Sorry for the very short notice about this, but it was only confirmed yesterday afternoon (guess it reflects the kind of “keep your ear to the ground and drop everything when a chance comes up” mentality you’d need in TV production). As of posting (9.30 am, Thursday 26th Jan) there were still 17 places left – get in quick.

Here are the details:

This Friday 27 January – two lunchtime talks from the BBC at 12.00pm and 1.00pm (pick the time that suits you) in Room 5.7, Crawford House, Booth Street East, Manchester (above the Careers Service and across from the Aquatic Centre – the entrance is the one furthest away from Oxford Road)

This year the BBC launches the Production Talent Pool (PTP). The PTP will be a first step on the ladder for nearly 100 ambitious talented people who want a career in broadcast media. Successful PTP candidates are offered short-term, paid work in runner or junior production management roles across the BBC for up to 12 months.

The brightest and the best of those will be offered one of 12 places on the BBC’s prestigious Production training scheme which fast tracks individuals across 18 months to become Assistant Producer.

This session is aimed at final year students to give details of the scheme and information about how to apply.

Register here for the talk at 12 noon- 1pm, this Fri 27 Jan

Or

Register here for the talk at 1pm – 2pm, this Fri 27 Jan.

The talk will be given by Kate Hoyland, the BBC’s Manager, Trainee and Development Schemes for the BBC Academy.

Places are limited so please sign-up asap. Registration closes at midnight on Thurs 26 Jan.

Please note, information about careers in the media is regularly posted on the University of Manchester Media Club blog

It’s designed to get you started, and for the first time, we’ve included “screencasts” showing you how to set up a LinkedIn profile and advice on what to include, even if you’re a student with little or no work experience. This includes an example student profile to show you how easy it is to create an effective presence on LinkedIn. You should be able to see basic details if you don’t have an account or are not logged in to LinkedIn, but you’ll need to set up an account to get the full benefit.

The screencasts are videos of a computer desktop, showing you what to click where to set up your profile, plus a helpful audio commentary, with tips on what to add, and what to avoid. There are two clips, each less than 5 minutes long, so they’re ideal if

• you haven’t taken the plunge yet but want to set up a profile, or
• you have set one up but want to make it look more professional.

I’m really impressed with these new resources – and even more impressed that my colleague, Helen, managed to create them in the last few days of her pregnancy. I guess it was something to take her mind off waiting, but I think it shows dedication to student careers, above and beyond the call of duty!

One brief point – in Part 2 of her screencast, Helen mentions that you should look at a video on using LinkedIn groups as part of your network. I guess that time just ran out and she didn’t get chance to create this before her more pressing deadline. However, we’ll pick up where she left off, and one of us (OK, probably me ) will learn how to create screencasts and continue the series – watch this space.

Let me know if you find these useful and what other topics you want us to cover.

Whether you need a quick 15 minute drop-in appointment, or a full half hour pre-booked appointment with someone used to seeing people from your School, there should be some short notice appointments available. (I’ve currently got over 20 free appointment slots over the next 2 weeks – but then I only made them available today.)

To book just call in (we’re opposite the Aquatics Centre) or call our Careers Information staff on 0161 275 2829 – open Monday to Friday, 9-5pm. More details here.

Good idea to get in while it’s quiet!

New Year, New Challenge
I’m grappling with some challenging career issues at the moment, particularly around

• how people choose which career to go into, and
• why they are sometimes reluctant to let go of one “identity” and consider other possible “future selves”

In particular, I’m looking at PhDs who don’t want to think of themselves as being anything other than “an academic-in-waiting”, even when they know the stats.

I’m also pondering about all those undergrads who cling to the identity of “student” as long as possible and don’t apply for jobs before they graduate, even though that inevitably means their identity changes to “unemployed” (or sometimes “Masters postgrad”… don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone if that’s the reason why you’re doing your Masters – we all know it happens).

There are lots of careers theories, and I’ve had some good advice on starting points for journal articles on identity, career decision making and employability.

How to choose?
The problem is, I’m on unfamiliar territory with careers theory, and I’m feeling overwhelmed by all the choices in front of me; the unfamiliar jargon they use; the sometimes conflicting information. I’ve got loads of information and keep on finding more, but how can I tell which one is “the best”, and what do other people think are the good theories, and what if I choose the wrong one? That’s only the start though – once I find a theory I like, how do I actually use the information to solve the problem I’ve got?

