Career Zone Podcast

We last looked at the graduate labour market in September, but what has changed since then? In this episode, Rae takes a look at the current state of the graduate labour market.

If you're thinking about working for yourself, building a portfolio or entrepreneurial career, contact the Careers Zone to book an Entrepreneurs Guidance appointment.

If you would like help making career decisions or exploring your career/further study options, please contact the Career Zone to book a Guidance appointment. 

As part of Digital and Coding Week, Ben Toulson, an Employability and Career Consultant, is joined by Sarah Burne James, Solution Architect at IBM. Sarah and Ben discuss what IBM do, how to work in the tech industry if you don’t have a tech background and the importance of technical curiosity.

For more resources on digital & coding skills and to find out what events are running throughout the week, visit the Digital & Coding webpages.

In this episode Rae considers how the rise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) will help businesses remove repetitive tasks, and explores how your skills can fit into this ever expanding sector to help address social inequalities, create jobs and improve people’s lives.

References:

Microsoft’s Unlocking the UK’s potential with digital skills Unlocking the UK's Potential with Digital Skills - Microsoft UK

JISC Building Digital Capability Building digital capability | Building digital capability (jisc.ac.uk)

CBI learning-for-life-report.pdf (cbi.org.uk)

Digital skills must go hand-in-hand with human skills | Luminate (prospects.ac.uk)

How can employers upskill graduates post COVID? | Luminate (prospects.ac.uk)

As part of Digital & Coding Week, Rachel Sloan, Employability & Placements Adviser talks to Claire Barret, Director at APIsFirst. Claire talks about her career journey and shares her advice to students interested in working within the digital sector. Jobs in the IT sector are open to all graduates, and Claire shares how a grounding in any degree subject can help you with a career in the IT sector. Claire also explores some of the main challenges the digital and IT sector are facing and how organisations are reacting to these challenges. 

Claire Barrett is a Director at APIsFirst who makes strategy happen: translating goals and aspirations into technology change that sticks. She has a background in IT leadership and consulting at large, globally recognised organisations in sectors such as financial services, manufacturing and government. She recently returned to the UK after having spent most of her career in Australia and Hong Kong.

For more resources on digital & coding skills and to find out what events are running throughout the week, visit the Digital & Coding webpages.

As part of Digital & Coding Week, Rae explores what is meant by disruptive thinking and how it can bring change to businesses. Rae discusses the difference between innovation and disruptive thinking and shares what you need to be able to do and the skills you will need to develop in order to be a successful disruptive thinker.

For more resources on digital & coding skills and to find out what events are running throughout the week, visit the Digital & Coding webpage. 

In this week’s episode, Laura Ibarra Hempel, College Coordinator for Humanities, explores perfectionism, what it means and how it can affect your behaviour at work. Laura also shares her advice on what you can do to tackle perfectionism.

If you would like to explore this further the University Wellbeing team will be running a webinar on 9th Feb on perfectionism that will help you understand perfectionism better overall and provide you with techniques based on a Cognitive Behaviour Therapy approach.

In this episode, Branwen Cleaver, Programme Assistant, is joined by students Blakeney, Francesca and Maisie to share their experience of what it was like to take part in Grand Challenges. They discuss why they got involved, how taking part in the week has helped to develop their employability skills and share their tips on getting the most out of the week.

Grand Challenges is a project week, in which students work in interdisciplinary groups to design innovative solutions to real world challenges. This year, Grand Challenges will be taking place in one of these two weeks: 6th-10th June or 13th-17th June 2022. The exact week will be confirmed soon. For more information on the week and to sign up visit the Grand Challenges webpage.

Mair George, Freelance Theatre Producer and External Facilitator on the Create Your Future programme, explores how to choose your referees for professional job applications. As part of the recruitment process, it is likely you will be asked to submit names of referees who are able to provide an insight into your previous work and your capabilities. In this episode, Mair provides examples of who you can ask to be your referee and explains what you will need to let your referee know in order for them to provide a strong, tailored reference for you.

In this week’s podcast Rae is joined by colleagues from the Career Zone who recently attended the Institute of Student Employers Virtual Conference. The Career Zone staff share what they found out about what graduate recruiters for Law are looking for and what you can do to prepare for the graduate labour market. 

For more information on the Law sector and to view the range of resources available to you, visit the Law sector page on the Career Zone webpage. 

In this week’s podcast Rae is joined by colleagues from the Career Zone who recently attended the Institute of Student Employers Virtual Conference. The Career Zone staff share what they found out about what employers are looking for and what the graduate labour market is looking like.

For more information on different sectors and to view the range of resources available to you, visit the employment sector page on the Career Zone webpage.