Careers Workbook

CAREERS AND
PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT
WORKBOOK
2010
CONTENTS
Introduction 3
Focusing on you 5
Exploring whats out there 21
Career Planning for International 26

Students
Reviewing options and making 31

choices
Making applications 39
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The staff of Careers Network would like to thank Dr. Peter Hawkins for his willingness to allow us to
reproduce sections from his book The Art of Building Windmills Career tactics for the 21st Century.
Information from the following sections of the guide has been reproduced: Tactic One Focusing
Your Skills, Tactic Two Finding Your Ideal Job, Tactic Four The Simple Formula for selling
Yourself, Tactic Five The Art of Action Thinking.
We would also like to acknowledge the University of Greenwich Guidance and Careers Advisory
Service for the extracts taken from its Careers Planning Workbook - The World of Work Map.
Acknowledgments to Epigeum: Online Training for Researchers Web CT resource for the Values and
motivations section
Acknowledgments to original writers; Julie Wainwright and Sophie Miller
Updated and rewritten by Margaret Flynn and Sharon Winders, Careers Network, University of
Birmingham, 2010
N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 2

INTRODUCTION
Your Career Planning: Where are you now?
Career planning has a different meaning for everyone depending

on where you are starting from..
So where are you starting from? You may be at number 1 on the road map, and need to
think your career ideas through from the beginning, or you may be at number 7 or 8 and just
need to think about the last stages of your decisions and then apply for jobs.
Whether you are totally at a loss about your future career, thinking about a specific job,
postgraduate study or have a vague idea of what interests you, this workbook has been
designed to help you take stock of yourself and make more informed decisions about what to
do next. It can help you explore what resources there are available in order to help the
process along.
This workbook wont provide you with all the answers, but will help you move further along
the roadmap
Additionally, Careers Network offers other opportunities to help you plan your future:
Career Planning Workshops (see www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers

under Events)
Personal Skills Award 10 credit module Planning Your Career (see
www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/psa)

Career Planning Cycles
People make decisions in different ways, but there are three main factors in the careers cycle you will
need to consider when choosing your career: focusing on you, exploring whats out there and
reviewing options and making choices. Then you are in a position to make applications and employ
effective job seeking strategies.
How you approach investigating these stages will vary depending on where you are at on the career
planning roadmap, but at some point most students will need to look at all four stages in the cycle:.
Career
Planning Focusing on Exploring
Cycle you whats out
there
Making Reviewing
applications options and
making
choices
Focusing on You: Analysing your skills, learning styles, aptitudes, interests and job expectations will
provide clues to the type of career that might suit you
Exploring Whats Out There: Researching the day-to-day activities involved in a job and the
economic health of the employment sector will inform your decisions
Reviewing options and making choices: Compiling a plan of action for the next step will help you
keep the momentum going
Making Applications: CVs, application forms and interviews improve your competence to help you
succeed and develop a sound job seeking strategy.
You may need to travel around the cycle several times before you make your
final decisions so build in sufficient time to do this.
By the end of this workbook you should have:

Used self assessment techniques to create a personal portrait of yourself and considered how
you can make use of this portrait to further your career decisions
Found out about resources available to you to research occupations, what employers are
looking for and generate some career ideas which interest you.
Become more familiar with practical strategies to help further your plans and avoid getting
stuck.
Started to consider what makes a successful CV and how to improve your interview skills.

FOCUSING ON YOU
Analysing your skills, learning styles, aptitudes, interests
and job expectations will provide clues to the type of
career that might suit you

FOCUSING ON YOU
This section looks at what you are like, the skills you have to offer employers and the values
you have about work, to help you find which sorts of career you would find satisfying.
Completing this section should enable you to:
1. Identify the skills you have developed and gain some ideas of how this
knowledge can be used
2. Consider your personality and abilities your personality type, preferred
learning style and analyse your aptitudes (numerical, verbal and reasoning
ability)
3. Reflect on your motivations and interests
Career
Planning Focusing Exploring
Cycle whats out
on you there
Making Reviewing
making
choices
1. IDENTIFY YOUR SKILLS

Are you a strong team player or a good communicator or a good listeneror good at
managing your time?
Everyone has a variety of skills they can use in todays changing world and analysing your
strengths will help you decide which careers to investigate further.
Skills act as a basis for career choice. If you are good at something, this will provide clues
about the type of career that might suit you. By completing the following questionnaires you
will identify your strengths, so that you can then identify careers that use these skills more
than others. Employers all seek a different range of skills but the questionnaires below cover
some of the core ones employers look for are: teamwork skills, communication, planning and
organising and creativity. There are others, but these will help you get started. Complete the
ones you think are important for you - you dont have to do them all.
You can also use the questionnaires to help you see which skills areas need improving, and
so enhance your employability.

TEAMWORK SKILLS
How do you work with others? Are you a constructive team member and contribute
successfully to the success of a team? Being a good team member is more than having
experienced working in a team its about what you say and do while you are a member that
counts.
Think about a team or group activity you have been part of recently. This could be a
project group for your course, a sports team, organising a social event or work
experience.
Think about specific meetings or incidents. Think about what you said and what
you did.
Put X below on the dotted line in the middle column where you think you currently sit for
each statement. Be honest no-one is perfect!
Weak team member <> Strong team member

In meetings: In meetings:
Interrupt before others Listen fully to others points
have finished
Say nothing Contribute to the discussion
Ignore quieter members Encourage quieter members
of the team to contribute
Talk at length about Speak concisely to make
your point, taking up too your point
much meeting time
Demolish others ideas Respect others opinions.
at first hearing Consider others points, ask
questions then give an
opinion
Dont turn up to planning Always turn up or send
meetings without letting apologies if cant make it
anyone know
Promise to do tasks Do what you agreed to do on
knowing you have no time
time to do them
Jump topics before Ensure everyone has had
everyone has had their their say before introducing
say new topics
Never volunteer to do Volunteer to do what you
any of the tasks think you can accomplish
Outside meetings: Outside meetings:
Dont tell others when a Keep others informed of
change occurs that developments that affect
affects the groups plans plans in person, by
telephone or email
Get annoyed with others Help others who are
who dont do what they struggling to do their tasks
promised without being resentful you
are doing more than them

Weak team member <> Strong team member
Diverge from agreed Keep to agreed actions or
actions because you consult with others if
think something else is changes are needed
better
Assume you are Ask others for feedback
performing OK as a about your contribution
team member
Put down others who Aware that others may
dont think the same think/approach tasks
way you do differently to you and have
different learning/thinking
styles
Join up the Xs. What does the pattern look like?

