Employability

Are students helped in making applications for employment?

Helping students to produce CVs and letters of application is a fine balance between help and unreasonable assistance. Many universities, usually through their careers service, offer career skills packages on and provide courses for students in CV writing. A follow-up CV clinic is commonly available. Several external websites provide advice on CV production. Preparation of a full CV and the associated word processing skills can be incorporated into the personal tutorial system. This can be particularly useful as it provides the one-to-one contact required without increasing teaching loads.

Downloadable CV resources

• View 13 reasons why I binned your CV (pdf)
• View Annotated CV (pdf)

External websites containing information on CV writing for students

• Prospects.ac.uk have a section on writing your CV, covering letters and advice about interviews and applying for jobs (go to: Careers advice)
• The education section of the Biochemical Society's website contains advice writing your CV

Applying for employment

Students need information about the variety of interviewing and other selection methods employed by employers. Interviews (up to 3 with different groups of interviewers), psychometric testing, group selection activities, and presentations are commonly used. Some or all of these can be brought together in an assessment centre. Your careers service may offer talks and workshops on interviews and group selection. Careers advisers may be aware of the specific methods used by particular employers and occasionally collect feedback from students who have been through the process.

In addition, students need general information about the application process, for example, the likely numbers involved, the fact that not all applications will even be acknowledged, the time sequences, appropriate clothing for interviews and the sorts of questions asked. This information will be available directly from your careers service who can also provide information on the psychometric testing methods used by some employers and usually run practice psychometric tests of the type used in recruitment.

An ability to both identify and evidence their achievements in curricular and extra-curricular activities, and in work experience, is important and there is increasing use of personal development portfolios and progress files in a variety of forms in different universities to help students to plan, record and reflect on their development.

Graduates are expected to know the basics of their discipline well – theoretically and practically. Some graduates (not those who get employment easily) think that because courses are modular they can forget about the first year modules because they have passed them. This is a mistake! Students should be building on the knowledge they acquired and should retain it during the rest of the course. Job seekers in discipline specific areas should expect to be asked technical and factual questions to establish their knowledge at interview.

Advice and support is also helpful for students making applications for postgraduate study and research. Approximately 40% of bioscience graduates go on to further study.

• Examples of the job descriptions, appraisal processes and training courses

Further Links for making applications for employment:

• TARGETjobs: Extensive advice about CVs and covering letters, including examples, forms, interviews, including a virtual interview, and assessment centres.
• SHL (Go to: Candidate): Information about the job application and assessment process with particular focus on ability/aptitude tests and personality questionnaires with practice tests and feedback.
• University of London Careers Service: Helpsheets offering detailed advice and tips about CVs, covering letters, interviews, and applying on-line. A detailed guide to Job Hunting on the Internet.
• University of Strathclyde Careers Service: A Guide to Jobsearch on the Internet has a section on 'electronic applications and CVs'.
• World Careers Network: Advice, with input from employers and graduates, about CVs, application forms, covering letters, interviews and assessment centres.

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