Newcastle Careers International

Don't miss out on the British Council's Chinese Employability Workshops coming up this weekend and next week!

The British Council, operating in China as the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy, cordially invites you to join a series of workshop in the UK from 21 November to 27 November 2009.

The workshop aims to help Chinese students currently in the UK get better comprehension of the employers' needs and the job market in China, as well as to prepare you to enter or re-enter the job market after graduation and enhance your employability and competitiveness in the field.
HR executives from China major employers will attend the workshop to give an overview on the competitive job market in China, and talk about various aspects of recruitment from employers' view as well as to share successful experiences of other alumni via case studies.

Opportunities are also provided for attendees to raise questions during the interactive session to discuss their issues or problems encountered during the job hunting and career development.

The workshop will be delivered in Chinese.

Itinerary
City Time Venue
London 15:00 - 17:00, Saturday 21 November 2009 Westminster City Hall
Cardiff 19:00 - 21:00, Tuesday 24 November 2009 Cardiff University
Edinburgh 19:00 - 21:00, Friday 27 November 2009 University of Edinburgh

The detailed venue info will be sent to students in confirmation letter once they have RSVP'd.

RSVP online now at http://www.educationuk.cn/alumniuk/uktour/index.html

Did you see the BBC news yesterday? There was an article on certain websites that are recruiting people to be money launderers for companies overseas. Job hunters are expected to accept small amounts of money into their account and then move them on to a different bank. The pay is good and many people believe they are applying for a legitimate job but this work is illegal. Get Safe Online's blog has a really good article about this 'money mule' recruitment - they provide a fact sheet to help you spot potential fraudsters.

The reason I mention this is because we have seen a student in the Careers Service who wanted to apply for a job like this and first they were asked to fax/scan a copy of their passport and bank account details. Once they had done that, they were offered the job and that made them suspicious. UK employers will not ask you for your passport until you get to the interview stage and you will not be asked for your bank account details until after you have been offered the job.

I have two pieces of advice for you to consider:

DO YOUR RESEARCH!

Make sure you research the company on the internet, check that the address they give is valid and that the company is registered in the UK.

NEVER GIVE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AWAY ONLINE!

You don't want someone to steal your identity. If the company asks for your passport information or bank account details, I would avoid them!

Image courtesy of Strathclyde Graduate Business School.

I recently ran a Careers Workshop on the UK Job Market for international students (there will be another of these on 4 February) and I thought it would be useful to highlight some of the issues that people attending this and some other talks I have given recently raised.

The one thing that surprises people from outside the UK most is the difference in when employers recruit graduates. For large companies in the UK the process starts very early from around September for jobs that will start the following summer or autumn. Applications are usually by online application form and closing dates are often very early - many close between October and December.

Students often ask us, "how can I apply when I have not finished my course and do not know my grades yet?". The answer is that you don't need to worry about that, employers understand your position. They may ask you for a predicted grade. This is not an official predication from your Personal Tutor or Degree Programme Director, it is up to you to tell then what grade you expect to obtain. If you are offered a job it will be conditional upon you passing your degree or on getting the minimum grades that they are looking for.

The length of time that it takes companies to recruit also surprises lots of international students. It can take several months between you first applying, attending an interview and perhaps an assessment centre and finally being offered a job. Of course, that will then be confirmed once you pass your degree.

I had a meeting on Tuesday with a visitor to the International Office, Professor Jamasri who is the Vice Dean for Research and Collaboration Affairs within the Engineering Faculty at Gadjah Mada University (GMU) in Indonesia. GMU is the largest university in Indonesia with 55,000 students. We talked about the difference in how employers recruit graduates.

In Indonesia it only happens after the students get their results. The employers all follow a simple process:

1. The students with the top grades are invited to take some psychometric tests
2. Those that get through are invited to an interview at an event on campus
3. The best applicants then take a medical
4. If they pass, they get an offer to start right away

The whole process takes 2 days from start to finish. This is therefore very different from the UK and it also highlights the difference in expectations from attending job fairs in the UK and elsewhere. In the UK, companies attending job fairs and giving presentations on campus will usually not want your CV there are then as they are only there to tell you about opportunities to work for them and about how to apply.

Hopefully knowing about these differences will help you to feel more confident about applying early!

The Careers Service provides CV feedback to all students to help them tailor their CV to the UK job market. As an Information Officer, I have recently seen quite a few Indian students with their CVs and when I give them feedback, I find I am saying the same thing about work experience. Let me explain!

Many Indian students have come straight from an Bachelors degree to study a Masters course here in the UK and have often not had any employment with a company before continuing with their study. However, the courses that they have studied in India often provide them with 'Training' - this is what I understand to be work experience. The 'Training' seems to be about students going into a company to work or observe a project. The student is given practical instruction on how to complete the tasks in hand and hopefully the student will get the opportunity to undertake some of the work under the employer's supervision. I have spoken to engineering and biomedical students from India who have complete successful trainings in factories or laboratories. Often the training can last for a couple of months. This is much like the summer placements and internships that UK students apply for. The difference between India and the UK is that the training is a part of the Bachelors degree course whereas in the UK, it is sometimes additional or seperate to a degree course and students must apply for it.

It is my view that if an Indian student is wanting to target their CV to the UK job market they need to sell this 'Training' experience as Relevant Work Experience on their CV just as UK students write about work placements and internships. On a chronological CV, the content should read in the following order:

• Personal details
• Education - degree and school information
• Relevant Work Experience - this is where 'Training' should be located
• Additional Work Experience (if required)
• Achievements/Positions of Responsibility - things you have done you are proud of
• Additional Skills - IT, language skills, driving licence information
• References - You can either include contact details of your referees or put the sentence 'References available on request'

If you have any queries about how you should market your experience on your CV, don't hesitate to come into the Careers Service and ask for feedback from one of our advisers!

The British Council, operating in China as the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy, cordially invites you to join a series of workshop in the UK from 21 November to 27 November 2009.

The workshop aims to help Chinese students currently in the UK get better comprehension of the employers' needs and the job market in China, as well as to prepare you to enter or re-enter the job market after graduation and enhance your employability and competitiveness in the field.
HR executives from China major employers will attend the workshop to give an overview on the competitive job market in China, and talk about various aspects of recruitment from employers' view as well as to share successful experiences of other alumni via case studies.

Opportunities are also provided for attendees to raise questions during the interactive session to discuss their issues or problems encountered during the job hunting and career development.

The workshop will be delivered in Chinese.

Itinerary
City Time Venue
London 15:00 - 17:00, Saturday 21 November 2009 Westminster City Hall
Cardiff 19:00 - 21:00, Tuesday 24 November 2009 Cardiff University
Edinburgh 19:00 - 21:00, Friday 27 November 2009 University of Edinburgh

The detailed venue info will be sent to students in confirmation letter once they have RSVP'd.

RSVP online now at http://www.educationuk.cn/alumniuk/uktour/index.html