Business Career Advancement Portfolio

Business Career Advancement Portfolio

349SAM

Lecture 8 – Assignment Support

Take your time to fully read the assignment brief!

Section 1.  Introduction: This should cover your career aspirations, any previous work experience you have had and any special employability attributes that you possess. i.e. identifying any key skills or knowledge that you have that would attract an employer in the graduate market place.

Focus on:

Your career aspirations:

what are you passionate about?

where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?

Your special employability attributes – i.e. What makes you stand out from the crowd?

work experience, key skills, knowledge

Provide specific evidence

Make sure you are consistent in what you say. Having a seamless structure is very important.

Section 2-An analytical discussion OF AT LEAST 4 of the lectures on the module given by industry speakers.

Focus on:

What each lecture has meant to you. I.e. DO NOT just write a summary of what each speaker said; instead, reflect upon the key messages they presented and what you will be doing as a result.

Make connections with what you have said in other sections (consistency!).

Section 3.
A screenshot(s) of your professional networking page
Plus a discussion explaining how you personally are using the network in your graduate job hunting / post graduate study applications and its potential to help you in the future.

Make sure you

Show your professionalism and the quality of the professional profile you have created.

Explain how you are using Linked-In in your job hunting or in demonstrating your interest in a profession or business topic (e.g. to support a Master’s application).

Show awareness of how recruiters use your social networking presence in their employee scouting activities.

Explain how you have used / will use professional networking to generate job leads and possible introductions.

Section 4: An analysis of your employment strengths and weaknesses that you might describe during a graduate job interview

“Tell me about your strengths” and “Do you have any weaknesses?” are two of the most popular interview questions. How would you answer these two questions in an interview situation?

Your answer should outline your key strengths, giving specific examples from either work experience or activities while studying as evidence to illustrate them. You may wish to refer to your personality type, identified by the profiling done in Seminar 2.

Your description of your weaknesses should be honest, while remembering the impact that they would have in a job interview situation in which you are trying to sell yourself in the best light possible. For your weaknesses, you should also give illustrative examples but remember that it is also important to mention the steps you are taking to overcome the weakness you have discussed.

Section 5: An action plan stating how you intend to engage with the department’s Employability Personal Tutor (EPT) in the next semester after the completion of the module.

As well as helping you identify possible career directions, your EPT (Michelle Butterworth) can:

support you in choosing an appropriate Master’s course to study.

review your CV, advise on how to approach job applications and prepare for interviews.

Remember, your actions need to be SMART.

Note: If you have already settled on a career path – and have a job offer / post graduate course offer or self-employed business plan – then describe this instead.

Some other questions you may have…….

Questions 1 and 4

What is the difference between question 1 and 4?

Question 1 is really about your career aspirations and how you would sell yourself to an employer (i.e. what makes you stand out from the crowd)

Question 4 is how you would respond to “what are your strengths? / what are your weaknesses?” in an interview situation. (You need to demonstrate to us that you have reflected on these).

Will we lose marks if we don’t mention every lecture in our answer to question 2?

No – though you do need to discuss a minimum of 4 of them.

Some lectures will obviously be more relevant to you than others so you should focus on these.

If you are worried about word count you could also include a summary of the lectures in an appendix.

Question 3: What Linked-in screen shots should be used?

Question 3: What Linked-in screen shots should be used?

I want to go on to Masters study next year – how should I discuss this in the portfolio?

Q5:You could mention how you have / will be asking for Michelle’s help (or from the Central Career Service) as your prepare your application(s) for a Masters Course (e.g. re your personal statement).

Q3:You could use Linked In to follow / make connections with the Universities that you are looking to apply to.

We would expect you to have a clear idea now of the type of career that you will be going onto after completing your Masters Course. You should therefore be able to discuss how the Masters Course will enable you to achieve your career aspirations (Q1)/ develop your skills and knowledge (Q4) and  identify what were the most relevant guest lectures for you (Q2).

Other things to bear in mind:

Write in the first person (I)

Think about the structure of your work – make sure you are consistent in what you say.

Use appropriate and specific evidence to back up the claims you make about yourself.

Make sure that your Linked-In Page matches with what you have said about yourself in your assignment!

Present your work professionally.

Use formal language

Carefully proof read it. (Avoid typos!)

Guest speaker names

Don’t leave it until the last minute to submit your work to Moodle.

Assessment Criteria

Assessment Criteria

Assessment Criteria

Additional CW Support will be made available as follows:

Time will be allocated in Seminar 5 for CW queries

Seminar Leaders will hold CW drop in sessions during the early part of W/C 12th December – further details will be communicated nearer the time.

Tracey and Arun will be available in AB107 6-7pm on Tuesday 13th December

Questions