Employability Skills

1
Employability Skills

• Session 4
• Career matching what career suits you?

2
What jobs would suit you?

• How do you decide?
• Begin by asking one simple question

What sort of career will give me job
satisfaction?
3
What job would suit you?

• To ensure you find a job which interests and
  challenges you, start by
• doing the following
• Think about your major degree subject
• Investigate careers related to your major degree
  subject
• Use Prospects to get you started
• www.prospects.ac.uk click on careers advice
  then options with your subject
• Look at the destinations of graduates by clicking
  on the What do graduates do? link
• You might also find useful information by taking
  these links to Jobs and work experience/Working
  abroad /Country profiles and selecting China.
• Bear in mind though, that there are many jobs
  which do not require you to have studied any
  particular major subject. Many employers are
  more interested in the general skills you have
  gained.

4
What job would suit you?

• Consider your strengths and weaknesses
• Refer back to session 2 entitled Assessing
  yourself which helps you to increase your skills
  of self-awareness by completing a series of
  self-assessment exercises.

5
What job would suit you?

• Identify and prioritise your career drivers
• Spend some time identifying the main needs you
  have that you want
• your career to satisfy. See how these influence
  your career decisions.
• Dave Francis in his book Managing Your Own career
  (1994) suggests
• that we all are motivated strongly by one or two
  key career values
• which he calls career drivers. He argues we are
  all motivated by different career drivers such as
  wanting money, status, or being altruistic.
• These personal values are so powerful that, if
  they are not met,
• the individual feels unfulfilled and frequently
  unhappy in their job.
• A career driver is an inner force which
  determines what you want and
• need from your working life

6
What job would suit you?

• Set yourself realistic goals
• One of your career drivers may be material
  rewards e.g. money. Think about how much you
  want to be paid but remember the more highly
  rewarding careers can place the highest demands
  on you.
• You may have to make some compromises find a
  job which satisfies most of your requirements.
• One of your key career drivers may be search for
  meaning where you are employed in jobs for their
  own value. These jobs may not offer the most pay
  but give you the satisfaction of making a real
  difference to someones life.
• Even as a graduate you may have to start your
  career at the bottom of the ladder but with
  effort and hard work you will eventually reach
  your goals.

7
What job would suit you?

• Do your homework
• The best way to find out about what jobs are like
  is to talk to people in them.
• Think about who you know, family, friends .
• What do they say about their jobs?
• Use the internet and paper based information
  sources to help you get an overall picture of a
  job. See session 3 Employability resources
  which refers you to detailed occupational
  resources.
• Finally, the best way to find out about a job is
  to try it out try to arrange some practical
  work experience. This will also help to enhance
  your CV/Resume (Jianli).

8
What job would suit you?

• Take into account your personal circumstances and
  values
• Do you need to be located in a certain part of
  the country?
• Do you require a certain level of income?
• How important is work-life balance to you?
• How much training are you prepared to undertake?
  The career you may be considering may require
  lengthy further training and taking further
  qualifications are you prepared for this?
• How do you feel about travelling away from home
  and working long hours?

9
What job would suit you?

• Take into account your personal circumstances and
  values
• You are the best person to work out which career
  is right for you because of your own personal
  circumstances and values.
• It is useful to talk to people who know you well
  ask your family for their opinion too.
• But remember ultimately it is YOUR decision and
  you have to make your own choice to find your
  future career.

10
What job would suit you?

• There are other factors you need to take into
  consideration when choosing your ideal career.
• Firstly, think about the type of organisation
  youd like to work for in this session Word
  Exercise no.1 What organisation would suit me?
  will help you to do this
• Secondly, use the next few slides to help you to
  form a picture of the differences between
  different sizes of organisations.

11
What type of organisation?

• Benefits
• Early responsibility
• Make an impact
• Variety and challenge
• Develop self-reliance
• Increase awareness of the whole business

Small organisation?

