This blog is moving! Please change your bookmarks and feeds February 10, 2011

Posted by tcginfo in blogs, library news.
Tags: about, blog, careers library, library blog, The Careers Group
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Image by RaeE on Flickr

There won’t be any more new posts here, so head on over to http://www.careers.lon.ac.uk/blog/library for the latest articles.

The full archive, comments and all, has been transferred to the new site, so you won’t miss out on any old favourite posts. Look forward to seeing you there!

Follow Friday: Finance and business management podcasts, part 2 – employers December 31, 2010

Posted by helencurry in podcasts.
Tags: accountany, banking, business, careers, careers in the city, commercial awareness, finance, investment banking, management, podcasts
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Image by Colleen AF Venable (Flickr)

Following on from part 1 – commercial awareness podcasts, if you are preparing for interview you will also need insights into the companies you are applying to.

Not all companies produce podcasts, but you might be surprised by how many do. These are definitely worth seeking out as you can get a feel for the people who work in the companies, the arguments they use, the attitudes they hold. It is more personal than reading a website. And with some companies who update regularly, you can find out their latest thinking in a more digestible form than reading a full report.

Here are some company podcasts I found, either by searching a company website, googling, or by searching the podcasts section of the iTunes store.

Deloitte Insights podcasts – the Global insights podcast is good, and there are a number of country-specific Insights podcasts available too

PwC UK Career podcasts – a couple on the recruitment process

Credit Suisse podcasts - includes Economy & Finance and Global Investor

Aon – Insurance, Pensions and Consulting – about the Aon graduate scheme

J.P. Morgan Asset Management Insights – for a focus on investment

Accenture podcasts – Business and Tech – a range of series available here including financial services, information management, management consultancy and systems. From a quick search it looks like there are more podcasts available in different specialist areas of the site.

Deutsche Bank RSS & podcasts – headlines and press releases

McKinsey Global Institute – audio articles

Follow Friday: Finance and business management podcasts, part 1 – business news December 17, 2010

Posted by helencurry in podcasts.
Tags: accountancy, banking, business, careers, careers in the city, city, commercial awareness, finance, investment banking, management, podcasts
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If you have a bit of spare travel time on your way to uni or work, why not give these podcasts a go to develop your commercial awareness – essential for interviews. I regularly listen to these ones and subscribe to them via iTunes so I can vouch for their quality!

Listen to Lucy – Lucy is the FT’s management columnist, and in snappy five minute podcasts she pulls apart assumptions about management and career planning – through-provoking and entertaining.

Martin Wolf – the FT’s chief economics commentator, reads his weekly column

Wake up to Money – daily business and financial news from the BBC. Also available every weekday morning on BBC Radio 5 live at 5.30am…

Careers in the City – Choosing a Career in the City – a top speaker from our City Course, Catherine Sweet, gives great insight into career choice.

The Bottom Line with Evan Davis – weekly interviews with influential business leaders.

Planet Money – (my favourite) – explores economic theory in a hands-on approach featuring plenty of real-life stories. It is US-based, but discusses global trends and relevant stories to us in the UK. What causes inflation? Why do people buy gold? What is a mortgage bond and a toxic asset? And if that sounds too serious – for a taster check out these cute cartoons they commissioned to explain the latter… This is why I love podcasts!

Business Weekly – BBC World Service podcast looking at current hot topics in business, management and economics.

Bloomberg – range of podcast series on news, economics, politics and the market

TEDtalks – not limited to business, but these podcasts are worth attention as examples of great presentation skills. TED has a reputation for hosting outstanding, inspiring talks.

Do you have any favourites you’d add to the list?

Christmas closure dates at the careers service December 15, 2010

Posted by helencurry in library news, The Careers Group.
Tags: careers service, christmas, The Careers Group, University of London
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Image by Mitchell Goldstein (Flickr)

Here at The Careers Group, offices will close at the end of business on Thursday 23 December 2010 and re-open on Tuesday 4 January 2011.

College Careers Services closures will vary – check your university careers service website or page on Facebook for details before you travel.