Are you:
Mainly strong, but one or two points need improving?
Mainly weak, you need to think about what you say and your approach to tasks. Are
other barriers affecting your performance? e.g. no interest in the team task, poor
English language skills, lack of confidence.
Average. Do you need to identify the areas which need more practice which could
help you become a stronger team member?
What can you do about it?
Get more practice. Identify opportunities in your course, in part-time work, in

vacations, in extracurricular activities - that will enable you to engage in more team
activities.
Think more about how teams work. Analyse your actions and reactions to specific
incidents when working in a team and how they might appear to others.
Address any barriers stopping you from contributing effectively e.g. if you are an
international student and your English language skills are poor, contact the English
for International Students Unit (EISU) for help.
The University of Kent Interactive Teamworking Skills exercise suggests you should try to
avoid destructive or selfish group roles such as1:
Autocrat - tries to dominate or constantly interrupt other members of the team.

Show Off - talks all the time and thinks they know all the answers.
Butterfly - Keeps changing the topic before others are ready.
Aggressor - Doesn't show respect to others, comments negatively about them.
Critic - Always sees the negative side to any argument, but never suggests alternatives. Puts
down the ideas of others.
Self- confessor. Uses the group as a forum for inappropriate talk about self
Avoider: refuses to focus on the task or group relationship problems
Clown: shows non-involvement in group and engages in distracting communication.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Employers expect graduates to be good communicators, but what exactly do they mean?
What sorts of actions demonstrate good communication skills? The questionnaire below
covers the three main aspects of communication:
1
http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/teamwork.htm

Speaking with individuals or in groups
Listening
Writing
Think about specific situations. Think about what you said and what you did.
Weak communicator <..> Strong communicator

Speaking/listening Speaking/listening
Ignore non- verbal Aware of and act on non-
signals from others e.g. verbal signals e.g. move to
boredom, irritation another topic, shut up,
acknowledge the issue
Dont acknowledge that Listen to and indicate you
someone has spoken have heard others
comments
No eye contact when Appropriate eye contact
speaking to /listening to not staring
someone
Interrupt before Wait for an opening before
someone has finished making your point
speaking
Use a loud voice to Speak clearly, so that you
drown out others are audible
Never ask questions to Ask questions frequently
elicit more
understanding
Assume someone Check their level of
doesnt already know knowledge before
about the topic you are elaborating on a point
telling them about
Use jargon or high level Use plain understandable
language unnecessarily language or explain any
necessary jargon
Think about other things Actively listen to what
when listening to people are saying
someone
Assume you have Clarify you have interpreted
understood another their point correctly by
persons point summarising what you think
you have heard
In writing In writing
Use informal texting Use standard English in
language to emails to strangers/ those
strangers/those in in authority/all professional
authority in emails/all contacts
professional contacts
Write in essay style Use appropriate style for
regardless of the the occasion e.g. business
situation style, report style
Not write in grammatical Check sentence
English construction to ensure the
text is grammatically correct

Weak communicator <..> Strong communicator
Write using elaborate, Write concisely
lengthy sentences
Never spell check Always spell check
Never proof read the Read the text thoroughly
text just rely on spell and spell check
checker
Are you:
Mainly strong, but one or two points need improving?
Mainly weak, especially in one area e.g. listening?
Mainly weak across all three areas of communication? Are other barriers affecting
your performance? E.g. poor English language skills, lack of confidence.
Average. Do you need to identify the areas which need more practice which could
help you become a stronger communicator?
Reflect on what you have said and done regularly. Analyse specific situations which
you feel could have gone better, and think about what you could have said or done
that would have been better.
Address any barriers stopping you from contributing effectively e.g. if you are an
international student and your English language skills are poor, contact the English
for International Students Unit (EISU) for help.
Ask others their opinion of your speaking, listening and writing skills
Get more practice in your weak areas. Identify opportunities in your course, in part-
time work, in vacations, in extracurricular activities - that will enable you to develop
particular aspects of your communication skills.
PLANNING AND ORGANISING

Planning and organising skills include the ability to manage your time effectively, prioritise
tasks, and pay attention to the details that leads to successful implementation of a
task/project and the ability to initiate changes to plans if needed.
Think about specific tasks or projects you have been involved with recently. Think about
what you said and what you did.
Weak organiser/planner <......> Strong organiser/planner

Never on time for Arrive on time or early
meetings/events
Never meet deadlines Always meet deadlines
Rush about trying to fit Reflect on your workload
everything in change things if you are too
busy
Underestimate the time it Estimate well how long you
takes to do things expect a task to take
Leave tasks to the last Plan in advance and try to
minute complete ahead of time

Weak organiser/planner <......> Strong organiser/planner
Do the tasks as they occur Prioritise tasks in order of
to you, without much importance/deadlines
thought
Vague about when you will Allocate times in your diary
do tasks for specific tasks
Never reflect on your plans Reflect regularly and initiate
to see if changes are changes to your plans
needed
Always ask for extensions Never ask for extensions
for course work
Once broad ideas in place, Maintain interest right through
lose interest in the detail to implementation of the
plans
Keep the plans in your Make lists/use
head mindmaps/project planning
software of details to ensure
all aspects of your plans are
covered
Get distracted from the task Keep focussed
and go off at a tangent
Untidy approach to Keep paperwork etc tidy/ well
paperwork labelled/ in order
See the task as a whole Analyse the task into
not in its component parts segments
Think about/discuss plans Schedule time to take action
but never take action on plans
Are you:
Mainly a strong organiser/planner, but one or two points need improving?
Mainly weak across all points? Are other barriers affecting your performance? e.g.
poor English language skills, lack of knowledge about resources that can help you
Average? Do you need to identify the areas which need more practice which could
help you become better at planning and organising?
Reflect on a recent situation whether planning for a deadline or organising an

event. Analyse what you did, when you did it, if the situation could have been better if
you had organised it or yourself differently. Decide how this is going to make a
difference next time.
Address any barriers stopping you from developing this skill effectively e.g. if you are
an international student and your English language skills are poor, contact the
English for International Students Unit (EISU) for help.
Ask others their opinion about your planning and organising ability.
Get more practice in your weak areas. Identify opportunities in your course, in part-
time work, in vacations, in extracurricular activities - that will enable you to do more
planning and organising than you do normally.

