For non University readers

Having analysed the viewing statistics on this blog I recognise that nearly a third of visitors are external to Royal Holloway, University of London.  We have had over 16,000 hits in the past few months of which over 70% have originated from the campus network.

New Zara China employees

Congratulations to all students who have succesfully passed through the Zara (China) recruitment process and been offered positions for when they graduate. If you are not sure whether you should accept the offer I suggest you come into the careers centre to discuss your options.

Zara were very impressed with the quality of Royal Holloway candidates in general and we hope there will be further recruitment from the college next year.

For those candidates who were not succesful, I suggest you contact Stanley directly to get some feedback from your interview performance. The careers centre can give you one-to-one interview coaching for next time. Drop in and see us – we are open over Easter but click here to see our times.

Like film? Win cinema tickets!

As the international student careers programme draws to a close (its ok, we have some fabulous events planned for post-finals!) we want your feedback on what was useful and what wasn’t.  The online suvey has twenty questions and will take about five minutes to complete.

Online Careers Advice Tonight!

Today is the day of the careers service’s trial of online careers advice. Students in focus groups and through this blog have expressed an interest in having an online chat with an adviser.

Tonight there will be no specific topic so ask anything. In the future we might do some sector specific chats.

To take part you must register first. It doesn’t take long at all but you need to do it to get the access code to the chat room. Click here to register.

Tonight’s chat takes place from 7.30pm – 8.30pm.

Is this interactive enough?

One of the issues that arose from the recent international student focus groups I’ve run, is that the blog isn’t interactive enough. It has been an interesting observation that very few readers use the comments option on any of the posts. The comments option appears after the tags below each post.  The blog has had 5000 unique hits since it started in November last year but only 14 comments, two of which were replies!

You may notice the Meebo application (yes I know, careers adviser is always offline!) which is part of an experiment I will be running in providing online careers advice for students. The trial date is set for Monday 23 February at 7.30pm – 8.30pm.  To take part you must  follow the instructions here to be able to access the chat. The first chat is a general careers chat and I’ll be online to answer questions or point you in the right direction.

Another way for you to interact is to write an article for the blog. I have a few guest articles scheduled but would welcome others. Perhaps you would like to write about the recession, or problems you’ve faced or how wonderful the local public transport system is here. Ok, maybe keep it realistic!

There are many different applications out there. Twitter is increasingly popular but I’m not sure it would be useful to use at this stage. Also seems like a lot of hard work!  In the longer term, I am working on an exciting Web 2.0 product for international students which we hope to launch for the Autumn term 2009. More details when I can give them – but it is exciting! Well to me anyway.

A Spring in your step

Welcome back!

I hope you all had a good break over Christmas.

The Spring term is off to a flying start with a great programme of events from the careers service. If you go to the booking page of this blog you can now sign up for some of the events specific to international students. This term we are continuing to run sessions on marketing yourself through CVs but also sessions on UK Interview style and technique. There is a session on building up your personal networking from a distance as well as finding work in India and China for students returning home. This term we are also going to pilot online careers advice – you may have noticed the Meebo box on the blog although I’m not sure that’s the application we will use for this. Details to follow!

International students studying Psychology or in the Arts will be able to attend sessions about career choice and job hunting techniques relating to those sectors. I will blog more about those in the next few weeks.

So what else is happening?

In addition to the international student events, the careers service has a large programme of activities ranging from mock assessment centres to careers in medicine and law. The full programme can be found here.  Employers attending the campus include Chatteris who provide opportunities in Hong Kong, Ernst & Young, Proctor & Gamble, KPMG, Weber Shandwick, Research in Motion and Capital IQ.

This term is short but the careers service has packed a lot in with many evenings having options of different careers related events taking place.

Remember that places at many of these events are limited and you need to book in advance to attend them. International student specific events can be booked here but all others must be booked in person at the careers centre.

Careers Tagged

Some of you may already have started using this new website but others may not. Careers Tagged is an innovative online resource from The Careers Group. It is a careers information database based around internet tags. You can click on a tag, and then add other tags to narrow your search.

The site has a wealth of information about career options, job profiles as well as material on finding work overseas. When you register with the site you can then start adding your own tags to suit yourself and make searching more personalised.

You are welcome to come to the careers centre to get a demonstration of how it works and how it might help you. Welcome to the new world of careers tagged!

Would you like a chat?

This blog is part of a range of innovative products the Careers Service is developing.

Another project of mine is to see whether students would be interested in web-chat (e.g. Messenger / Skype) with a careers adviser. You could chat about anything from “why was my application rejected” to “They offered me the job but I don’t know if I want it”! The plan is to pilot an hour-long chat that any student can participate in online from 7.30pm – 8.30pm one evening.  Would this be of interest?

Event Today: Alternatives to Investment Banking

Please note change of venue: 5pm Careers Centre.

To book, drop into the careers centre or telephone 01784 443073

This is an essential event for those interested in working in the City. More details click here

Events Today: UK CVs and Resumes

Careers Centre 1.00pm – 2.00pm  This session is fully booked.

Another session is scheduled – see Booking for information.

CV style can vary from country to country. Come along to this workshop to find out how to sell yourself effectively for the UK employment market.  If you have not managed to get to one you should attend one of the other CV workshops available here If you want your CV checked please book yourself into a Quick Query session – details here.