UCC Works 2017 Reflective Report and CV

UCC Works 2017: Reflective Report and CV

By the end of this session, you will be able to: • Complete your UCC Works Reflective Report. • Create your up-to-date CV.

REFLECT on the EXPERIENCE

Question 1. Choose any FOUR of the following six competencies: • 1. Interpersonal Skills • 2. Teamwork • 3. Problem Solving • 4. Decision Making • 5. Customer/Client Focus • 6. Planning

Why do competencies matter? • Who uses competency-based questions when hiring graduates? • Banks • Civil Service • Hospitals • Accountancy Firms • Consulting Firms • Multinational Companies • Engineering Firms • Who doesn’t? ? ? ?

Interpersonal Skills Did you have to… • Get to know new people? • Strengthen relationships? • Influence/persuade others?

Teamwork Skills Did you have to… • Work closely with others? • Identify and distribute tasks? • Undertake tasks within the team?

Problem Solving Skills Did you have to… • Solve challenging problems? • Use logic to solve problems? • Develop creative solutions?

Decision Making Skills Did you have to… • Make a complex decision? • Make a difficult decision? • Choose one course of action from a range of options? • Weigh up the possible outcomes from each course of action?

Planning Did you have to… • Create a plan of action for yourself to achieve a specific goal? • Create a plan for others? • Did you have to re-prioritise due to unforeseen events?

Tips for Choosing your Competencies • Is there a situation that stands out for you? A particular day/afternoon/event? • Is there a specific achievement of which you are proud? • What did you do well on placement? • What mistakes did you make? What did your learn from them?

Answering Competency Questions • To develop great answers to the competency questions on the RP, follow these simple steps: • • Situation Task Action Result • STAR is the most effective way to answer behavioural interview questions. • STAR provides a framework to tell a story that highlights your ability to manage specific, challenging, work-related situations.

Situation and Task • Avoid spending a lot of time describing the problem – state the problem as briefly as you can while ensuring that the listener understands the situation. • Be very specific rather than general – these specific examples have a much more powerful impact. • Do not discuss a situation you are angry about. • Do not discuss a problem that you caused. • Choose a situation that is as similar as possible to the type of situations you will encounter in the job you seek.

Action(s) • Describe in detail the positive and appropriate action you took to resolve the issue or to get the task completed. • This step should be the focus of your answer (60%+). • This part of the story is often overlooked. • Provide good detail – it will show the employer that you know how to take appropriate steps to resolve work-related issues.

Result(s) • Describe the positive result of your action. • If no positive result, choose a story that does have a positive result! • If you can quantify the result, do so. • Don’t forget to mention the positive result

STAR Technique: You. Tube If you can say it, you can write it! • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=x. Udc. V_Ti. M t 4 • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=33 qp. Yb. Dl 3 c. I • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=KTATIx 8 g Ux. U

Prepare examples (Teamwork) STAR Situation: Describe the situation or problem. Task: Describe the task that the situation required. Action: Describe the action you took to complete the task successfully and any obstacles overcame. Results: Highlight outcomes achieved.

Sample Competency (Teamwork) STAR Situation: I wanted to raise € 2, 000 for charity and to fund a trip to a Belarussian Orphanage organised for the fundraisers. Task: To enlist the support of my colleagues and friends in supporting my efforts to raise money. Action: I organised a table-top quiz, mini-marathon team and seven “bagpacking” days at local supermarkets. Results: Two colleagues set themselves same target. Together, € 6, 000 was raised in total.

QUESTION 1:

QUESTIONS 2 and 3 2. Demonstrate how having an understanding of the competencies of a work and organizational environment will help you with your career goals. How will you apply the competencies you’ve developed? 3. In what way has participating on the UCC WORKS Award influenced your future career goals? Have you changed/developed/refined/reoriented your goals as a result?

Ask yourself. . . • • Did you enjoy the role/internship? Why (not)? What were the people like? What did you like most about the job? What did you like least? What would have made the experience better? Would you like to do this work on graduation? Why? What alternative careers/roles might you prefer? Are you now more sure of the career you want on graduation? • What additional information/experience do you need to become more sure? • How might you get this information/experience?

CVs that deliver: You have 30 seconds! Your CV!

Your Personal Brochure

Your Sales Brochure To represent you well, your CV must: Match the job specification. Look professional. Be concise and complete (two pages). Be factual. Be peppered with “positive active verbs”.

Making the shortlist.

What are the key sections? Personal Details Opener: Summary/Profile/Objective Education Skills Experience Achievements Interests and Activities Referees

1. Personal Details 2. Career Profile / Objective (Optional) 3. Education 4. Work Experience Name, Home and Term Address, Home, Term and Mobile numbers, college email address Linkedin, eportfolio (online links) Bullet points (3 – 4) summarising qualifications, skills and aspirations. Effective, if it is concise, personal and unique to you. Reverse chronological order i. e. most recent first Overall exam results / special achievements or awards Provide 6 core modules from MSc MM (not list for each year) Projects…highlight skills learned, solo and group projects, what you did in group projects, grades Reverse chronological order Highlight relevant ‘business’ experience Specify responsibilities and duties Highlight skills acquired…. communication, teamwork Include personal qualities…reliable, flexible Language is past tense

5. Additional Training / Work Experience. 6. Skills Profile (optional) 7. Interests and Achievements 8. References Allows you to position relevant work experience / training on to the first page. Less relevant work experience / training move to 2 nd page. Include IT Skills (ECDL), name all Microsoft Packages, Social media, Digital Media, Graphics packages, typing speeds if relevant. List of employability skills from job specification, backed up with examples of where the skill was demonstrated skill. Effective when you are lacking experience, properly written sentences and appears on the second page of CV. Membership of clubs - position held, responsibilities, events organised. Business interests? …small portfolio of shares Other courses taken outside UCC e. g Customer Service Driving Licence Languages and level of fluency One UCC academic and One Work based – see sample CVs Ask for permission beforehand Include: Name, title, organisation/department, address, phone number and/or work email

Opener: Profile/Summary/Objective • An (optional) summary should mention the role you’re seeking and the experience/skills that will enable you to succeed. It’s about the employer and what they want or need! • “Currently seeking a challenging position enabling me to contribute to organizational goals while offering an opportunity for growth and advancement”. • “Bilingual economics student with successful experience in technical support eager to provide superior customer experience to service users”.

