful thing! I spent many productive hours cruising and viewing any websites that I could find relating to jobs, science (Toxicology being my speciality) and research. Unlike the bigger job markets of the UK and the US there is no really easy way to search for graduate jobs.

Engineers & Computer Scientists – Work In The USA?

I don’t normally use standard employer publicity on this blog, but this is an unusual one – anyone interested in the chance to work in the USA directly after your postgraduate (or undergraduate) degree? Thought so – read on.

Lutron, a lighting control company based in Pennsylvania, are coming on campus on Monday 1st December (see below and the Careers Service events page for details) and they’re looking for a range of engineers and computer scientists. The positions are open to both UK and non-UK students, and they are interested in postgrads. It’s nigh on impossible for most students to get a postgraduate or graduate level job in the USA straight after graduating (other than post-doc jobs in universities – and no-one’s kidding you that those are easy to get either), so if you’ve got any ambitions in this direction and want to see first hand what the Obama era means for the world, this is your chance.

Global Careers Webchat Transcript Available

Thanks to all those who took part in the webchat with the Global Careers Company last night. It was a big success from our point of view, with loads of you registering to take part and plenty of you asking questions on the night.

If you couldn’t make it or want to see the answers again, the transcript is now available on the webchat page on our website.

The event was so successful that the Global Careers Company now want to do another webchat for postgrads to support their “Careers in Africa” summit (in January), and Njambi, their Africa specialist is planning to come on campus to give a presentation.

Watch the blog for more details…

Global Recruiters Want To Talk To International Postgrads

This event is exclusively for our international postgraduates – a webchat with the Global Career Company, ahead of their Careers In Asia, Careers in Africa and Careers in Central and Eastern Europe summits in London.

The Global Career Company career summits are “invitation only”, but give you the chance to meet directly with employers actively recruiting in the target location. They’re different to the normal recruitment fairs – at these events, people come away with interviews completed and jobs offered. The kinds of employers they invite include big names – Coca Cola, Aviva, Daimler, HSBC and more signed up for the December “Careers in Asia” summit. Browse some of the other named companies they work with and see if there’s anyone you might be interested in for Africa … or Asia …  OK, you’re back now? Right, let’s see what we can do to get you the chance to be invited.

The webchat will run from 5.00-6.00pm on Wednesday 15th October and to take part (or lurk) all you need to do is to sign up in advance. It’s a great chance to find out more about the Career Summits, to get some direct advice on international recruitment, find out how to make improve your chances of getting invited - and how to make the most of attending one of their events.

“This webchat gives students the opportunity to find out more about the key growing markets in Africa, Asia and CEE and how a move to any of these regions could greatly enhance their career development.”

Conrad Chua, Business Development Manager, Global Career Company

As the Chinese Graduate Fair is taking a rest this year (sorry about this, but we can’t guarantee that they will come over every year) this is your big chance to link up with employers in the Asian market this year – don’t miss it.

Investment Banks – Still Recruiting Postgrads

I keep waiting for these events and vacancies to be cancelled, but in spite of the media gloom, many of the investment banks are still actively recruiting, with events targeted at postgrads (particularly in quantitative or technology subjects) and at other groups they want to attract into the City – like women. Here are a few events coming up :

• Credit Derivatives Workshop, Credit Suisse – aimed at quantitative Masters and PhDs (no prior finance knowledge required), this “by invitation” workshop in London introduces the world of credit derivatives, global modelling and trading. You’ll get the chance to ask all those difficult questions like “why are we in this mess?” and “what can I do, if I join you, to put it all right?”. It’s on the same day as the Science, Engineering and Technology Fair (22nd Oct) so you’ll need to choose which you prefer. E-mail them by 15th October (details on the weblink above) to register your interest.
   
• UBS Investment Bank Operations/Technology roles :
   
  “Women in IT” dinner – it’s easy to be cynical about the City professing an interest in attracting more women, but UBS, and particularly their operations/technology groups, have a good track record with us here. They’ve been big supporters of our Pathways PhD career options event for the last two years and we got the good news that this year they recruited 4 of our graduates - 3 of them with PhDs, 2 of them women and all of them international. If you’re a woman in an IT related discipline (could also be other science/engineering with IT content) and want to talk to UBS over dinner at Malmaison on 21st October, apply to them by 13th October (details on the weblink above).
   
  If you’re not a woman (or don’t fancy dinner, or working in operations) there’s no need to miss out – you can always meet UBS at our Finance, Business & Management Fair on 23rd October.
   