CREATIVITY
What is creativity?
Definitions abound. Although often associated with art and literature, it is an essential part of
success both in the business world and in other organisations.
A good starting point for a definition is outlined in a government report:
First, they [the characteristics of creativity] always involve thinking or behaving imaginatively. Second,
overall this imaginative activity is purposeful: that is, it is directed to achieving an objective. Third,
these processes must generate something original. Fourth, the outcome must be of value in relation to
the objective. (All our futures: Creativity, culture and education', DfEE, 1999).
Employers often put creativity at the core of their business:
And because our business is based on innovation, we also encourage people to be continuously
creative, to question assumptions and systems, to challenge each other and build on fresh insights to
find new and better ways of doing things. Within our culture, we have always done it this way is the
best reason to think again. (Astra Zeneca)
Creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation. (BBC)
Fast Streamers think imaginatively and creatively - whether tackling the finer details of the Treaty of
Rome or masterminding your department's move to another building. Big picture thinking, while
focusing on the small details is all-important. Youll also be expected to challenge accepted ideas and
ways of doing things while still being open to new ideas. (Civil Service)
In a business context creativity is usually about being able to come up with new ideas and
concepts and look at alternative solutions to a problem. These ideas often go beyond the
obvious and provoke discussion to encourage alternative ideas to emerge. Creative people
use lateral thinking to transfer ideas suggested for one situation to another, making relevant
new associations between ideas and concepts.
Employers seek those who are imaginative, but who can apply their ideas in the context of
the organisation. The ideas need to be relevant to the situation, time, and place and within
budget constraints. This type of creativity is sometimes referred to as innovation.
If you want to know more about creativity, see www.mindtools.com.
Creativity and you
Think about specific tasks or projects you have worked on recently. Think about what you
said and what you did. Put X below on the dotted line in the middle column where you think
you currently sit for each statement. Be honest no-one is perfect!
Less creative <> Strongly creative

Adapt existing /others ideas Coming up with new /novel
ideas
Rarely come up with any Come up with several
alternative solutions to a alternative solutions
situation

Use familiar sources to get Take inspiration from a wide
ideas range of sources to come up
with alternative suggestions
Dislike brainstorming Enjoy using brainstorming
activities in lectures and techniques in sessions
groups sessions
Analyse a task into See a task as a whole not in
segments, without looking its component parts
at the whole picture
Focus on the detail almost Can put detail to one side, so
as soon as an idea occurs that the wider picture can be
visible
Always use tried and tested Prepared to take risks to try out
methods ideas
Accept a procedure/method/ Regularly think there must be
process as it is a better way to do this
Once started thinking about Often take 'one step back' to
the detail of an issue, find it get a broader view of a
difficult to take a step back problem
and take a broader view
Tentatively suggest new Confidently suggest new ideas
ideas that occur to you because you enjoy breaking
free from the norm
Rarely make links between Often see how solutions
solutions for one problem designed for one purpose can
and another be transferred to another
Overemphasise Focus less on practicalities
practicalities when thinking when coming up with new
of new ideas ideas
Do not use facts and data to Backs up suggestions with
support suggestions facts and data
Simply states an idea Explains and sells the benefits
without explaining the of ideas
benefits
Uncomfortable with thinking Happy to generate ideas
of ideas on the spot, prefers quickly and spontaneously
to think things through and
research first
Are you:
Mainly a strong creative?
Mainly weak across all points? Are other barriers affecting your performance? e.g.
poor English language skills, lack of confidence, lack of knowledge about resources
that can help you
Average. ? Do you need to identify the areas which need more practice which could
help you show your creative potential?

Develop a better understanding of what creativity is about and do some research into
it. Start with www.mindtools.com

Address any barriers stopping you from contributing effectively. For example, to build
your confidence, gradually try out making more creative suggestions in any teams
you are involved with
Reflect on what you have said and done regularly
Get more practice in situations where you need to be creative. Identify opportunities
in your course, in part-time work, in vacations, in extracurricular activities - that will
enable you to use more creative approaches than you do normally.
HOW WILL SKILLS ANALYSIS HELP?

1. When you research jobs in the Exploring Whats Out there section, use this list of
your strengths to do a direct comparison with the skills required by employers for that
career.
2. Self awareness is becoming an increasingly important skill to develop. Many
employers expect you to take responsibility for your own development and training
and this is very difficult to do if you have little self awareness. Reflecting on and
analysing your skills will help with your self awareness.
3. When applying for jobs by CV or application form, illustrate your strengths to
persuade the employer to interview you
4. At interview, illustrate your strengths when answering interview questions
5. When in your job, you can use this knowledge to plan your CPD continuing
professional development a requirement of all graduate level jobs.
Using your skills analysis
Employers are interested in your skills profile, and how you can illustrate that you are good
at what you claim.
Knowing your skills and strengths is the first step you now need to be able to illustrate
these in writing and verbally. Choose a strength from the skills questionnaires on previous
pages. Write a paragraph in each section below about an incident or situation which
demonstrates what you have claimed. Be specific and use detail avoid general sweeping
statements.
Skill Evidence
Planning and Example:

organising Organised end of term event for my department for 100 people.
Decided on and booked venue, booked DJ, distributed publicity,
printed tickets, organised sales, managed budget. Sold 78 tickets,
70 attended. Planned well in advance but sales were slow, so
changed plans and increased publicity. Night successful- positive
feedback from those who attended.
I am player-coach of a local amateur football club. I evaluate our

performances after matches by holding discussions with others in
the team, and organise future training sessions and decide on
match day tactics on the basis of such evaluation. (Team logs, my
own notes, reports to club committee)

Skill Evidence

2. CONSIDER YOUR PERSONALITY AND ABILITIES
Psychometric questionnaires and tests
Psychometric tests and questionnaires are best done online, so in this section you will find
web references for each type of questionnaire and test.
Psychometric questionnaires fall into two types:
Learning Styles and Personality Type questionnaires: these questionnaires

have no right or wrong answers and are not strictly timed. They assess
aspects of personality such as typical behaviour (personality type),
preferences (learning styles), interests and motivations.
Aptitude or ability tests where you achieve a score depending on the number
of answers you get right. Typical tests are numerical reasoning, verbal
reasoning, spatial or abstract reasoning.
Learning Styles
Everyone learns in a different way and understanding the way you learn best will affect the
career you prefer as well as your academic work. For example if a job requires you to work
and learn on your own and you prefer to learn in group or team situations, perhaps that job
may not be for you! Questionnaires help you to assess your preferred learning style and
online examples include:
My Potential Learning Styles. 2 This questionnaire helps you assess your preferred
style: clarifier, activator, creator, explorer. See
www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers under Applying for a Job
The Vark Questionnaire has 16 questions and is a quick and easy way to help you
assess your approach to learning and preference for taking in, and putting out
information in a learning context. See http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp
Soloman and Felders Index of Learning Styles can be completed online and helps
you assess your preferences on four dimensions (active/reflective, sensing/intuitive,
visual/verbal, and sequential/global). See http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-
public/ILSpage.html
The Honey and Mumford Learning Styles Questionnaire has been used for over 20
years to help people assess their learning styles preferences and whether they are
inclined towards activist, reflector, theorist or pragmatist. To complete this
questionnaire you have to pay 10. See http://www.peterhoney.com/content/tools-
learningstyles.html
Personality types
My Potential Type Dynamics Indicator. This questionnaire assesses how you are likely to
react and behave in different circumstances. It is based on the work of psychologist Carl
Jung, whose theories are behind the most widely used personality assessments in the world.
See www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers under Applying for a job
2
Careers Network is licensed to provide the My Potential assessments to the University of Birminghams
undergraduate, postgraduate students and recent graduates.