Have a great Christmas break, and make sure you make the most of the networking opportunities

Follow Friday: Graduate Recruitment on Twitter December 3, 2010

Posted by helencurry in networking.
Tags: graduate recruitment, graduate schemes, job hunting, networking, Twitter
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Image by joelaz (Flickr)

Active UK graduate recruitment accounts on Twitter

RPM Ltd – marketing – @rpmgrads
Cushman & Wakefield – real estate – @cushwakegrads
Mercer – consulting, outsourcing, investments – @mercergradrecuk
Teach First – @TeachFirst
Centrica Grads – energy – @centricagrads
Jaguar Landrover – @jaguarlandrover
Unilever – @unilevergradsuk
Addleshaw Goddard LLP – law – @AGgrads
Linklaters LLP – law – @linklatersgrads
Mishcon de Reya LLP – law – @mishcongrads
Vodafone – @graduaterecruit
Xerox Europe - @xeroxstudents

Personal branding, an introduction December 1, 2010

Posted by helencurry in networking.
Tags: careers, digital identity, networking, personal branding, reputation
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What is Personal Branding?

Personal branding is all about proactive reputation management. It’s not about creating a new image for yourself, but more about making sure you get recognition for who you are and what you are good at.

Your aim is to get your friends, colleagues and acquaintances associating your name with top-quality work and expertise – your message will be personal to you, your interests and experience.

Why do it?

Let’s say you want to build a new website, which of your friends would you ask for help? How about the one with the popular web-design blog, the updates on Facebook of exciting projects she is working on, and the LinkedIn profile full of recommendations for her work…

Personal branding can help you gain wider recognition for your work, get referrals for freelance work, and help you stand out amongst a field of average candidates. It shows you are a self-aware professional and passionate about what you do.

How do I get started?

You will already some presence online, so your first step might be to tidy up your existing Digital Identity – your Facebook, blogs, forum posts, usernames etc. The This is Me free workbook from the University of Reading is a great place to start. It includes a number of student perspectives on the issue of privacy. There are also plenty of questions to get you thinking about what you want your online presence to say about you.

But personal branding isn’t just about the web, you will also want to think about what impact you make in person – when networking, at interview, or just casually at uni. What do you want people to remember about you? How would you introduce yourself? What do you have to offer, and how can you communicate that at first sight, on paper, online, over the phone…

Toolkit

In no particular order, you can use some or all of these to express your brand:

Website/Blog – get a URL with your name. Add an ‘about’ page to list your background and expertise. Then update regularly with your work and your ideas.
CV – tailor it to your chosen career (possibly experiment with design?)
LinkedIn – fill your profile out in full, borrowing from your CV, linking to your blog, and requesting recommendations from former colleagues
Business Cards – another design opportunity?
Portfolio – online, on CD or in print – a selection of your best work so it is easy to see what you can do
Facebook
Twitter
Clothing/dress – what is the culture of that career sector?
Email address - best to stick with a professional firstname.lastname handle than ‘twinklystarfairy@hotmail.com’…
Video

The key to success is identifying what people will want, and consistently demonstrating your abilities to help – there are some tips in this Guardian article. What you are trying to do is make it easier to hire you, so when people look you up, they can easily see what you can do.

5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Personal Brand Online

Follow Friday: Graduate recruitment on Facebook November 26, 2010

Posted by helencurry in networking.
Tags: Facebook, graduate jobs, graduate recruitment, networking
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Image by columnfive (Flickr)

Active UK graduate recruitment pages and groups run by companies and organisations. In no particular order…

Know of any more?

Online social networking – Follow Friday: Entrepreneurs November 19, 2010

Posted by helencurry in networking.
Tags: enterprise, entrepreneurship, Facebook, linkedin, networking, starting your own business, startup, Twitter
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If you are a Twitter user, you will be familiar with Follow Friday (or #FF) – every Friday people tweet their recommendations about who to follow. I thought I’d pick up the idea, but broaden it to share the Facebook and LinkedIn accounts I’d recommend as well.

These will be useful for job-hunting, networking, sharing your questions, getting information, and tracking down events to attend.

I have been following Global Entrepreneurship Week, so in honour of that I have taken entrepreneurship as my first theme. Interesting to see how different organisations favour different networks.

For general tips on networking approaches (not just online) see our handout on Networking.

Facebook

First of all, some of the strongest and most active groups are the student societies and careers-service-led pages. They are mainly sharing events and successes within their community, so you’ll need to search for the one at your uni. At the University of London we have Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs, UCL Entrepreneurs Society, SOAS Student Enterprise, King’s College London Business Society, Queen Mary Entrepreneurs,

For general interest, I’d recommend Starting your own Business, Enterprise UK, Flying Start, Global Entrepreneurship Week, and NACUE – National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs.

