Alumni Career Management Seminar Schedule
Part 1 - Career Planning
This workshop introduces a range of strategies and assessments that are commonly associated with the first step in making a career change. This basically involves a structured review of what has happened so far in your career, identifying your strengths and the skills you want to use in future and working out what the next steps are in your career. How do you know you might be ready for a career move? Some of the signs that you could be ready for a career change include*:
- You have stopped learning...anything.
- You feel like your skills are in a time warp and you can't find ways to address this.
- You are not getting any performance feedback or discussion and this has not taken place for a long time.
- Development opportunities are promised but never delivered.
- Professional development does not appear to be valued in this organisation.
- The skills you are using for 80% of the time are not skills that you enjoy using.
- You wonder what it would be like to be energised and excited by the tasks you perform each day.
- You cannot see how this job is contributing to the achievement of your career objectives, short or long-term.
- You have no life outside of work and your employer does not perceive this as an issue.
- You cannot see how this job is adding meaning to your life.
- You wonder whether this is all there is in life.
- You are experiencing some form of harassment, unfair discrimination or victimisation.
- The organisation will not treat your complaint seriously or there is no one to talk to who will listen.
- You feel that your workplace is making you overly stressed, fatigued or ill.
- You feel undervalued for the contribution that you make to the organisation and that your self-confidence has hit an all time low.
Alternatively, from a positive perspective, your work situation is adequate, but there's a pathway that you have identified that is highly motivating. You want to take that leap of faith and follow your dream!
(*From Sue Seawright Career Consultant, Careers By Design (Part of the Unified Planning Group) - Victorian Division President - AACC)
Part 2 - Resume Writing
In Seminar 1 you will have completed your career review and established the next steps in your career. Now you can begin to confidently prepare highly targeted self-marketing documentation. Your resume is a sales brochure. To succeed in getting an interview your resume will need to make an impact with the reader within 30 seconds. This workshop will help you to prepare a highly effective resume which will involve:
- Selecting the most appropriate type of resume - either reverse chronological, functional or skills based, or a combined reverse chronological/functional resume
- Writing a powerful professional profile which sells your strengths
- Determining what information to leave in or leave out
- Describing your capabilities and achievements in language which will engage the reader every time
- Preparing other accompanying and important job application documentation that has real punch.
Part 3 - Interview Skills & Job Search Strategy
The interview is the final, important piece of your career transition strategy. Being able to perform professionally and confidently in an interview can literally make or break your career progression. During this workshop we will cover:
- How to prepare effectively for an interview - what to research, preparing answers to common questions etc.
- Important communication strategies that will ensure you make a positive impression.
- How to structure answers to important questions.
- How to deal with different interview techniques such as behavioural or situational interviewing.
- What to do to make the maximum impact in the first and last 60 seconds of the interview (which is often when hiring decisions are really made).
- What questions you should ask.
- How to handle questions about salary and benefits.
The final part of this workshop will be devoted to a discussion about job search strategies that really work. Most people realise that not all employment is advertised and that networking is important. Many professionals however either don't know how to network effectively, or, lack confidence to do so. A simple, easy to implement networking strategy will be presented for discussion.
Contact:
The Careers Team on 8302 7860