Take a ten minute online test about your personality and potential career options; it was
developed by psychometric specialist Neil Scott of Cassin-Scott Associates. Results are
based on Holland model of vocational choice suggesting people with particular interests and
styles tend to favour certain types of jobs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/careers/
Aptitude or Ability tests
Do you know what your ability is in areas such as numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning,
logical reasoning or abstract reasoning? Employers use these when selecting candidates for
jobs and they can indicate your strengths in these areas so are useful when choosing a
career. The tests are done under strict administration and time conditions and the questions
have definite right and wrong answers.
My Potential Aptitude Tests. The three tests on offer are verbal, numerical and
abstract tests. For other practice aptitude tests see
www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers under Applying for a job

3. YOUR VALUES AND MOTIVATIONS
What do you want from a job?
The clearer your ideas about what you want from your career then the easier it will be to
evaluate opportunities as they come along. Your initial ideas may be unfocussed or
unrealistic but there are ways to clarify them and work out the steps required to move
towards a career goal.
The following exercise will get you thinking about what motivates you in a job. Under each
section there are a series of statements for you to allocate a level of importance. There may
be other issues that are important to you that are not mentioned, or you might want to
expand on some of the ones listed. Write them in the final section.
Decide how important the following statements are for you?
Must Would Not

have be nice important
Reward A highly paid job
Recognition for my work
Achieving a respected position
Satisfaction that my work has some value to
society
Influence Responsibility for major decisions
Position of authority over others
Career progression within an organisation
Pursue an independent career path
Challenge Considered an expert in the field
Have my abilities stretched constantly
Use my specialist skills
Regularly required to use problem solving
skills
Lifestyle Balance between working hours and
personal time
Plenty of work related travel
Flexible working hours
Demanding work environment to help me
achieve
Values Feel that my work makes a difference in the
world
Show dedication to that particular field
Benefit individuals and the wider community
Contribution to the profitability of my
organisation
Security A structured career path
Long term security in a stable organisation
Build my own business or other organization
e.g. a charity

Must Would Not
have be nice important
Variety of jobs and projects with different
employers
People Work with a team of like minded individuals
Develop a good relationship with colleagues
Work autonomously without reference to
others
Satisfaction of contributing to a successful
team project
There may be other issues that are important to you that are not mentioned, or you might want
to expand on some of the ones listed. Write them below.
What NEXT?
My definites:
Prioritise the items you have put in your must have category: Choose the top 3 or 4
1.
2.
3.
4.
These are the issues to consider when researching opportunities

i3
Focusing on You: Summary
3
Epigeum: OnlineTraining for Researchers WebCT resource for the Values and motivations section

Finding your Ideal Job
Most jobs use a wide range of skills, some of which will play a more central role than others.
You have to look for something that plays to your strengths, meets your aspirations and
provides you with the chance to use your graduate skills in the way that makes sense to you.
You have now:

1. Identified your skills
2. Considered your personality and aptitudes (psychometric questionnaires and
tests)
3. Looked at your values and motivations
To help you aim for what you really want below are various elements that sum up the key
choices to make when picturing your ideal job:
Purpose
Try to identify the main purpose of your ideal job. How does work relate to your wider life
goals? Does it provide you with satisfaction or simply finance other interests, which give
you more of a buzz. In short, do you want to live to work or work to live?
Roles
What kind of work do you see yourself doing to satisfy this purpose? What suits your
temperament best? Do you prefer working with people, ideas or practical things?
Organisation
Do you see yourself working in the private sector or for a public body in industrial setting or
an office environment? Would you feel more relaxed in a large organisation or a
small/medium sized company?
Career Motivation
What will make you want to get out of bed in the morning? Think about the Values and
Motivations questionnaire you have completed.
Environment
What energises you most a steady pace or the stimulation of deadlines? Think about the
kind of work you enjoy most, the way you interact with others, the social context, the learning
environment you enjoy most, and the working hours you prefer.
Sector
What kind of employment sector suits you best? You also need to check if there are signs of
growth in your target sector and where the main opportunities lie.
Skills
Finally you need to ask what key skills, qualifications and experience you need for your ideal
job remember to look at it from the employers perspective.
You will need to do more research before you can answer all of these questions. Use
the Exploring Whats Out There section to help.

EXPLORING WHATS OUT
THERE
Researching the day-to-day activities involved in a job and
the economic health of the employment sector will inform
your decisions

EXPLORING WHATS OUT THERE
Of course it is not enough just to analyse your skills, interests, motivations and learning style
without putting this knowledge to use. In this section you can engage with another stage in
the process of career choice Exploring Whats Out There.
This section looks at how you can research occupations and employment sectors to help
you find which sorts of career you would find satisfying.
Using this section should enable you to:
Increase your awareness of job sectors available for graduates

Identify the resources you can use
Relate this research to your own situation to think about what job would suit you
Career
Planning Focusing on
Cycle you Exploring
whats
out there
Making
Reviewing
making
choices
Graduate Careers
1. The World of Work Map for Graduates on the next pages can help you generate
some jobs ideas. It groups broad categories of jobs together. Many are open to graduates of
any discipline, even if they require postgraduate study. These categories may coincide with
some of the interests and skills you have identified in yourself.
Use the chart to help you move on from examining your own skills, interests and motivations
to using this knowledge to identify possible areas of work and job ideas. Try to identify 3-4
areas of work that interest you.
2. There are other ways of generating ideas using the internet, paper based and
people based resources. See Resources to help you Research Jobs and Careers on
pages 30-33. These are ideal tools and sources to help you research the careers you are
interested in. Once you have some occupations you are interested in the next step is to
research these thoroughly.

1. World of Work Map for Graduates
Logistics & Human

Transport Charity,
Resources
Development Work
and
and Regeneration
Administration
Buying,
selling &
retailing
Sport,
Leisure &
Tourism IT
Defence and Hospitality and Information
Public Events Patents and
Protection Management Heritage
Management
Actuarial,
Pensions
Advertising,
&Insurance
Social PR &
Guidance marketing
and Legal
Community services
Work
PEOPLE DATA
Education
Accountancy
Health care and Financial
and PRACTICAL CREATIVE Management
Psychology
Management and
Research
Animal & Construction
Services
plant and Property
resources Management
Creative Arts & Design

Natural
Engineering & Resources &
Manufacturing Environment
Performing Arts
Scientific Research, Publishing

Analysis & Support and Media

World of Work Map for Graduates
In more detail
EDUCATION SPORT, LEISURE & TOURISM

Teaching in Schools Sport
Lecturing in Further and Higher Leisure
Education Tourism
Special Educational Needs
Teaching English as a Foreign ADVERTISING, PR & MARKETING
Language
Teaching in Non-School/College Advertising
Settings PR
Education Advice and Development Marketing
SOCIAL, GUIDANCE & BUYING, SELLING & RETAILING