• Risks
• Lack of structured support/training
• Less hierarchical career progression
• Potential job insecurity
• Low public image

12
What type of organisation?

• Benefits
• Structured training
• and development
• Clearer career progression
• Ready made support networks
• Competitive salary
• Potentially more job security
• Higher public awareness and credibility

Large organisation

• Risks
• Small role in a big organisation
• Less influence and impact on the
• organisation
• Less immediate task variety
• Potential to get stuck doing the same
• job
• More impersonal
• Higher chances of being
• underemployed (doing less work than
• you are capable of doing)

13
Employment sectors

• Hospitality management
• Construction
• Transport/travel
• Retail/wholesale
• Communications
• Health
• Education/training
• IT/computers/telecommunications
• Environment
• Manufacturing
• Engineering
• Local/national government
• Utilities (Gonggong Shiye)
• Public service

• Media/marketing/Public Relations
• Sports/entertainment
• Financial
• Legal
• Voluntary/charity
• Pharmaceuticals/chemicals/
• Food
• Consumer goods
• Social care
• Education
• Arts/culture
• Tourism/leisure
• Technological/scientific
• Agriculture/land management

Can you identify one or two sectors you would
like to work in?
14
Employment sectors

• You need to look for the following
• Signs of growth vacancy announcements, share
  prices, signs of expansion etc.
• Find out the key organisations
• Find out where the main opportunities are
• Find out if you possess the required skills (look
  at sample job descriptions)
• Find out if you possess the required experience

15
What do all these people have in common?
Thomas Edison
Oprah Winfrey
Richard Branson
Bill Gates
P.Diddy
Walt Disney
16
What do all these people have in common?

• They are all highly successful, internationally
  renowned entrepreneurs!

17
What do all these people have in common?
Bill Gates co-founder of Microsoft with an
estimated wealth of 50 billion dollars. Had the
vision to predict the enormous importance of the
personal computer
Walt Disney went from sketching a rabbit to
creating the most recognisable brand and turning
it into a multi-billion dollar empire.
Oprah Winfrey famous US chat Show host, founder
of the Harpo inc. which employs 250 full-time
staff in TV, film production, magazine publishing
and online media. The first black woman to
become a billionaire
18
What do all these people have in common?
Thomas Edison invented something which had more
impact on mankind than anything else a system
of centrally generating and distributing electric
light, heat and power, ultimately founding the
General Electric Corporation (GEC). Incredibly
he didnt speak until the age of four!
Richard Branson Formed Virgin Atlantic Airways in
1984, launched Virgin Mobile in 1999, Virgin Blue
in Australia in 2000 In 1997, Branson took what
many saw as being one of his riskier business
exploits by entering into the railway business.
Virgin Trains won the franchises for the former
Intercity West Coast and Cross-Country sectors of
British Rail.
P.Diddy, born Sean John Coombs, also known as
Puff Daddy record producer, CEO, clothing
designer, actor and rapper. He is the 2nd
richest hip-hop mogul with a net worth of 358
million
19
Chinas emerging entrepreneurs

• Chinas remarkable economic growth has been
  achieved through the rapid emergence of a dynamic
  private sector.
• In the following report, published by
  Centrepiece, Spring 2008, Linda Yueh explores
  what we know about the new generation of
  self-employed entrepreneurs who have driven this
  transformation in China..
• http//cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/cp253.pdf

20
Chinese entrepreneurs

• Robin Li Baidu, born Yangquan, Shanxi, China
• In the 11 years since founding Baidu in January
  2000, Robin has turned the company into Chinas
  largest search engine, with over 80 market
  share. Baidu also ranks as the second largest
  independent search engine in the world. In August
  2005, Baidu was listed on the NASDAQ stock
  exchange, and in December 2007 became the first
  Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100
  Index.
• As a pioneer and leader of Chinas Internet
  industry, he has received honours including CCTV
  Key Figure in Chinas Economy, The Top 30
  Figures in Chinas 30 Years of Reform, Chinas
  Most Imaginative Entrepreneur, and many others.
  On several occasions, U.S.-based magazines such
  as BusinessWeek and Fortune Magazine have
  designated Robins as Best Business Leader in
  the World and Chinas Most Influential Business
  Leader. Robin was also named by Time Magazine as
  one of the Worlds Most Influential People in
  2010

21
Chinese entrepreneurs

• Jerry Yang co-founder Yahoo
• Is Taiwanese, born in Taipei in 1968, moved to
  America at the age of 8. He created the Yahoo!
  navigational guide together with David Filo in
  1994, and co-founded the Yahoo! Inc the following
  year. Yahoo! is one of the leading Internet
  brands, with the most traffic networks on the
  Internet. Jerry Yang was cited by BusinessWeek as
  one of The 25 Most Influential Men on the Web.
  Yang was also listed by Forbes as the 140th in
  the list of The 400 Richest Americans 2006.

22
Are you suited to a Career in Entrepreneurship?

• What is an entrepreneur?
• In the UK currently 3 - around 4,500 graduates
  start up a new business when graduating.
  Increasing numbers of graduates in China are
  showing an interest in setting up their own
  business
• An entrepreneur is not simply someone who starts
  up businesses, they also
• Play an important role in all walks of life
  including social enterprises
• Create opportunities which produce benefits for
  the organisation.
• Most people who start up new businesses are
  enterprising but not necessarily entrepreneurial

23
What is a business?

• Business
• An organisation trading to make profit for its
  owners
• A sole trader, partnership, plc or limited
  liability company
• Can employ any number of employees
• Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME)
• Independent business with less than 250
  employees (in the UK)
• Freelance (employee)
• Has a series of jobs with one or more employers

24
Are you suited to a Career in Entrepreneurship?

• Entrepreneurs are more likely to be involved in
  high risk, fast growing, start up
  ventures/businesses.
• Most small businesses are not high risk or
  fast-growing.
• A good definition of an entrepreneur is
• A person who is committed to identifying new
  opportunities and converting them to value

25
What is an entrepreneur?

• Someone who
• Sees opportunities when others dont.
• Knows how best to convert them into benefits.
• The benefits may be financial, social or
  cultural.
• Entrepreneurs play a role in all organisations,
  large or small not just in businesses.

26
How do you know if you are an entrepreneur?

• Although there is no reliable way of assessing if
  you possess suitable personality traits a
  university in the UK has devised a General
  Enterprising Tendency (GET) test which identified
  5 personality traits commonly associated with the
  enterprising person. However, individuals who
  score highly are enterprising but not
  necessarily entrepreneurial.

27
How do you know if you are an entrepreneur?

• The GET traits are

Need for achievement Need for autonomy Drive
determination Creative tendency Risk taking
Try the GET test Exercise 6 Are you suited
to a career in entrepreneurship? in this session
to see whether this might be a realistic option
for you
28
Entrepreneur personality traits

• Strong entrepreneurs have
• A track record of seeking new opportunities and
  ventures
• An ability to innovate and take risks
• See themselves as entrepreneurs
• A tendency to break rules to achieve their goals
• A driven personality
• A tendency to complete tasks and are less people
  oriented
• Highly independent, not good team players
• Have the philosophy to consistently get things
  done

29
What does it mean to be enterprising?

• The following personal qualities form the basis
  for success in ANY organisation. Items with an
  asterisk () are particularly important to
  entrepreneurs

Initiative Flexibility Creativity
Leadership Independence Problem-solving Persua
siveness Calculated risk-taking Need for
achievement Belief in and control of own
destiny Exceptionally hard working
30
What is an Entrepreneurial Career?

• It has much in common with a career in
  management and is influenced by a variety of
  factors
• Aspirations, self-identity, disposition,
  aptitudes
• Skills, knowledge, qualifications and experience
• Availability of opportunities
• Follows a wider range of work patterns

31
What is an Entrepreneurial Career?

• It involves initiating and exploiting new
  opportunities then moving onto the next one.
• Often involves setting up new ventures then
  changing employment sectors several times.
• Could be highly successful or head towards a
  series of disasters.
• The main quality is the ability to bounce back
  and try something else.

