Careers and Employability Service Team

This episode is with one of our Careers and Employability Adviser, Julia, and sharing information on how the team is supporting our students in preparing for job search, skill development, organizing fairs, and also answers lots of questions prospective students may have regarding this.

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Speaker 1: [00:00:02] Hi, everyone. I'm Emily. I'm the regional manager for sub-Saharan Africa.

Speaker 2: [00:00:07] Hi, everyone. My name is Ron Peter and I'm the International officer for the sub-Saharan region.

Speaker 1: [00:00:12] Hi, everyone. I'm blessing. I'm the country manager for the University of Aberdeen and I'm based in Nigeria. Welcome to.

Speaker 3: [00:00:19] Our University.

Speaker 1: [00:00:20] Of Aberdeen West Africa podcast series.

Speaker 3: [00:00:22] We're going to talk about lots of relevant and.

Speaker 1: [00:00:24] Interesting topics which we hope.

Speaker 3: [00:00:26] You find useful. Join us for.

Speaker 1: [00:00:28] This week's episode. I hope you're having a good day, everyone. Today, I'm excited to announce that we have a special guest with us from the careers of Employability Team Julia Lang. And we will be discussing about the different ways to get career information. Basically, all that students would need to be employable in the 21st century. So I also have Ron with me, and we're really glad to have Julia with us today. Welcome, Julia.

Speaker 3: [00:01:01] Thank you, Blessing. Great to be here.

Speaker 2: [00:01:03] Hi, everyone, and welcome, Julia.

Speaker 1: [00:01:05] Okay, so yeah, well, we'll get right into the questions to. So could you describe your role in the University of Aberdeen and how long you've worked with the university?

Speaker 3: [00:01:16] Yes. So I am a career and employability advisor and I work with students in the School of Divinity, history, philosophy and art history and the School of Social Science. So at the university there's 12 schools or subject areas and there's six careers advisors. So each careers advisor has two schools that they look after. I've been working at the university for almost three years. I started as a graduate trainee after I finished my studies at University of Aberdeen here, and I moved into my role as a career and employability advisor about a year ago.

Speaker 1: [00:01:48] Okay, that sounds really great. So I'm also wondering, what's the purpose of having a career as an employability team in the university? What should students respect and what do you guys do as well?

Speaker 3: [00:02:00] So we work under three main banners. We say we help students to explore, develop and connect. So I can explain a little bit about that. We help students, undergraduates, I should say as well, explore their options, helping you to make informed choices about your future. We also work to help you develop your skills Wall Street University through our co-curricular programmes and work related activities in collaboration with university colleagues and employers. And lastly, we help our university community connect with regional, national and global employers and organisations to help you networking and building effective partnerships and take forwards.

Speaker 1: [00:02:39] Okay. That sounds really, really great. So I'm happy that some prospective students should be aware that they can get all the support that they would need while studying at the university, especially from the careers and employability team. All right. So I've asked previously, so I don't know if you could speak a little bit more about the services support you provide. At what point do students get in touch with you to, you know, you do prep for prep them for an interview and all of those things. How does that play out?

Speaker 3: [00:03:10] So we work a blended of in-person and on campus and online services. I personally work on campus all every day, but my colleagues are working hybrid. So within our day we offer 1 to 1 appointments for students to gain feedback on CV's, cover letters, applications, personal statements and LinkedIn profiles. So if you would like some feedback on your CV, you just book an appointment on our online system. You can book to have the appointment in person if that suits you or online. If it's in person, you just turn up with your CV and if it's online, you join the online meeting. And we as a 20 minute appointment where we talk through whatever you want to chat about in terms of your application. That's one type of appointment. The second type of appointment we have are longer than 30 minutes and that's what the careers advisor for your subject. So I mentioned there were six careers advisors. So when you want to speak to someone about your options, specifically be that finding a part time job, finding internships, graduate vacancies, if you're not too sure what you want to do, your job, your time at university, you love your degree, but you don't know what's going to happen next. You can pick a 30 minute appointment. And these are personal, obviously, and confidential. We go if what you want to talk about so you can even just come in and say, I'm not too sure what to do with my degree. And we sit down and we go from there. So those are 1 to 1. Again, they can be in person, online or over the phone. We then have a suite of many career courses and lots of resources on our website to help you with career planning and general skills development and lots of insights into how the working world works. And we have our suite of co-curricular programmes I mentioned briefly earlier to help you develop your skills and engage with employers. I would say that all of our all of our services are free to students to use, and you can use them at any time from your first day at university, right through to after graduation, you can continue to book appointments and use the service after you graduate. So in terms of when students should get in touch, it's really up to you as a student. If you want to come in and your first day of university and say, I've got four years here, how do I make the most of it? Very happy to talk to you about that. Or if you want to find your feet first and come and talk to us whenever that suits you, that's absolutely fine. We also, I should say, run lots of employer events on campus. So they give you good insight into job opportunities later on. So you can pick and choose what you want to get involved with. Absolutely.

