Know your profession
Your profession
Get involved with your profession and increase your chances of becoming a professional.
Keeping in touch with developments in your desired profession as well as across the job market generally will enable you to embed what you are learning into a framework of how it is applied and assist you to develop an overview of current and future career pathways and opportunities. Ways you can increase your knowledge and networks include:
- Subscribe to industry journals
- Join your professional association/s
- Read the newspaper
- Keep an eye on job vacancy adverts, and familiarise yourself with job descriptions
- Attend industry and networking events and speak with key contacts to gather industry intelligence
Use the worksheet below to develop an awareness of your target industry and a resource for connecting with your profession.
- Increase my industry awareness Worksheet -(Word 26kb - opens in a new window)
Top Tip
Keep a folder or notebook, or electronic file of your research into your
profession. Keep job vacancy adverts that appeal to you, articles on
developments in your field and information from your professional
association.
Employers in your field
So how do you research individual employers?
You will no doubt be aware of the market leaders or largest employers in your profession, but don't forget the mid-tier and smaller employers.
- Run a search in the yellow pages for employers in your field
- Run an online search on keywords for your industry and desired location for graduate work
- Visit your School website or ask your lecturer for suggestions
- See your weekly Careers emails, search by industry on MyCareerPlan
- Visit the UniSA Employment and Careers Expo
- Attend Employer Visits on campus
From your investigations compile a broad list of employers in your field and you are then ready to consider further who are your employers of choice.
Targeting employers
Who are your employers of choice?
By moving through the previous few pages you will have developed the industry awareness, and job market knowledge to enable you to put together a list of employers in your field. Make sure you have started to keep a written list. Your next step will be to refine this list so that it contains information on your employers of choice.
You will need to refer to the personal profile you developed in the Smarter Choices section, which will help you undertake a matching exercise between what you are looking for in an employer and those employers who potentially match what you want.
Here are some of the questions you will need to ask yourself about each employer:
- Does this employer demonstrate the kind of culture that
suits my values?
- e.g. highly corporate, socially responsible, market driven, political
- Does this employer offer employment opportunities that
suit my personal style?
- e.g. results driven, competitive, creative, team focussed
- Does this employer offer the opportunity for me to
advance my skills?
- e.g. provide development in presenting to clients, work in different areas, special projects
Many organisations will have this information readily available on their websites, often under "Careers" as a menu item, and many list the benefits they offer to graduates.
You may also wish to run some online searches for background information or articles on employers. Employer events on campus and the annual Employment and Careers Expo are excellent opportunities to discuss your questions directly with employers, as are networking events with your professional association.
We suggest that you be very thorough in developing your target list. The worksheet below will prompt you to answer what you want in a job, an employer, and which employers you’d like to work for.
- Targeting Employers Worksheet - (Word 27 kb - opens in a new window)
Top Tip
Make sure that your targeted employers offer opportunities that match with
your personal profile as you developed in the Smarter Choices section.