  UBS are also doing an evening workshop on Operations on 16th October. As with a lot of presentations, this one filled up early with students registering to attend, so technically, I shouldn’t be bothering to tell you about it. On the other hand, I do know that normally, a lot of people sign up for presentations and then don’t turn up on the night. I also know that for these sorts of employer presentations, we don’t take a register on the door … OK, you’re smart, you’re postgrads, do you need any more hints than that?

There are rumours of more PG events to come – I’ll let you know when I hear about them!

Next Stop Harvard?

Whilst Manchester is a fantastic place to be (a city filled with an abundance of great music, vibrant student culture and ample precipitation), no-one can deny that having Harvard or MIT on your CV as well would look pretty good. Here are a couple of scholarships with closing dates in the early autumn which might help make this a reality :

• Frank Knox Scholarships – these allow for 6 UK students to undertake up to two years of graduate study at Harvard. There are also opportunities for students from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Naturally these are very competitive, and in addition to an application form and references, successful applicants will be selected on the basis of “future promise of leadership, strength of character, keen mind, a balanced judgment and a devotion to the democratic ideal”. Applications must be submitted by 27th October.
   
• Kennedy Scholarships – applicable to study not only at Harvard but also MIT, they are intended to “act as a spur to closer trans-Atlantic relations”. These scholarships allow for one year’s study in the USA. However, their website indicates that if you get funding as a Kennedy Scholar for the first year of a PhD, you will usually get offered funding from Harvard or MIT for the 2nd year onwards. In addition, it allows for a year’s Visiting Fellowship mid-PhD if you’re already studying here. Applications deadlines are “usually the first Friday of November”.

International Postgrads & UK Work Permits

When I asked the new MBS Masters postgrads today what they wanted me to blog about, the cry came back – work permits. So, here’s how to find out all you wanted to know about working in the UK for international postgrads.

It’s complicated and has changed significantly over the last few months, so the best way to get a summary of the current situation is to look at the International pages of the Careers Service website. The gist of it is that there are now three main ways in which international postgrads could legally work in the UK after graduating with a UK degree. The health warning is that it is still changing, so you need to check the Government websites (links are on our own careers website) to get the up to date picture.

• You can apply for a 2 year Post study Work (Tier 1) visa, which gives you the right to work (in any work) without an employer having to apply for a work permit or register. This was changed from a 1 year scheme over the summer and is a big improvement for international students. It has a points based system for qualifying, with points being awarded for the level of qualification you will be awarded (postgraduate degrees at Manchester should qualify for 75 points), further points for English language capability, and more points for having a minimum amount of funds in the bank for a specified time, to maintain yourself if you don’t immediately find work. 
    
  The reason this is an improvement is that many, if not most, employers were reluctant to employ someone knowing they could only legally work for 1 year. At 2 years, you can make a better case that employers will get a return on any investment in training you. However, some employers will still be reluctant, particularly if their profession demands a lengthy training process.
   
• You can apply for a Highly Skilled Visa (Tier 1 General) which gives you the right to work (in any work) for 2 years, again without an employer having to apply for a work permit. This sort of visa is extendable for up to 3 years, if you still meet the qualifying criteria, another points-based system which differs to the Post Study visa.
   
• If you have significant work experience and can convince an employer that they need to recruit you because they can’t find anyone else in the EU to do the job, the “Tier 2 Sponsored Skilled Worker” scheme is expected to be in place this autumn. This is the one where the employer has to get the work permit and be registered to employ you, and the permit is specific to that job and that employer. You definitely need to check the Careers Service website and the links to the Government site to keep on top of the changes to this one.

You can be alerted to any changes we become aware of through the Manchester International Careers Blog, and we have a talk all about Work Permits coming up on Friday 10th October, from 1.00-2.00 in Roscoe Building, Room 2.2.

Hope that gets you started and you have fun exploring the extensive resources on the International section of our website, and if you are looking to return home after your postgraduate degree, don’t forget to look at the Country Information part of our website with information and further weblinks for a very wide range of countries all over the world (including Ukraine for the Masters student who asked me after the talk!)

e-Tutor Vacancies – MLP

You’ve probably got the e-mail by now (what do you mean, you don’t read the e-mails we send to all PGs?!) but in case you didn’t, we’re now officially recruiting for Manchester Leadership Programme e-Tutors. Full details are on our MLP e-Tutor pages but here are a few further insights :

Who can apply to be an e-Tutor?