Speaker 1: [00:05:35] And I think I really like the flexibility know in terms of all the services that you offer so that this is really helpful information for prospective students who are listening to this podcast. Thank you so much, Julia Non do you have any questions?

Speaker 2: [00:05:50] Hi Julia. Adding to the previous discussion, what are services we are offering to our graduate students?

Speaker 3: [00:05:58] So students who graduated can continue to use career connect. They can look at our jobs board, which I should also say we have on career connect. At the moment. I think we're advertising about 800 jobs during term time that go up. So you can continue to access our jobs board. We also you can access our events page to see what events are coming up and you can continue to book appointments so you can have the 30 minute appointments and you can have the application feedback. So if you're applying for jobs after you graduate, you can send us your CV and your cover letter. We also do practise interviews as well, which I didn't mention. And you can continue to book practise interviews after you graduate.

Speaker 2: [00:06:34] Oh, that's great, Julia. And one more thing. And at what point of the time at the university would it be good for the students to be in touch with your team?

Speaker 3: [00:06:44] It's up to them completely. We're open all year round. The only time we close is between Christmas and New Year. But over the summer holidays, we're here. You know, we start back on the 2nd of January. So really, it's up to you. All of our available appointments are advertised online. So if you want to become a student, you can log in career, connect with your student, log in details, and you can see there all the appointments, all the events, all the jobs, it's all in that one place. But we are here for for students whenever it suits them best. So we're very, very open and flexible. They just book whenever they want to speak to someone.

Speaker 1: [00:07:19] I'm sorry about booking appointment. Is there, like a limit to the number of times that students can look at offending with the team?

Speaker 3: [00:07:27] There's not a limit, per se, but what we would recommend is you do on a case by case basis. So you start with one appointment and then after that you would decide if you wanted another one. We're not going to cap it at any point, but we don't recommend you come in and book five appointments in one go. It's better just to sort of see see how it goes. And we hope as well, the advice that we give to students, specifically with the applications, you can then take forwards and apply it through. Had the confidence to, you know, look, you know, your CV is fine, so you don't need to have five CV appointments for the same one. But we're not we're not going to cap it. If you do really want to come in for five CV appointments, we will let you do that.

Speaker 1: [00:08:07] That's all. That sounds really good. I'm sure some students wants to keep up on this one, but actually I'm really excited that this support is in place for students who kind of are not sure of the directions. And when you're done with school and all of that. So really, really helpful. Absolutely. Yes. So I'm wondering as well, is it the function of the Careers Employability Office to organise a job for a similar university?

Speaker 3: [00:08:33] Yes, it is our job. It's our job to advertise job fairs. We have two annual fairs. Normally at the beginning of the second semester, we have one law fair, which normally happens in September or October, and we have law companies from across Scotland and other organisations as well who come to talk to students and present their ideas and engage with student body. And then we have a fair that we normally run with Robert Gordon's University last year, we run it with Robert Gordon's and the University of Dundee, the North East Scotland Careers Fair. So our North East Scotland Careers Fair and that one is for employers across Scotland and further afield. And it's not law specific, it can be any employers and that's open to all students. I don't think we're running it with the University of Dundee this year, but we will be running it in partnership with Robert Gordon. So it's a very big careers fair for all students in Aberdeen and it's hosted normally in the centre of town in a very nice hotel. So it's a lovely venue as well.

Speaker 1: [00:09:31] So it sounds really great and shows and prospective students would be really excited about attending this for so get into and it was fun. Yes nice work and make new friends as well so so that's of course that is in place. So I'm also wondering as well, are there particular skill sets that some students should have if they're looking to get jobs as quickly as possible?

