Riding the recession?

Manchester University careers service have developed a series of articles on their blog relating to finding jobs in a recession. There are several resources online about this topic including articles on this blog, the UCL Recession Blog and now Manchester’s contribution. 

Join us on Facebook

This blog has proved very succesful.  We have obtained just under 10,000 hits since it was launched and feedback from readers is very positive.

I have decided to take the blog one step further by integrating some of it into our new Facebook page. You can become a fan of Royal Holloway International Students Careers by clicking here.

The Facebook page will keep you up to date with events and activities as well as bringing the latest news from the blog.  There is also the space on the page for you to post job adverts that you see or to ask questions.

I hope the new Facebook page will add to our existing communication activities in a positive way.

Andrew

Today: Mentoring Scheme launch

The trial of the new International Student Careers Mentoring Scheme is taking place at 5.00pm in the careers centre.  The session will give an overview of mentoring, making the most out of developing networks and detail how the scheme itself will run.

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.

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.

Shape our future!

The International Student Barometer is a very influential survey at Royal Holloway. The survey is for all current international students to tell us about your experience at Royal Holloway so far. It covers academic work and departments as well as support services like us lovely people here at the careers centre!

There are cash prizes to be won by entering but also the more people who respond to the survey the more relevent it becomes. A larger sample of international students can be more representative.

The survey is confidential so anything you write in it will not be traced to you!  (Click here to see their privacy policy) We just want to know! Responses from the survey in the past have encouraged the greater availability of wireless broadband on campus – something the college is now doing; better student accommodation – something that many students are benefiting from, and well, food too!

Take the survey here

The survey is carried out in different “waves” throughout the year so please do not be shy about completing the survey again next year.

Events Today: Annual RHUL Careers Fair

The high profile Royal Holloway Careers Fair will open its doors at 11am in the Picture Gallery. Remember that employers are generally here to “sell” one or two career paths but that does not mean that there are no other careers available – for example, PWC recruits for accountancy but they also need IT professionals, human resources etc – ask them! Also remember to try to get their business card because if you do apply to them in the future, it might be useful to mention you have met them.  For more information on how to make the most out of careers fairs click here.

Not all employers will recruit international students. A list of employers recruiting international students can be found here - bear in mind that this is accurate as we can make it but if you find different information please let us know!

Organisations attending today who have confirmed they are recruiting international students are: Proctor & Gamble, JPMorgan, Tessella, Enterprise Rent-a-car, NDS, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Logica, Research in Motion, Jacobs, Deloitte, Ernst & Young.  Some of these companies may only take students at certain levels or on certain types of permits – or potential to achieve them. Others have not confirmed and may be worth speaking to directly.

You can view videos from employers attending today by clicking here.

Full list of organisations attending today:

ACCA

The Actuarial Profession

Army

The College of Law

Deloitte

Dstl

Enterprise Rent-a-Car

Explore Learning

Ernst & Young

Fidessa

Grant Thornton

Jacobs Engineering

JP Morgan Securities

Kerry Foods

Logica

Mazars

NDS

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Procter & Gamble

Projects Abroad

QCC Information Security

Research in Motion

Royal Air Force

Royal Navy

Teach First

Tessella

Texaco “online staff recruitment” say NO!

An international student was recently contacted by email from Texaco “online staff recruitment” to say they have been offered a job and will receive a work permit shortly to take up the position within Texaco Oil Group. Texaco Oil Group have confirmed this is a scam. It has been reported to the authorities but the scammers will eventually ask international students for their bank details to “process payments”.

Scams using recruitment offers exist. International students are often easy targets because they may be unfamiliar with recruitment processes. The college has new anti-spam software but external email accounts may not have the same. A certain amount of spam is unavoidable but remember – it is unlikely you will be contacted about a job you haven’t applied for!

News: Foreign worker limits introduced

The BBC have reported on proposed changes to the immigration system to restrict the number of non-EU workers in the UK.  In reality this is not new and shouldn’t have significant effects on graduates. News stories like this are fairly regular and students who are worried should speak with the Student Advisory team in Founders West to discuss immigration matters.  Under the current immigration scheme, graduates can apply for Post-Study Work permits which allow for work in the UK for up to two years after graduation. There is no suggestion that this will change.

On Monday 20 October (5pm, location to be confirmed), there will be a talk by a leading immigration solicitor who will cover all the different immigration options for international students.  Details will be available in the Autumn careers programme.