Write your profile! • A [QUALITY and SUBJECT] student with strong/significant [SKILL/EXPERIENCE/EXPERTISE] is keen to build experience in a [ROLE] in the [INDUSTRY/FIELD/SECTOR].

Education List qualifications in reverse chronological order (most recent first). Provide exam results (if good) and special achievements or awards. Provide key modules of interest to employer. Projects…highlight module, task, what was achieved, your role, and result.

Education Include the Insitution, Dates, Qualifications, Results and modules/subjects of interest to the employer. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK Bachelor of Arts (Geography Single Honours) Exam Results: Awarded 2 H 1 2015 to date Key Modules: Cities of Diversity; Societies and Space; Geographical Information Systems Midleton College, Midleton, Co. Cork 2009 -2015 Leaving Certificate Achieved 490/625 points including honours grades in Higher Level Geography (A 1), Art(B 1), Maths (B 2) and German (B 1)

Projects • Emphasise the module title, the project title, what was achieved, your role in the project, and the result. Module Title: “Project title…” • Developed … as a team of x… • Led… • Undertook… • Result: 1 H

Write your Project. What did you do? How and/or Why? So what? What did you do well? Outcomes

Experience List roles in REVERSE chronological order. Separate RELEVANT EXPERIENCE and ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE if necessary. Use present tense for current role and past for others. Describe responsibilities, duties, outcomes. Highlight skills you have acquired - be specific. Include specific achievements where relevant. Include vacation & voluntary work.

Experience contd. Sam Maguire Pharmacy, Midleton, Co. Cork Sales Assistant (Weekends) 2015 to date § Promoted from stock maintenance to cashier in six months. § Demonstrated maturity, professionalism and deep product knowledge in handling customer queries. § Solely responsible for organising weekend rotas and tasks. § Trained and mentored new and part-time staff members. § Succeeded in ensuring optimum weekend staffing levels for 95% of the weekend days in 2016.

Write your Job(s). What did you do? How and/or Why? So what? What did you do well? Outcomes

Write strong sentences. Action verb + task + result = winning statement Project / Purpose with action verb Activity / Objective / Task Result / Outcome / Benefit Developed a computerised database which improved the efficiency of targeting clients in mail shots Coached five to 12 year old children and developed their tennis ability Organised a coffee morning for Enable Ireland raising € 600

Action Verbs • • • • Centralised Coached Co-founded Co-led Combined Completed Computed Conceived Concluded Condensed Diagnosed Directed Engineered Ensured • • • • Achieved Acquired Advised Analysed Anticipated Appraised Assessed Audited Bought Built Calculated Doubled Edited Conducted • • • • Consolidated Controlled Converted Coordinated Counselled Created Decentralised Decreased Defined Delivered Designed Determined Developed Devised

Emphasise Achievements. From vague description… Taught maths to students To key achievement: • Taught Maths on a one-to-one basis to Leaving Cert students – achieved 90% pass rate • Taught maths to small groups of disadvantaged students. Introduced new learning methods which led to a decrease in course drop out by 10% Auditor of Finance Club • Elected head of Finance club. Organised events throughout the year which increased the club membership by 20% • Head of Finance Club – Identified and contacted guest speakers, increasing attendance at events by 10%

Roles of responsibility • External Officer, BIS Society 2015 -2016 • Elected onto Committee to liaise with the central Student Union to represent 200 undergraduate and postgraduate students. • Excelled in analysing information from diverse sources, prioritising relevant issues and presenting proposals to the full committee. • Influenced timetabling improvements that served 120 undergraduate students. • Worked as part of a team to prepare a barbeque party for 400 people within a budget of € 5, 000.

Write your ROLE(s). What did you do? How and/or Why? So what? What did you do well? Outcomes

6. Interests and Achievements Candidate 1 Candidate 2 Interests and Achievements • Wine, women and song Interests and Achievements Which of these students do you think might have a better chance of being called for interview? • 2009 - present: Founding member of UCC’s Wine-Tasting Society; negotiated discounts with local wine merchants and organised a Society visit to the Bordeaux Wine Region • 2012 - Present: Volunteer at Edel House: a shelter for women and children at risk of domestic violence • 2015 -Present: Lead singer in a student band ‘The Academics’

Your CV Checklist: Is your CV… A concise, well-presented two-page document? Positive? Emphasising your achievements? An account of all “time out” – no gaps? Affording the most space to the most relevant sections? Full of powerful action verbs? Free of spelling and grammatical errors?

Helpful Resources UCC Careers Services: • http: //www. ucc. ie/en/careersadvice/applications/cvs/#samplecvs Linked. In Profile Checklist: • https: //university. linkedin. com/content/dam/university/glo bal/en_US/site/pdf/Linked. In_Sample_Profile_onesheet. David. pdf • Morgan Mc. Kinley Career Ally Hub (CV Builder): • https: //www. morganmckinley. ie/about/career-ally/careerally-hub

www. ucc. ie/careers