Speaker 3: [00:09:55] Well, what I would say is the skills employers look for varies between different organisations, depending on what you're going for in different sectors. But what I would say is employers really are keen to see more than just a degree. They want to see what initiatives you've been involved with, what your interests are, what your key attributes are. So it's really important that you make the most of the opportunities that university. To do more than just studying. Obviously we have our co-curricular programmes. You can volunteer within Aberdeen or all the student societies and sports clubs. So we really, really recommend students get involved with the use of that as that's what employers want to see on on your CV. How do you how have you built on your degree with other, other things as well? I'll just check here. Yeah, I would say as well, if you're not too sure. Definitely from a speech or careers advisor, you know, from day one, you can say this is the area I'm interested in. What can I do to to best prepare myself as a candidate? Or you can come and say, I don't know what area I'm interested in. And then we start the conversation from there. But I would definitely say to to make the most of all the opportunities that university gives you, there's so much and so many opportunities to develop key skills, meet new people, network with employers, and that's what they're really looking for.

Speaker 1: [00:11:06] Okay, that sounds pretty great. So which takes me to my next question. So for students who've you've mentioned it already, that's if they're not quite sure they can meet with your office. So we really least please at the end of the podcast, if you could drop like a maybe a contact email for those listening in so they could get in touch with the team and then, you know, book an appointment and take it on from there. So I'm also wondering, for students from West Africa so far, you know, from the time that you've been working with the university, what kind of jobs are of interest to them?

Speaker 3: [00:11:43] So I had a little career connect and I saw all sorts different jobs. It really is a mixture. I don't know. We can say specifically. I think we do have a lot of oil and gas and energy students and quite a few law students. But there are also clinical pharmacology, I.T. and technology finance. So it really is quite, quite broad. And they do have the media journalism publishing. So I have to look. But it's quite it's really quite broad. What I would say, though, is the alumni team have developed an incredible campaign called From Aberdeen to. Which highlights where certain alumni have gone on gone on to do. And I would definitely recommend have a little look at that. One of the profiles is Martina, who is now the rector. She studied here and from Nigeria. I know she is and she runs. She started the charity working with Asthma and Allergy Foundation. So I would definitely have a look at the From Aberdeen to campaign. I can give a link as well. I had a little look through. I mean I've had alumni go on to do teaching, to do clinical pharmacology law and specifically like masters in oil and gas law. And we also have someone who is now kind of an MP, so definitely some fantastic alumni on the farm already to campaign.

Speaker 1: [00:12:59] Okay. So my next question is what kind of jobs are available on a pattern basis supposed to do is to apply for or is it does your office work with help with this kind of jobs, the part time jobs you if I can mention these students were allowed to work 20 hours per week so that, you know, they can concentrate on your studies. Do you hope with this kind of job and then do you also help at the point of graduation to provide job information for students?

Speaker 3: [00:13:24] Yes. Yes, absolutely. So we don't recommend students work more than 20 hours a week, part time while studying, I think on certain visas, that's that's the maximum you're allowed to do. We can definitely help students to apply for part time jobs and look for them as well. We've got in the making we are we are coming up with a part time job service that we're working on at the moment. What I would say is the university hires students quite a lot to work part time and there's lots of local organisations within Aberdeen, so it might take a bit of time to find a job, but it seems that there's an awful lot out there. So what I would say when we come to look for a part time jobs is really make sure your CV and your cover letter are up to scratch and definitely come and chat to us. We're very happy to have a 20 minute appointment with you about your CV for part time job. That's no problem with graduate jobs as well. I'd say the same thing as well. We can help students with not knowing where to look. It's sometimes knowing what you want to do is helpful because there can be specific job sites. But we also help with CVS applications when it comes to the graduate jobs as well. We can do both. Yes.

Speaker 1: [00:14:28] Okay. So is there like a limit to the extent that you can support students who have graduated from the university, or is it like a long term engagement or support that you provide to graduates?

Speaker 3: [00:14:40] So we are open for life after graduation for students.

Speaker 1: [00:14:43] Here so.

Speaker 3: [00:14:44] They can keep keep coming back as long as they want to. Okay. That's up to them. Yeah. We're open for life.

Speaker 1: [00:14:51] Oh, that's exciting to know. We're on the family. Question for Julia.

Speaker 2: [00:14:57] Thanks for asking. Apart from the part time job opportunities that you shared. Julia, So how open is the UK job market for the international students?