COMMUNITY WORK Buying/Purchasing
Social and Probation Work Selling and Sales Management
Personal and Careers Guidance Retailing and Wholesaling
Counselling
Community Work ACTUTIAL WORK, INSURANCE &
PENSIONS
HEALTH CARE & PSYCHOLOGY Actuarial Work
Medicine Pensions
Dentistry Insurance
Nursing and Midwifery
Allied Medical Specialisms
ACCOUNTANCY & FINANCIAL
MANAGEMENT
Physical Therapies
Chartered Accountancy
Health Promotion and Wellbeing
Certified Accountancy
Psychology
Public Finance Accountancy
Management Accountancy
DEFENCE & PUBLIC PROTECTION Taxation
Retail Banking and Personal
Armed Forces
Financial Services
Security Services Investment Banking and Corporate
Emergency Services Financial Services
Public Health and Protection Investment Management
HOSPITALITY & EVENTS LEGAL SERVICES

MANAGEMENT Solicitors
Hospitality Barristers
Events Management Ancillary Legal Professionals
International Law

HUMAN RESOURCES & ANIMAL & PLANT RESOURCES
ADMINISTRATION Agriculture
Human Resources, Recruitment and Horticulture
Training
Forestry
Administration
Fisheries
Clerical & Secretarial Services
Veterinary and Animal Care
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
ENGINEERING &
Programming, Systems Analysis and
Software MANUFACTURING
IT Management and Services Engineering
Plant and Production
CHARITY, DEVELOPMENT WORK Process and Quality Control
& REGENERATION Engineering Sales and Service
Charity and Development Work
Regeneration SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH,
ANALYSIS & SUPPORT
MANAGEMENT & RESEARCH Scientific Research and
Development
SERVICES
Management consultancy Medical Related Scientific Services
Statistical services Scientific Analysis and Investigation
Research Services Scientific Technical Support
Translation & Interpreting
INFORMATION, PATENTS &
HERITAGE MANAGEMENT
LOGISTICS & TRANSPORT Information and Library
Logistics Management
Transport Management Patent and Related Work
Transport Personnel Heritage and Museums
Management
CONSTRUCTION & PROPERTY
MANAGEMENT CREATIVE ARTS & DESIGN
Town and Regional Planning Photography
Landscape Architecture Arts and Crafts
Architecture Illustration and Multimedia
Civil Engineering and Construction Fashion and Textiles
Land and Property Management
NATURAL RESOURCES & THE PUBLISHING, MEDIA &

ENVIRONMENT PERFORMING ARTS
Cartography Publishing and Printing
Exploration Journalism
Extraction and Harnessing Writing
Environmental Control and Broadcasting, Film and Video
Management (Technical)
Environmental Protection and Broadcasting, Film and Video
Conservation (Production)
Theatre
Performance

Career Planning for International Students
Career Planning for International Students operates in the same way as it does for UK
Students, but there are some additional aspects that need to be considered.
Identifying your Unique Contribution
As an international student you have experience of living and working in a second culture
and this means you can show that you have developed a number of skills highly desired by
employers i.e. flexibility, cultural skills, adaptability and you will most likely have studied in a
2nd language.
As an international student you will also have knowledge, experience of your home culture
and access to networks which may be invaluable to an employer wishing to develop
business in that country. When you research a labour market or a company for a job in the
UK it gives you an edge if you can also talk about the market in your home country.
If you intend to return to your own country you need to ensure that you maintain your
networks whilst you are here, keep up to date with the labour market news, develop your
networks when visiting friends and family.
Recognising the Barriers you may face

Issue Solution
Poor English language skills Join student societies and talk in English to
other students or colleagues
Access language courses at EISU
Lack of understanding of UK work culture Ensure that you socialise outside your own
and social conventions cultural group.
Work experience paid or unpaid will give you
experience of social norms in the workplace.
Failure to represent your skills and Show how you have developed transferable
competencies skills and be able to give examples at
interviews, practising answering competency
based questions is essential
Many employers do not understand the Nothing you can do except explain if you
immigration rules and so will not take the risk have the chance to talk directly to an
of employing an international student for fear employer
of prosecution
Work Schemes for International Graduates
The following schemes exist for Non-EU students to work in the UK, current information
about these schemes can be found on the UKCISA or ISAS websites: www.ukcisa.org.uk;
www.as.bham.ac.uk/support/international
Tier 1 Post Study Work (PSW)

Tier 1 (General) Highly Skilled Tier
Tier 2 Work Permit (you cannot apply for this Scheme in the first instance, the employer
must make the application)

2. Resources to help you research Jobs and Career
Areas
Use this section to generate more career ideas and to research the career options you are
already considering. Decide what you need to know and then use the resources listed for
your research. Remember to judge the reliability of each resource you use.
What do you need to know?
To find your ideal job, you need to find out:

The key skills needed to be successful in that job
What people do in the job on a daily basis
What qualifications are needed
Is further training required
The state of market for that industry - labour market information
Competition and availability of jobs
Salaries and lifestyle implications
How to judge the reliability of each source
Consider
How up to date is it? If it is more than 2 years old it could be very out of date
Is it biased? Is the material written by marketers, or give just one view of the career?
Does information from different sources conflict? If so you need to delve for more
sources or network to find out more from personal contacts.
Where can you find it?
Web based: www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers Destination information of recent

graduates
Current vacancies for graduates
Work experience vacancies
Occupational information
Employer database
www.prospects.ac.uk Explore types of jobs details of
about 400 occupations, about
2000 words on each occupation
Options with your subject - about
70 subjects
Communities e.g. Finance,
Education, Media
National vacancies adverts from
employers
www.targetjobs.co.uk includes jobs and advice about
different career sectors
Employers own websites
Business information websites e.g. www.incomesdata.co.uk ;
www.wetfeet.com ;
www.ukbusinesspark.co.uk;
www.reuters.com
www.sscalliance.org.uk Sector Skills Councils. Each

council is responsible for a specific
industry sector e.g. Skillset (audio
visual industries)
Government websites e.g. Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills
www.bis.gov.uk
Training and Development Agency
for Schools www.tda.gov.uk
Professional bodies and institutions e.g. Institute of Personnel and
Development www.cipd.co.uk ,
Institute of Practitioners in
Advertising www.ipa.co.uk,
Research bodies e.g. www.guidance-research.org
Paper Careers and Employability Centre red file information
based (web Information Room books/magazines e.g. Target
versions publications e.g. Property,
often Finance, Insight Guides, AGCAS
available) publications, Careers and
Employability Centres own leaflets
National press e.g. Guardian, Financial Times

Local papers e.g. Birmingham Post
Business magazines e.g. New Scientist, New Civil
Engineer, Computer Weekly
People Employer presentations on campus (Autumn term mainly)
based
(networking
see below)
Employer fairs e.g. Law Fair, Science and
Engineering fair, AIESEC fair
(Autumn term mainly)
Careers advisers Advice desk consultations
available daily
Careers events e.g. Media and Communications
Day, Making a Difference Week
Alumni Yourbham alumni network for

available when you graduate
Work experience or voluntary work Your own contacts
contacts
Networking for Career Research
Networking whilst still at university is an important part of career planning and involves
building positive contacts with others in your field or career areas you may be interested in.
Networking is a two way process that can be of mutual benefit to you and your contact.
Successful networking can:
Offer you support and encouragement

Help you to collaborate with colleagues on a professional level
Establish contacts with others who can provide information and insight into careers
and institutions

Provide useful sources of vacancies (not all jobs are always advertised)
You should aim to develop contacts wherever possible:
Within your department

Professional conferences, workshops and meetings
Careers fairs and careers information days
Networking can raise your profile both in your own field and beyond. We would all prefer to
work with people we like, trust and know. Thus networking can directly influence your job
prospects.
If you are not planning to make your career within further study or academia, you should try
to develop contacts with people in the occupations you are interested in. Try to arrange a
meeting to discuss what the job involves or organise some work shadowing to observer
them doing their job.
Most people are happy to talk about their work and will show an interest in yours. The hard
part for many is having the courage to approach people especially if they are well known in
the field. Unless you are introduced by someone else, it is unlikely that you will get to speak
to them unless you are proactive. Go for it!
Tips for effective networking

4
I think, probably be interested in the other

people. You want them to be interested in you,
but you will find if you're interested in them
that creates the sort of translation of ideas that
will keep you in their memory.
Networking Resources
www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers/events Careers and Employability Centre events,

check for employer presentations, careers fairs and skills workshops.
Jobs.ac.uk (2007) Networking Skills [online] Available from

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/careers/whitepapers/573/Networking_Skills [Accessed 13th May 2010]
Nature Publishing (2010) Nature Network [online] Available from http://network.nature.com/

[Accessed 13th May 2010]
4
Dame Julia Higgins Imperial College London From WebCT course Selecting a conference, presenting and
networking

Linked in corporation (2010) Linked in Professional Network [online] Available from
http://www.linkedin.com [Accessed 13th May 2010]
Facebook (2010) Facebook Social Networking [online] available from

http://www.facebook.com [Accessed 13th May 2010]
Second Life (2010) [online] Second Life Available from http://www.secondlife.com

[Accessed 13th May 2010]
University of Derby (2008) Career Networking [online] Available from

http://www.derby.ac.uk/careers/career-networking [Accessed 22nd December 2009]
Hind and Moss (2005) Employability Skills, Business Education Publishers
DSouza S. (2007) Brilliant networking. Prentice Hall http://www.pearsoned.co.uk

ISBN: 9780273714842
Exploring Whats Out There: Summary

Generating some career ideas to research is a good start even if you discard some of
them after more research.
The next step is to make time to research these occupations thoroughly, using a variety of
resources.
Most important is to think about the reliability of the information you are finding. Before
making a judgement about a career, ask yourself:
Are you getting conflicting information from different sources?
How old is the information?
Could the source be biased?
Build into your research opportunities to network and talk to people doing the job or at least
talk to people with knowledge of the sector. With these contacts you may be able to organise
work experience or job shadow someone doing a job you want to learn more about.
Use labour market information such as What Do Graduates Do or the Prospects website
www.prospects.ac.uk Sector information to find out more about sector or industry you are
researching.
Reflecting and reviewing your feelings about these careers is the next stage of the process:
see Reviewing Options and Making Choices.

REVIEWING OPTIONS
AND MAKING CHOICES
Compiling a plan of action for the next step will
help you keep the momentum going

REVIEWING OPTIONS AND MAKING
CHOICES
Career decision making is not a one off process. You will find yourself reviewing and
reflecting on your plans frequently. These reflections will affect the choices you make, so be
prepared to move round the career planning cycle several times.
Using this section should enable you to increase your awareness of:
The steps needed to make your own action plan

Key points about reflecting and reviewing your progress
Career
Cycle you whats out
there
Reviewing
Making options and
applications
making
choices
Steps to Action Planning

This is an essential part of career planning as it provides you with the means of recording
and assessing your own career development. Regularly setting and reviewing short,
medium and long-term goals enables you to be in a stronger position to develop your career
on your terms nobody elses.
The seven steps to action planning outlined below, are designed to help you develop this
kind of approach and put it to work.
1. Identify and clearly define your goal.
For example, this might be:

Short-term to obtain a 2:1 in your degree
Medium-Term to apply for a postgraduate IT conversion course
Long-term to secure a job as an IT systems analyst

2. Brainstorm the activities and tasks you must undertake to achieve the goal,
prioritise them and set a date for completion of each task. You may want to set daily, weekly,
monthly or yearly targets.
3. Break down your goals into smaller tasks. Achieving your goals will seem less
daunting this way. For example if you are interested in researching opportunities in
personnel or marketing you might aim to:
Read relevant occupational information e.g. on Prospects website
Contact CIPD and CIM (professional bodies) and read the careers section of their
websites
Attend an employer fair and discuss these roles with employers on the stands
Avoid being vague by using the SMART technique: Specific, Measurable, Achievable,
Realistic and within a Timescale.
4. Identify obstacles and difficulties from the start and plan ways to overcome them.
Write down the barriers you feel are stopping you making progress e.g. time constraints,
pressures of work, distractions, unsure about how to write a persuasive CV, having difficulty
finding relevant information, confused by conflicting information
5. Find useful resources and opportunities. Use Careers Network to help you get started.
6. Brainstorm people who may be able to help you. Start networking and get them on
board. Pinpoint key people and identify how they can help you achieve your goals. For
example friends, family, lecturers, careers advisers may be able to give you the
encouragement, contacts and advice you need.
6. Develop positive thinking. In order to achieve the goal you have to believe in it and
believe in yourself
7. Take personal responsibility and take action. Reflect on what you are doing. Banish
the destructive habits of making excuses and poor planning and never getting round to it.
Keep a record of what you have done and store it where you can find it. Decide when you
are going to review it and note it in your diary. Start your record by completing the Personal
Profile and Action Plan below.
Your Personal Profile and Career Action Plan
By now you will have undertaken a variety of different activities to help you gather
information about yourself, i.e. your skills, interests, motivations and personal preferences.
You should have some ideas about what you need to do next to help you decide about your
career. These could be
explore in more depth areas of work you may be interested in and suited to.
revisit your skills analysis to plan improving in some key areas
make job applications or applications for work experience
Action planning is a key career management skill. Working out where you want to be and
the steps you need to take to get there can be applied to short, medium and long term goals.

My Personal Profile and Career Action Plan
Where are you in the Career Planning process? Which number on the Career Planning
Roadmap did you choose on page 3?
What have you learned about yourself from the Focusing on you section on page
5?
Have you generated any career options from the Exploring Whats Out There
section on page 21? If not, what are you going to do to generate some? If yes what
are they?

What have you done so far to follow up these ideas?
What is the next goal you are going to set yourself? Use the SMART technique
described on page 33.
What action will you take now? (in order to achieve your SMART goal)
By when

W hat resources will you use and what information do you need?
What might stop you following up these ideas? How are you going to overcome
them?
When are you going to review this action plan

Reviewing Options and Making Choices:
Summary
Reviewing options is a continuous process and your choices may change direction as a
result.
Reflecting takes time so allocate space to do this when you can focus and concentrate on
the process. Use the action planning techniques to keep you on track and remind you of
progress so far.
Test out your ideas by making applications for jobs and courses. See Making Applications
to help with the next step.

MAKING APPLICATIONS
CVs, application forms and interviews improve your
competence to help you succeed and develop a sound job
seeking strategy

MAKING APPLICATIONS
Using this section should enable you to:
Increase your awareness of help available for graduates

Identify the resources you can use
Relate this research to your own situation
Many students and graduates start the whole career planning process by writing their CV
and /or replying to a job advert by completing an application form.
In reality, this is the end of the process of thinking, reflecting and researching so that the
time you spend making applications is worthwhile and your chances of success are better.
After making a few applications, you may need to do more research or revisit other parts of
the career planning cycle.
Career
Cycle you whats out
there
Making
applications Reviewing
options and
making choices
This section includes a Resources list so that you can do more in depth research yourself
and gives a basic introduction to:
1. Writing your CV
2. Interview tips

1. Writing a CV
Is it still needed?
A significant proportion of recruiters now use on line application forms and not CVs. The
process of writing a CV however allows you to effectively analyse your skills, achievements
and qualifications and present them succinctly. Having an up to date CV enables you to
respond quickly to opportunities and can be seen as a useful resource for filling in online
application forms.
Whats the point?

The point of a CV is to show an employer you have the relevant skills for the position you are
applying for and its purpose is to get you the interview. It needs to be clear and concise and
sell your skills to open that vital door. Within the first seven to ten seconds of reading your
CV, the person pre-screening all applicants must be convinced that you merit further
consideration. They need to be able to review a summary of your education, skills,
accomplishments and experience within that time frame. Format, design and vocabulary all
play big roles.
What does the employer want?

You will need to alter/ tailor your CV depending on the job you are applying for, so be
prepared to write several versions. A CV is not a life history but a summary of how you can
provide the skills and experience required by the role and the employer.
1. Show you know what specific skills the employer is looking e.g. for X, Y and Z skills
in the person specification and you have experience of X, Y and Z make it clear.
2. Highlight with evidence how you meet their essential criteria, relevance is a key
factor, structure your CV to illustrate this and attract the attention of the selectors.
Useful Running Order

Personal details (contact details only required not date of birth, marital status etc.)
Career Objective/ Personal Profile (short, punchy highlighting unique skills)
Education and Qualifications (in reverse chronological order)
Employment History (ensure any gaps are accounted for)
Experience and achievements
Skills include specific training, IT skills or languages spoken
Extracurricular interests not just a list, but with some detail about your level of
commitment
Referees (2 referees one from university)
Format
Whilst there is no set CV format, there are a number of styles of CVs which may help you to
identify your skills, experience and achievement to an employer.
Typical/reverse chronological (includes hybrid)
This style incorporates experiences and skills within the descriptions of particular activities,
starting with the most recent. A Hybrid CV is the same as Traditional but also includes an
additional Skills or Achievement section.
The skills section is there to provide evidence that you meet the essential criteria of
the person specification of the job.
Choose relevant skills and try have 2-3 examples of evidence for each skills
Example to download [link] http://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/applications-and-
cvs/different-cvs-for-different-types-of-graduate-job

Skills-based
Summarises experiences under skills headings with other data presented briefly
Skills based CVs focus on the transferrable skills you have for the role you apply for
This format is useful for someone who is either starting out on a career or changing
work sectors so has less work experience in the specific field/ sector.
Example to download http://www.prospects.ac.uk/sample_cvs.htm
At the link below, there are example CVs for a range of graduate career sectors, you may
wish to compare the different styles used in each and choose which would be most
appropriate for your job application. However, please do tailor it to your own CV and the
sector you are interested in.
http://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/job-hunting-tools-downloads
Academic CV
These tend to be more detailed and can go onto 3 pages as they include all research
papers, conference and presentations that you have done as well as your qualifications and
experience.
For links to sample academic CV see resources pages
Language
Positive language is required to create impact so for example use words like led, improved,
negotiated, initiated, rather than involved in, observed which are more passive.
Proof Read your CV

Does it pass the 5 Cs test:
Clear - avoiding underlining, boxes and different layouts
Concise focus on what is relevant to the recruiter
Complete ensure that all relevant sections and information are included
Consistent keep fonts the same and avoid different formats for different sections
Current keep it up to date and relevant to the opportunity you are applying for
More employers are using software that detect spelling and grammatical errors; often three
mistakes and you are out!
A cover letter is a letter that you send to accompany your CV when you apply for job,
whether advertised or when you are sending a speculative application. Do not overlook this
tool as it can be a great asset in your job hunt. It is not meant to replace a CV but to highlight
key skills that you could bring to the job and organization, also your drive and motivation.
The cover letter is a formal letter format and should be addressed to a specific named
person if possible. The aim of the cover letter is to get the selector to read your CV. It needs
to be focused and should cover the following:
Dear Mr X (or Dear Sir)
Job Reference (e.g. Trainee Recruitment Consultant Job Ref 123A)
Why you are interested in that job & that company
What specific skills you can bring to that job
Positive ending- e.g. look forward to discussing further at interview
Yours sincerely (use Yours faithfully with Dear Sir)
http://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/applications-and-cvs/covering-letter-essentials-for-
graduate-vacancies

2. Interview Techniques
Interviews are a key part of an employers selection process and may be used on their own
or as part of a longer selection process involving an assessment centre. The interview
allows the employer to gain more evidence about your suitability for the role and the
organisation. In summary they want to know: whether you can do the job, whether you want
the job and whether you will fit in to the organisation. It is also your opportunity to see
whether the job is right for you.
Interview success depends on good preparation, creating a positive impact and giving strong
answers to interview questions.
Preparation is the key to success.

It is crucial to put the time in before the interview you will have a much better chance of
performing at your best and you will feel more confident. A quick look at the recruiters
website the day before is not sufficient! Use the Resources section in Exploring Whats
Out There to help you research the job, the employer and the industry sector. See also
www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers (under Applying for a job) for details of further links
and resources to research.
During the Interview

Good interviewers are trained to base their decision on more than their first impression of
you. However, in addition to what you actually say, how you come across i.e. your personal
impact is very important in giving the interviewer a sense of whether you can work well with
colleagues or clients. For tips on body language see Employability Skills5.
Interview post-mortem
As soon as you can after the interview it is useful to jot down a few notes about what was
covered including questions that went well or not so well. This will be useful if you are
invited back to a further selection stage as a second interviewer may be asked to probe
further on particular issues. If you are rejected, you may want to analyse if your interview
answers need adjustment.
Example interview questions
For more detailed tips to help with preparing for, answering difficult questions see
www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers (under Applying for a Job).
To help you get started, some example questions are listed below. You could get a friend or
family member to ask you some of these questions for general practice.
Skill/Competency questions
Tell me about an occasion when you worked as part of a team. [How did you
contribute to the teams success? How did you build good working relationships with
the others?]
Tell me about a difficult colleague or customer situation you have had to deal with.
[How did you handle it? What was the outcome?]
Describe a difficult decision you have had to make [Why was it difficult? How did you
come to a decision?]
Tell me about an idea you have taken forward or a change you have made.
5
Hind and Moss (2005) Employability Skills, Business Education Publishers. Available on reference in the
Careers Centre.

Describe a time when you have had to manage a number of tasks at the same time.
[How did you decide on the priorities? What were the challenges?]
When have you had to deal with something not going according to plan? [How did
you resolve the issue?]
General and experience questions

Tell me about yourself?
Why would you be suitable for this job? / Why should we hire you? / Summarise your
strengths for this role.
What has been your greatest achievement to date?
What has been your biggest disappointment / failure?
What are your weaknesses?
How would other people describe you?
Tell me more about your experience at xxxxx. What did you contribute in the role?
What skills did you develop?
Your grade in xxxxx is not as good as youre other grades why do you think that
was?
How did you decide on what to study at university? What do you enjoy about your
subject?
Career motivation questions

What attracts you to this role?
How have you researched the role? What do you think it involves day to day?
Why do you want to work for this organisation?
Why does a career in the xxxxx sector appeal to you?
What other careers have you considered? What other applications have you made?
Business awareness questions

How do you keep up to date with what is happening in the business world/current
affairs?
Tell me about a business news story in the press at the moment that you have been
following? [Why does it interest you? What are your views on the issues involved?]
What did you learn about the issues/challenges for a business in your work
experience at xxxx?
What do you know about our clients/services?
What do you think are the main issues affecting this company/sector/profession at
the moment?

Making Applications Resources
Resources to help with writing CVs, interviews and making applications are available
in Careers Network or online:
Making Applications: CVs folder and Interviews folder (Reference folders available in
Careers Network)
Face-to-Face help:
CV Advisers offer a CV clinic personal CV checking service most days during term and for
periods of the vacations. See www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers for details of
availability and how to book a slot.
CV workshops (90 minutes long) are offered in term time. See

www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers for details.
Careers Advisers offer a short discussion at Advice Desk to answer your interview queries.
See www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers for details of availability. Practice interviews are
offered subject to staff availability.
Interviews workshops (90 minutes long) are offered in term time. See
www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers for details.
CVs and Covering Letters

AGCAS (2009) Applications, CVs and covering letters [Available from Careers Network
and online] www.prospects.ac.uk/links/appsinterviews [Accessed 8th October 2009]
Prospects (2010) Writing an Academic CV [online] available

www.prospects.ac.uk/links/cvwriting [accessed 12th May 2010]
Prospects (2009) Sample Academic CV [online] available from

www.prospects.ac.uk/links/examplecvs [accessed 12th May 2010]
Vitae (2010) Writing an academic CV [online] available from

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/1373/Academic%20CVs.html [accessed 12th May 2010]
Jobs.ac.uk (2010) Academic CV Template [online]

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/careers/articles/1309/academic-cv-template/ [accessed 12th May 2010]
AGCAS Scotland (2009) Building Your Graduate Career [online] Available from
http://www.agcasscotland.org.uk/sorted/ [Accessed 8th October 2009]
Graduate Employment and Training (2009) Applications Advice [online] Hobsons Available
at http://www.get.hobsons.co.uk/advice/applications [Accessed 8th October 2009]
Graduate Employment and Training (2009) Interviews and Selection Centres [online]
Hobsons Available at http://www.get.hobsons.co.uk/advice/interviews [Accessed 8th October
2009]
Hawkins,P. and University of Liverpool (2007) Windmills Interactive: How do I help

myself? [online] Available from www.windmillsonline.co.uk/interactive/ [Accessed 8th
October 2009]

SKILL (2005) Disclosing Your Disability [online] Available from
http://www.skill.org.uk/page.aspx?c=10&p=106 [Accessed 8th October 2009]
Targetjobs.co.uk (2009) Job Hunting Tools [online] Available at www.targetjobs.co.uk

[Accessed 8th October 2009]
Interviews
AGCAS (2009) Going for Interviews [Available from Careers Network and online]
www.prospects.ac.uk/links/interviews [Accessed 8th October 2009]
Graduate Employment and Training (2009) Interviews and Selection Centres [online]
Hobsons Available at http://www.get.hobsons.co.uk/advice/interviews [Accessed 8th October
2009]
Jobsite (2009) Be My Interviewer [online] Jobsite UK Ltd. Available at

http://www.bemyinterviewer.co.uk/ [Accessed 1st October 2008]

AND FINALLY.
After completing the workbook you should have:
Used self assessment techniques to create a personal portrait of yourself and

considered how you can make use of this portrait to further your career decisions
Found out about resources available to you to research occupations, what employers
are looking for and generate some career ideas which interest you.
Become more familiar with practical strategies to help further your plans and avoid
getting stuck.
Started to consider what makes a successful CV and how to improve your interview
skills.
So are you any further along the roadmap? You may not have reached number 10 yet
but at least you have made a start!

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CAREERS AND

Exploring whats out there 21

Career Planning for International 26

Reviewing options and making 31

Acknowledgments to original writers; Julie Wainwright and Sophie Miller

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 2

Career planning has a different meaning for everyone depending

Career Planning Workshops (see www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/careers

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 3

By the end of this workbook you should have:

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Completing this section should enable you to:

1. IDENTIFY YOUR SKILLS

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 6

Weak team member <> Strong team member

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 7

Join up the Xs. What does the pattern look like?

What can you do about it?

Get more practice. Identify opportunities in your course, in part-time work, in

Autocrat - tries to dominate or constantly interrupt other members of the team.

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 8

Weak communicator <..> Strong communicator

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What can you do about it?

PLANNING AND ORGANISING

Weak organiser/planner <......> Strong organiser/planner

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Join up the Xs. What does the pattern look like?

What can you do about it?

Reflect on a recent situation whether planning for a deadline or organising an

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 11

A good starting point for a definition is outlined in a government report:

Employers often put creativity at the core of their business:

Creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation. (BBC)

If you want to know more about creativity, see www.mindtools.com.

Creativity and you

Less creative <> Strongly creative

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 12

Join up the Xs. What does the pattern look like?

What can you do about it?

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 13

HOW WILL SKILLS ANALYSIS HELP?

Using your skills analysis

Planning and Example:

I am player-coach of a local amateur football club. I evaluate our

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 14

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Psychometric questionnaires and tests

Psychometric questionnaires fall into two types:

Learning Styles and Personality Type questionnaires: these questionnaires

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 16

Aptitude or Ability tests

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 17

Decide how important the following statements are for you?

Must Would Not

N:\Careers\HANDOUTS AND RESOURCES - AEF\Non Occ 1 - 13\2 Career Planning 18

These are the issues to consider when researching opportunities