General Course Students Career Presentation Viki Chinn Careers Advisor LSE Careers Service

Agenda  Using the Careers Service  The UK job market  Internships  UK CV protocol  Questions

Using the Careers Service  Seminars  Employer led workshops and skills sessions  Forums  Careers Fairs  alert – Tell us what you want to know about  One to one advice (go to seminars first!)  Jobs board

What we can and can’t do We can  Help you identify your dream job  Reality check – Labour market knowledge  Suggest stepping stones to the dream job  Help you articulate your employability skills to employers  Help you with your careers research Miracles..? We can’t…  create jobs / internships in competitive sectors  Write your CV/ application for you  Proofread  Change the world

Re-active and proactive job hunting Reactive markets  Lots of big players with 60 – 1000 vacancies  Recruit every year  Skill shortage Proactive markets  Majority of recruiters have one or at most two vacancies  Don’t recruit every year  No skills shortage

The sought-after profile  Consistently good academic performance  Awards, achievements  Some work experience  Extra-curricular activities  Voluntary/community work  People who can communicate, analyse information, problem-solve, work with others and learn on an ongoing basis

Getting Started  Step one: Do your research  Our website  My Careers Service  Information for current students  Careers subscriptions – valuable research tools – Vault, WetFeet, Going Global, Policy Jobs  Seminars  Meet Employers– Fairs, presentations and forums

Internships?  Common in:  Management  Finance & Banking  Consultancy??  Law  Marketing, advertising, PR  Less common in  Media  NGOs/development  Think tanks  'Niche' or specialist areas

Internship issues  Dates you are available – most internships run for the whole of July and August  Locally focused recruitment – internships are used to talent spot, so some organisations are only interested in those who will be available to work in the region on graduation.  Don’t forget home universities recruitment

CV vs Resume  Length  Include high school grades  Include extra curricular activities and hobbies / interests  Careers profile / career aim x

Explaining the ‘General Course’ to employers  Include in the ‘education’ of your CV  Use the General Course to demonstrate your international focus and academic ability  Use the LSE ‘brand’ to talk positively about employers and opportunities

Making the most of your time in London Gather evidence of employability skills by:  Getting involved with student societies  Volunteering – volunteer centre in Careers Service  Part time term time work

Questions?