Speaker 3: [00:15:07] Yes. So I think that the job market is very open, obviously. Certain areas are more. More jobs available in others. I would say that obviously there are visa things have changed. So it's definitely worth making sure you know what's what. But we have international advisors here at the university who can definitely help with that. We also have employers and are in touch with them and international students are really at the forefront of our mind. We do have a mini career course on job search in the UK for international students specifically and we have some advisors who are quite clued up. Again, I would say that it's quite a broad topic, so I don't know if I can really comment on the state of the job market in general, but I would say there are opportunities there and we're definitely here to help support students to find them. So hopefully that's answer the question enough. I know it's not giving you too many details, but come and talk to us. Students need to come in and just drop in the breadcrumbs to get to the service.

Speaker 1: [00:16:03] Yeah, I think I like that you're accessible. The team is accessible for students who would want to ask all of these questions. And more than once, we've got this podcast. My final question for you would be, do you have any advice for prospective students, you know, regarding engaging with your team and getting the support they need in getting jobs or getting employed?

Speaker 3: [00:16:25] I think in terms of the support you need, don't be shy. You know, we're here to help if you have no idea where to start. Book an appointment with the advisor for your subject so you'll know what you're studying. So you'll be able to find out who your advisor is. If you're not too sure, email us. We can let you know. Start with that is a 30 minute chat through that advisor. We can help the student to understand what they're looking for and makes of a plan for them, a personal plan for them. So definitely don't be shy. And that's the best place to start in terms of getting a job. As I said, get involved with lots of things. Our university, you know, employers, they really do rate the experiences you have at university. If you're in a society, if you're a treasurer or, you know, a vice president, if you're on a committee, if you're a president, put that on your CV. They want to see that these are really key skills. And I would also say that your degree is work experience as well. So all the group projects you're getting, you're doing, get involved with them. Be interested in talking to your classmates as well. I think one thing with looking for jobs after university is not knowing where to start. So, you know, just chat to people who are sitting next to you in September. Everything's going to be on campus. I think going forwards is going to be all in person. Talk to people in your course, see what's going on with them. The university is here to support you in many, many different ways. If a student comes to us and we can't help them, we will signpost. We're not going to ditch you and we definitely will apply to support that's available to you. So get involved, don't be shy and we really forward to change students, you know, was my highlight of my day. So please do come and talk to us.

Speaker 1: [00:17:53] Okay. So at University where is the office located and could you please mention the email? could be used to quite get in touch.

Speaker 3: [00:18:00] Yes. So we are located on the top floor of the student union building. So that's where the food court is. So we're just above the food court. So you can come for your lunch and then you can come up for your appointment. And I said, We're here every day. And the email address is [e-mail]. I'd also say that when students have their university log in details, they can log in to career connect. That's probably the best thing to do as well. It will ask you to set up a profile to tell tell you what you're interested, tell them what you're interested in so they can give you jobs and job adverts that are there. But also, it just means that we can. We can. So we also have our career connect profile, which I recommend students log into. You can log in as soon as you have your university login details, and that's where you'll find how to make appointments, how to search for events, how to look at our job site. So that's definitely something to to get familiar with as well. But do email us if you're having any difficulties in figuring that out.

Speaker 1: [00:19:02] And.

Speaker 2: [00:19:03] Q To add to this point, I was students can also sign up for the job alerts on a weekly or daily basis, and you will get notifications related to jobs, events and some useful information in securing a job after graduation.

Speaker 3: [00:19:14] Yes. So the curriculum asks you to set up your profile and what areas you're interested in. And then, yes, you can either receive job, jobs, weekly or daily. And events as well will come through to you. And we do email as well, student email students specifically as well. So definitely check your emails. That's another piece of advice.

Speaker 1: [00:19:34] Really helpful. Really helpful advice. Do you have any final questions for Julia before we end the podcast? Okay.

Speaker 2: [00:19:42] I don't I don't have any further questions. I think Julia covered everything. And to our listeners, our careers and support team are there for you. If we need any support with your application, with your CV and even for preparing for an interview, you can avail the service at any point of your studies or even after.

Speaker 3: [00:19:59] Yes, definitely. Well, yeah, very important members of the community. So no problem. It can be I can imagine it's quite confusing coming to a brand new country where everything's done differently. So we're here to help in any way that we can.

Speaker 1: [00:20:10] All right. Thank you so much. Julia, this has been an interesting and helpful session. Thank you for making the time to do this with us. And we look forward to another session with you. All right.

Speaker 3: [00:20:20] No problem.

Speaker 1: [00:20:22] All right. Thank you. Have a great day, everyone.

Speaker 3: [00:20:25] Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2: [00:20:26] Thank you. Thanks, everyone. And see you all in our next episode.