32
Biography of an Entrepreneur.
    Educated at Scaitcliffe School until age of
13. Attended Stowe School until 15. Branson has
dyslexia, resulting in his not having been a good
student. By age of 15 started two ventures that
eventually failed - growing Christmas trees and
another raising budgerigars. At 16, Branson quit
school and moved to London, where he began
his first successful business, Student magazine.
Branson started his first record business
selling cut-outs through a record mail order
business in 1970. Trading under the name
"Virgin" he sold records for considerably less
than the so-called "High Street" outlets,
especially the chain W. H. Smith. Branson
eventually started a record shop in Oxford Street
in London and, shortly after, launched the record
label Virgin Records with Nik Powell. Branson
formed Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1984, launched
Virgin Mobile in 1999, Virgin Blue in Australia
in 2000, and later failed in a 2000 bid to
handle the National Lottery. In 1997, Branson
took what many saw as being one of his riskier
business exploits by entering into the railway
business. Virgin Trains won the franchises for
the former Intercity West Coast and Cross-Country
sectors of British Rail. In 1993, Branson
received the honorary degree of Doctor of
Technology from Loughborough University.
And .. he became Sir Richard Branson when he was
knighted by the Queen in 1999 for "services to
entrepreneurship
33
Richard Branson on what it takes to be an
entrepreneur

• I never get the accountants in before I start up
  a business. It's done on gut feeling, especially
  if I can see that they are taking the mickey out
  of the consumer.
• A business has to be involving, it has to be
  fun, and it has to exercise your creative
  instincts.

34
Are you like Richard Branson?

• http//www.davincimethod.com/entrepreneur-test/?id
  xRichard20BransongclidCMvAlb2-lJICFQIP1AodFFPX
  _g
• Take this light-hearted quiz and find out!

35
And finally.. Your careers ideas- sharpening
the focus

• 10 top tips
• 1. Keep reviewing your situation if your
  current plan of action is not working use
  professional guidance staff to help you review
  where you are and plan your next steps.
• 2. Send off for some sample job details to give
  you a clearer idea of what your chosen career
  (s) involve. How many of the essential and
  desirable elements can you match?
• 3. Try some work experience/internships to
  increase your awareness of what careers involve.
• 4. Keep up your motivation levels by setting
  yourself regular targets. Set yourself
  milestones for measuring your performance.
  Reward yourself from time to time, every time
  you reach one of your milestones!

36
And finally.. Your careers ideas - sharpening
the focus

• 10 top tips
• 5. If you feel you are not progressing create
  yourself some stepping stones. (short term
  targets) Dont expect to find your future career
  in a day! Most people make several false starts
  before they reach their career goal.
• 6. Use your instincts which work environments
  and careers have you tried in the past? Which
  did you feel comfortable in? Why was this? Is it
  worth focusing on these now?
• 7. Alternatively, it may be worth making new
  choices to experience a wider range of
  opportunities and test yourself more fully. You
  may have had some negative experiences but you
  will always learn something new about yourself
  form these which will help you make more
  informed career decisions in the future.

37
And finally.. Your careers ideas- sharpening
the focus

• 10 top tips
• 8. If you are really struggling be honest with
  yourself. Have you carried out enough research
  into yourself and your chosen careers?. Do you
  set yourself regular targets and monitor your
  progress? Are you gaining enough practical
  experience?
• 9. Do you need to get more advice to help you?
• 10. Remember, if you have a clear idea of what
  you want from a job it may be possible to find
  your future career through your current
  employer. You could look at graduate employment
  options and visit employment agencies in your
  city. You could look into re-shaping your
  current role. Can you take on additional
  responsibilities e.g. a special project or
  further training? Speak to your line manager
  there may be more opportunities available than
  you think.