• In general, you have to be a postgraduate student of the University of Manchester for the duration of the course which you want to tutor. This is because we’ve had administrative problems with on-line access to Blackboard (which is critical for the role) for e-Tutors who are no longer students or employees of the University. This means that most full time Masters students wouldn’t be able to apply, but if you’re doing a part-time Masters over a longer time period (and you could fit it in around your course and exam commitments) it might be a possibility.
• What if you’re a member of university staff? We haven’t had to deal with this so far, and there are potential issues with payment (can’t get paid twice for the same hours!) but there might be ways to accommodate this (eg if you’re a part-time employee). Any solution isn’t likely to be lucrative – you’re more likely to find it acceptable if it’s the course itself which attracts you – and you’ll have to get the OK from your boss, but we’re not ruling it out.

What if I’m not an expert in leadership or sustainability?

• The courses are so wide ranging that we don’t expect you to be an expert. However, it’s really helpful if you have already demonstrated your interest in volunteering and/or environmental, social or economic sustainability (could be an academic interest, or extra curricular – or both). The role is more about facilitiation and encouraging students to engage with the subject matter, than being an expert in all subjects covered. That said, you’ll need to engage with the subject matter yourself each week, so even if you’re not an expert, you’ll need to pick things up pretty quickly!

What if I haven’t tutored undergrads before?

• This is a bit more difficult. The tutoring and, particularly, the assessment aspect of the role are pretty challenging. Ideally, we’re looking for people who have already got experience of the basics of teaching at undergraduate level, and are now ready to take it to the next level. Having said that, we have taken tutors with alternative teaching or coaching experience (from the voluntary sector or other educational settings) – but you’ll need to convince us you can deal with criterion based assessment grids and the challenges of fair marking in a subject where there are no clear cut right and wrong answers.

What if I’m an international postgrad?

• You’ll need an excellent command of written English as most of the role involves clear on-line (written) communication to students from all nationalities (and disciplines) – but our cohort of successful e-Tutors has included postgrads from Finland, Italy, India, Canada and the odd Brit thrown in to keep our diversity stats looking good … we’ll even take people from Wales (joke, joke – Sian now runs our e-Tutor team, having started as an e-Tutor herself)

Any further questions, drop me a comment and I’m happy to answer here.

Internships In Germany, UK And Beyond

I was recently contacted by a German recruitment website, Spirofrog, with a comment on one of my blog posts. I don’t normally just publish marketing comments, but their site looked interesting enough to get into a dialogue with them – telling them basically, if you can give us some interesting information of use to postgrads, and if your organisation checks out (as far as my web research goes), you’ll get a mention. So here it is :

Spirofrog focuses on advertising internships and jobs in Germany (and beyond) for students and young professionals. As a student, you have to register to access most of the information, but it’s free and they say they don’t forward your details to agencies. (You didn’t realise that some other sites might do this? Hmm, think again …) They do look to have ads from some interesting organisations on their website, including Oracle, Cleantech, Paypal and more.

So what did they tell me which I thought might be interesting? Well, it’s apparently very common in Germany for graduates and postgraduates to have to do one or more internships after graduation, to build up the relevant experience to apply for most other jobs. Lisa, who is currently an intern with Spirofrog (and “loves the firm”) says that it is common that German grads start with internships after their graduation, because lots of companies are looking for at least 2 years of experience before or in between studies. She says, “In Germany though, it’s difficult to make these two years, so they add an “internship” after their graduation!”

This highlights the difference in the job market between countries. In the UK, until recently, it has been very unusual to get an internship after you graduate, particularly after a postgraduate degree. In the last couple of years, a few more organisations have started accepting applications for internships from those who have finished their degree(s). However, it’s still quite unusual. Most companies use internships as an extended trial period before graduation (particularly just prior to the final year of the student’s degree) with the intention of recruiting them on graduation if they’re good. The idea of offering you some training or work experience after graduating, before you go off and work elsewhere, isn’t high on their agenda.

If the organisation with whom you want to do an internship doesn’t offer these to post/graduates (and you don’t want to go to Germany), you might have more luck if you say you’re looking for temporary or contract work, and highlight the skills and experience you can bring.

This avoids using the potentially off-putting term “internship” (from an employer’s point of view, this sounds like something arduous they have to organise, including training programmes and specially organised tasks), and replaces it with a solution to a problem ie. how does the employer find someone to complete some work they need doing, without having to commit to a long term employment relationship?

And how can you find out those organisations who do offer post-graduation internships? Keep an eye on our own vacancy site (try looking under “Full time jobs” with the search term “Internship”) – and Spirofrog if you’re looking at Germany.