Unit spec.

Why this image: well perhaps you won’t have thought too closely yet what you want to do after university!   You ‘signed on’ for a three year degree … then you ‘signed straight on’ for a two year Master’s, but that is coming to an end and infinite possibilities of career choice are only just around the proverbial ‘corner’ for you.

The first task is to find out what you really want to do (only you can work this out), but the next is to target this and get your foot on the career ladder which is where this unit is set to help you.  Umpteen MICAI students have found the unit’s techniques and recommendations helpful in getting them selected, interviewed and appointed and some university staff too whom I have coached pre-application and rehearsed for interview.   As the UK Chancellor of the Exchecquer traditionally says when he has finished his budget speech: « I commend it to the House » – so I commend the unit to you!

Objectives:   

• To harness and build upon pre-existing work experience and knowledge of workplace practices in recruitment, selection and career development
• To prepare for securing MICAI placement/internship and subsequent employment and career development.  Specifically:
• Self-analysis and reflection in terms of:
  • identification of personal work/career ideas and preferences
  • auditing personal and professional capabilities and suitability for the work/career preferences identified
  • development of a strategy for closing the gap between future career requirements and existing capabilities
  • Job search and research:
    • job advertisements in the traditional media
    • online job-search: corporate websites; employment agencies; c.v.-posting sites etc.
    • speculative approaches: the pros and cons.
    • de-coding job advertisements, job descriptions and person specifications.
    • self-assessment against recruitment criteria
    • The curriculum vitae, covering letter and application forms:
      • role; content; structure/layout; dealing with constraints like length; presentation & use of space; complying with accepted conventions; use of photos; individuality and creativity;.
      • review and revision in the light of the potential employer recruitment criteria (particularly the ‘essentials’ and the ‘desirables’ as identified in the job advertisement and person specification)
      • high-impact vocabulary/business terminology and the translation and equivalence of educational qualifications.
      • The interview … and other recruitment formalities and possibilities:
        • taking your cues from the de-coding of job advertisements, job descriptions and person specifications (see above) and understanding the employer perspective
        • identifying predictable questions
        • typical ‘difficult’ questions and how to prepare for them
        • what to do when you don’t know the answer to the question
        • dealing with pressure and stress
        • interview rehearsal
        • other possibilities: ‘board’ interviews; personality tests, multi-candidate scenarios and role-plays: what employer-observers are looking for.
        • interview follow-up / feedback

• The first few weeks/months:
  • first impressions
  • building relationships and confidence
  • mentors
  • the role and value of professional associations
  • Career planning:
    • career structures and promotions
    • the continual need for personal professional development
    • building your own network

The teaching programme will broadly follow the above chronological structure, built, as it is, around recruitment and selection as a process.

This unit will be assessed by means of coursework only (primarily, but not exclusively individual).

Where team or group-work is envisaged, its value will not normally exceed 40% of your overall mark. Where group/team marks are to be awarded, the tutor reserves the right to moderate the group/team base mark according to the conspicuous personal performance of individuals [for example the quality of creative contribution demonstrated]. This is to help ensure that no individual can be ‘carried’ or indeed significantly held back by the team as a whole.

Indicative examples of possible elements of coursework:

• creation and ‘perfection’ of a c.v. and  covering letter (individual / written)
• interviewer / interviewee interview rehearsal work (team / oral)