And then I realised that whatever I choose to do, I’m getting an insight into what our students have to struggle with when trying to choose a career – all the careers information we fling at you; employer presentations which sound like so much corporate jargon; what your parents, friends, fellow students say are “the best jobs” (all different, of course); how on earth you get into those jobs from where you are now.

I’m feeling suitable chastened, and I think I’d recommend a crash course in trying to make use of careers theory for any careers person who’s getting exasperated at the lack of direction or action from their students.

Good luck to those of you making those difficult career decisions in 2012, and if it’s all getting a bit overwhelming, come and have a chat with a careers adviser. Some of us do know what it’s like to be lost in a sea of information with a difficult decision to make.

The BBC programme, “When Bankers Were Good” was a reminder that old school banking was about more than personal gain, with some arguing that those with ethical concerns about the financial system are exactly the kind of people who should go into banking (“Banking can be an ethical career choice” from the BBC News website – and if you missed their original programme, you might try here – though not sure how long that link will work )

With this in mind, one of my favourite quotes which I kept coming back to this year is a poem by Kurt Vonnegut, written as an obituary to his friend, Joseph Heller. (I’ll give you the gist as I can’t quote for copyright reasons, but you can find the full text, legitimately reproduced, here.)

It tells of them attending a party at the home of a wealthy banker. When Vonnegut asked Heller if it bothered him that their host probably earned more in a day than Heller earned for writing his classic novel, “Catch 22″, Heller replied that he had something their host could never have: “Enough”.

Having “enough” seems to be one of the key factors in whether you are content with your career. There’s a very interesting, if lengthy, blog post from journalist, David McRaney, which explores the psychology behind the subtle relationship between reward (financial or otherwise) and loving what you do. I’d recommend reading it if you’re interested in figuring out what will make you happy in your career: The Overjustification Effect.

… and with that thought (and my 500th post on this blog – hooray!), I’m off to stuff my face with mince pies and the finest wines available to humanity. See you after the January sales …!

Current job market
Unfortunately, this year I can’t do my Christmas vacancy round up chart showing how vacancies sent to the Careers Service have changed over the years. We’ve changed our database, and can’t be sure we’re comparing like with like for previous years (on the upside, we think we’ve got more accurate figures now).

However, here are a few stats:

• In November 2011, we carried  415 job ads for full-time vacancies – this compares to 316 for November 2010 (the first month we had data from our new database)
• I don’t have the full December figures yet, but in a spot check this week, we had over 350 active, full-time job ads on CareersLink. (Last year’s figures were 201, though that was on our old database.)
• Over 80 full-time job ads were added in the last week. Who says no-one advertises at Christmas? What’s more, a fair number of these new job ads had early January closing dates, so don’t delay “getting round to” applying for these jobs – mid January may be too late.

To be honest, that’s a better picture than I expected. I’m normally pretty bullish about the real state of the graduate job market, bolstered by knowing how many jobs we get sent, which has often been at odds with the media picture of “no graduate jobs this year”. I admit I feel much more nervous than in previous years about the future job market, but maybe it’s just the “hell-in-a-handcart” hype which has finally worn me down – here’s hoping!

Take a chance on different jobs?
One more worrying phenomenon we’ve spotted is the number of good jobs which we’ve advertised which have attracted few views, never mind applications. In November, there were almost 35,000 views of vacancies on CareersLink – but they’re not evenly spread. Cast your net a bit wider in the kind of posts you’re prepared to look at and you may find some plum jobs there for the taking.

How to demonstrate you have good communication skills
If you’ve managed to figure out from a job advert that you need excellent communication skills, what evidence can you use to demonstrate that you’ve got what it takes? Here are two examples, taken from the Met Office guidance (pdf).

Poor attempt:

“In my current role as a research scientist I am expected to communicate my research findings to a wide range of audiences. I have presented at many conferences to a wide range of audiences across the UK and abroad. I consider communication skills to be one of my key strengths. At my most recent appraisal my line manager commended me on my communication skills. I am equally comfortable speaking to non-scientists.”

And this is what an employer would think of that answer:

In this example, no specific evidence is given, nor indications of the type of communication, what it was used for and what the outcome was. It would also have been good to show awareness of the end customer’s needs (in this case the target audience) and what the benefit was to them.

Much better attempt:

“I was asked to conduct a presentation on some research to a group of eminent scientists from outside our research facility. I discussed with my line manager what outcome we wanted to achieve from the presentation and the current knowledge levels of the target audience to determine pitch and style. We agreed that they needed to leave the conference with both a broad understanding of how we had conducted the research, the results and what they mean for future work in this area, and to have a positive view of the contribution the research facility is making in this emerging are of science. I therefore planned and designed my communication around these objectives. I prepared by presenting to close colleagues as a ‘dummy run’, and used their valuable feedback to further refine the material.

The presentation appeared to be well received judging from the initial verbal feedback from delegates at the conference itself. More objectively, delegates were asked to rate each aspect of the two-day conference which included several presentations. Mine received one of the highest accolades, confirming the initial feedback. Further, we have since attracted considerable interest in this research judging by the number of contacts, and most recently we have secured additional funding from policy makers to conduct further research in this area.“

From an employer’s viewpoint:

This example gives a clear example of the actual work carried out, the role the individual played in it, the reasons why it was done, and the benefit to the business.

The Met Office guidance also includes another Good/Poor example answer based on “Analytical skills” and some general guidance on using the “Context – Action – Result” format for constructing competency based answers.

Download their guidance notes (pdf) from the Met Office website, or read the rest of the text, reproduced with kind permission below – and keep an eye on their vacancies, advertised on the vacancies page of their website.

From the Met Office Guidance Notes:

The first stage of the selection process is when we assess your application against the essential and desirable criteria for the job to decide whether you should be interviewed. We use a competency-based approach to selection. The term ‘competency’ is used to describe the knowledge, skills, abilities and experience of an individual and how these attributes manifest themselves in observable behaviour.

Make sure your application gives evidence against each of these essential and desirable criteria stated in the job description, because your application will be assessed against these. We suggest you use each of the essential and desirable criteria as headings, addressing each one in turn. Give examples in the form of a brief overview of what you did. Also explain why you did what you did and what the outcome was. Just describing your experience does not demonstrate your ability to do something.

For example, if one of the essential criteria is to demonstrate effective team working, saying ‘I have worked in various kinds of teams in various roles throughout my career’ does not demonstrate your competency. Instead, you should provide evidence of what you did within a team. Did you lead the team at any stage? If so, say why and how you did this. Did you ensure the team met all its targets? Again, describe how you did this. Include details of any feedback you received from a customer or a colleague and the benefit to them. If you suggested ways in which the team could work more efficiently or effectively, describe how you identified the need and what the outcome was for the customer or end user.

You may find it useful to apply the above acronym ‘Context, Action, Result = CAR:

• C = context – briefly describe the situation
• A = action – state your role, what you did, why you did it and how you did it
• R = result – describe what the outcome was, and how this was evidenced

Analytical Ability – ‘The ability to analyse and interpret complex information’

Good Example:

‘A recent work event provided me with an excellent opportunity to provide evidence of this competency. Internal tests had produced in excess of 700 scores for 120 candidates who each completed 3 written exercises. I was able to break down this complex data and make sound recommendations to my Director. I summarised the data in Excel in a table format which was easily understood and also followed the guidelines laid out in the Personnel Manual. I then analysed this information further to show how different areas of the business had performed, and to see if there were any significant trends with regard to age or gender. I received positive feedback from line managers for this work with the result being it was subsequently displayed on our team’s website. This led on to me being asked by other areas of the business to carry out further analysis of their results to try to identify any significant factors which would help them in their future planning and training requirements. Again, positive feedback was received from the end users who used the information to revise and improve their future plans.’

This example gives a clear example of the actual work carried out, the role the individual played in it, the reasons why it was done, and the benefit to the business.

Poor Example:

‘In my current role as a customer service adviser I am expected to analyse lots of customer data for marketing purposes. As I have been in customer-facing roles for 11 years and have worked in both small and large organisations, in a range of service industries, I consider myself to be good at analysing information. I received a high grading at my last appraisal for my analytical skills.’

In this example, no specific evidence is given, nor indications of the type of information analysed, what it was used for and what the outcome was. It would also have been good to show awareness of the end customer’s needs and what the benefit was to them.

What is it?
The chance to get information, advice and guidance to help your future career from someone who has “inside information” about the career area you’re aiming for, or who graduated from a similar course to you.

We have two programmes this year:

• Manchester Gold Mentoring – a one-to-one matched mentoring programme, lasting 9 months, and taking place through face-to-face meetings, telephone/skype conversations or e-mail.
• Manchester Gold Online Q&A – a new programme available from March next year, where you will be able to e-mail mentors with one-off specific questions.

Manchester Gold Mentoring
This is a very competitive programme, and demands commitment on your part to drive the mentoring relationship, to ensure you get the most out of the programme.

• Timing: Applications are now open, and close on Friday 13th January, 2012. If you are selected, you will be informed by 6th February, and must attend an induction workshop during the week of 21st Feb. The mentoring takes place between March and October 2012 – you must be available to commit your time to the programme during this period (around 20 hours will be needed), if you want your application to be considered.
  .
• How to apply: You apply through your CareersLink account(all University of Manchester students have access to this). Just use your university login to enter CareersLink, then find the “opt-in” section for Manchester Gold mentoring by looking at My Account -> My Profile -> the Miscellaneous tab (see the picture below – click on it for a larger view).
  In order to give yourself the best chance, you must also fill in as much detail as you can on the rest of your profile – details of your previous education, any work experience, additional information such as interests or volunteer work could all add to your chances of being chosen.

More information on the programme is here.

Manchester Gold Online Q&A
This is a new programme, a sort of “Manchester Gold Lite”. It will be available from March 2012, and will give you the chance to e-mail a specific question to a mentor on our database (more information here).

There will be a limit to the number of questions you can e-mail each month, and each mentor will be able to limit the number of e-mails they receive – it will be first come, first served. You won’t get the direct e-mail of the mentors on the database, as it will all be managed through CareersLink.

I’ll post more details as we’re about to go live next year, but I’m excited about this prospect.

As a postgrad, could you be a mentor?
I know that many of our postgrads have fantastic work experience prior to taking up postgraduate study here, and we’d love it if you were prepared to act as a mentor. You don’t have to be currently working in a particular sector or for a specific organisation in order to be able to offer valuable advice. Even if it’s a job or work area you were quite happy to leave, your insights (as long as they’re not too jaded) could give a useful reality check to a current undergraduate or postgraduate.

If you feel you could offer this kind of support, either for our Manchester Gold Mentoring Programme or our Manchester Gold Online Q&A, please do have a look at our information for mentors, and consider registering to provide support to your fellow students.

Sarah is a bioscientist herself who has been supporting bioscience careers for many years, including attending our autumn Engineering, Science and Technology Fairs. She’s been telling me for as long as this blog has been in existence that she was going to set one up herself, so she’s finally done it, and unsurprisingly, it’s great.

So far, she’s covered CVs outside the UK, career alternatives, networking at conferences and science media training workshops, along with pages of resources for postgrads, postdocs and undergrads.

Bioscience careers on video
Another excellent resource which has been around even longer than our postgrad blog is “Careers After Biological Sciences” at http://biosciencecareers.wordpress.com (confusing, I know, but this one was there first).

Dr Chris Willmott at the University of Leicester has compiled an extensive archive of videos and slideshows of bioscience graduates and postgraduates talking about their careers. Careers include dietician, embryologist, ecologist (title of talk: Name that Newt), cosmetic formulation, science journalism, the police and more.

It’s updated sporadically, coinciding with new videos from their careers events, but definitely worth delving into the archives when you’re looking for inspiration or want to hear what a real bioscientist thinks of your latest career idea.

And for any of our Faculty of Life Sciences final year PhDs wanting more help with their careers, I’ll see you at your final year workshop on 12th and 13th January!

Enterprise Futures 2012

What is it?
A one day workshop looking at all aspects of enterprise. If you like the idea of one day being in control of your own business, you probably don’t need much justification for attending an enterprise event. However, it’s also for those who:

• enjoy being enterprising – being innovative, creative, selling ideas to others – in whatever job they do (that’s called “intrapreneurship” – though I just call it “the fun part of my job”)
• are interested in social enterprises – businesses run to fulfil a social need, who aim to make a profit, but who plough that profit into the sustainable enterprise, which continues to address the social need (think The Big Issue, Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen – have a look at this definition from Social Enterprise UK)

When is it?
Monday 23rd January, 9.30am – 5.45pm

Where is it?
The University of Salford’s Media City campus

Who can go?
Up to 50 postgraduates from each of the collaborating universities (which includes The University of Manchester) – first to register get the places, so get in quick as we’ve got a lot of postgrads.

How do I find out more and register?
Here!