You will want to use LinkedIn to network with individuals you know, but I’d definitely recommend joining groups like these too. You can ask questions, join topical discussions, and build your network through finding other individuals to connect with.

Twitter

Celebrities

Duncan Bannatyne – http://twitter.com/DuncanBannatyne
Peter Jones – http://twitter.com/dragonjones
James Caan – http://twitter.com/jamescaan
Richard Branson – http://twitter.com/richardbranson

Individuals

Jack Smith – Young Tech-Entrepreneur – http://twitter.com/_jacksmith
Dan Martin – BusinessZone editor – http://twitter.com/Dan_Martin
Peter Grigg – Head of Policy & Research, Enterprise UK – http://twitter.com/pgrigg
Jonathan Moules – Financial Times, enterprise correspondent – http://twitter.com/Jonathan_Moules
Bill Morrow – Founder of Angels Den – http://twitter.com/BillMorrow

Organisations

Business Link http://twitter.com/BusinessLinkGov
Flying Start http://twitter.com/FSMakeItHappen
School for Startups http://twitter.com/s4s
NACUE http://twitter.com/NACUE
Global Entrepreneurship Week UK http://twitter.com/GEWUK
Virgin Media Pioneers http://twitter.com/vmpioneers
The National Enterprise Academy (NEA) http://twitter.com/thenea_org
Talent Scouts for NEA http://twitter.com/TalentScout_NEA
UnLtd http://twitter.com/UnLtd
Enterprise UK http://twitter.com/The_Enterpriser

News

Business Zone http://twitter.com/BusinessZone/

University societies

Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs http://twitter.com/rhentrepreneurs
Queen Mary Entrepreneurs http://twitter.com/QM_E
UCL Entrepreneurs Society http://twitter.com/UCLEntrepreneur

Anyone else you’d recommend?

Brilliant business cards – creative examples November 15, 2010

Posted by helencurry in just for fun, networking.
Tags: business cards, creative, design, networking
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Since you all loved the Creative CV examples, I thought you might like these…

Try getting these at Prontaprint

Probably illegal

Make a point...

See Cardonizer for more – a website dedicated to creative business cards.

Good to demonstrate what you do

Mmm letterpress

REACTOR

In honour of Movember

Although perhaps the clients won't want to share one...

But how do you dial the number when it takes both hands?

Scary!

Favourite

Not one for the wallet...

Sweet

And if you liked those, you might be interested in this book. We have a copy in our library. It is essentially a coffee table book of designs. Lovely.

What to read: starting your own business November 11, 2010

Posted by helencurry in books, entrepreneurship, what to read.
Tags: books, entrepreneurship, starting your own business, startup
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In honour of Global Entrepreneurship Week (15-21 Nov), here is your reading list…

While there certainly is plenty of information online, and you will get far with a mentor or personal advice (make the most of BusinessLink people, while we still have it…). I’m a big fan of books like these for getting into the nitty-gritty of the legal requirements, as well as for case studies that will both inspire and help you avoid common pitfalls.

So here are my recommendations:

Getting started

I really like the Good Small Business Guide for its well-presented, easy-to-use overview of starting up. I could see it being a good reference stand-by. I like the way it combines the soft skills with the technical knowledge – so ‘Managing yourself and others’ includes advice on managing your time and delegating, as well as explanations of the Working Time Regulations and Minimum Wage Act. It is up-to-date, with a good-sized section on ‘Working online’. And it is full of links for further information.

Business Plan

You’ll need a top-notch business plan when you are looking for finance or applying for a bank loan, as well as to get your goals straight in your mind and what you need to do next to achieve them.

We have the Sunday Times book How to Write a Business Plan in our library, and it is a good choice for a first-timer. It is not too hefty, but still covers everything you need to include, and how to present it persuasively.

While I was searching for an image of that though, I did come across a lot of great reviews on Amazon for this second book, The Definitive Business Plan, which appears to be more detailed and advanced. Anyone read it?

Specialist guides

And finally, keep an eye out for specialist guides in your area of interest, as these can give you a head-start on your market research. Personally I’ve really enjoyed reading Craft, Inc recently because the case studies are so informative and inspiring, although its US-slant means not all advice applies directly (tip: check the customer reviews for mention of national focus when buying unseen from Amazon).

To give you an idea of what’s out there, here are some books we have in our library: