Planning ahead for your summer University of Manchester Careers Blog

Planning ahead for your summer University of Manchester Careers Blog Although it may seem a long way off, the summer will come around quickly and the holidays are a great time to get in some work or volunteering experience while you’re not worried about next week’s reading or assignment deadlines. The key to getting your summer sorted is to plan ahead and organise things early because many opportunities that take place over the summer will be advertised early in the year. Internships will be a word you hear and see a lot when looking for work experience but many ‘internships’ advertised by employers tend to only be for students in their 2nd year of study. Also formal internships are only a small minority or work experience opportunities out there. So what kind of things can a first year student do? There are plenty of options outside for formal internship schemes, like working at a summer camp or music festival, or looking for casual retail work.  In my first year of University I worked for a local haulage company doing administration in the office. Even if the work isn’t related to your degree you can still learn essentials skills that will be relevant in future. It might also help you decide what you like in a job and what you don’t. (I learnt I didn’t want to sit in an office all day). Casual vacation work is much more the norm for students. Aside from work experience you could also look at doing some volunteering over the summer, either in the UK or abroad. Volunteering is a great thing for anyone to put on their CV, but in some cases it’s also pretty essential for certain careers. For example, if youre thinking of going into politics, education, youth work, fashion or music, then volunteering experience is a must have. But where to find these elusive opportunities? At the moment we currently have over 50 paid casual vacation vacancies on CareersLink  â€" from positions at a holiday complex to being a mentor with The Challenge. Theres even an advert to be a banana in a banana flash mob!! (Although this one is a position offered in February.) To find them, log on to your account and then select Casual vacancies in the Type of vacancy section. Weve also got My Future Fest 2016 next week, which is all about finding something to do in the summer. Venture into the My Future Fest tepees on Tuesday 9 Wednesday 10 February and explore summer travel, volunteering and work opportunities with over 20 exhibitors. (The National Citizen Service has 4,500 positions alone!) So make sure you come along to discover what’s out there and get your summer sorted early. For more information on who will be there, join the Facebook event. (Written by Sophie Wing.) All Undergraduate Undergraduate-highlighted experience extra curricular First year students jobs summer summer internships Volunteering work experience

On Setting Goals for Career Advancement CareerMetis.com

On Setting Goals for Career Advancement â€" CareerMetis.com Photo Credit â€" Pexels.comOnce you have entered the professional world within any industry it is only natural that you want to advance in your career. For some, this means taking a whole new direction within their chosen field and for others, career advancement is all about becoming an expert at what it is you already do.Many colleges around the country are helping graduate students advance in their chosen careers by helping them to have a better understanding of sound business principles and by helping them to achieve their goals for career advancement.Here is some advice on setting goals for career advancement from the D’Amore â€" McKim School of Business at Northeastern University.1) See Yourself in the FutureevalThe first step towards advancing in your career is to know where it is you want to go. You won’t go anywhere unless you have a destination in mind.In other words, it isn’t sufficient to say “I want to make twice as much money as I’m making now” because that d oesn’t help you actually make any more money. Instead, envision yourself in a job that would make you happy and provide the income you are dreaming of.For example, if you want to become a company administrator in middle or upper management you would obviously make more money. But how do you get there, that is the question!2) The Importance of Long and Short-Term GoalsHere is where the importance of long and short-term goals comes into play. You see yourself as a company administrator overseeing new product development, for example from a business perspective not within Research and Development. You want to devise budgets, find the funding and then allocate those funds where they need to go.At this point, you know that an advanced degree such as a master’s in business administration online is needed in the short-term because that degree will get your foot in the door for your long-term goal of being an administrator.3) Seeking a Direct Path to the TopWhile you can’t very well t ake a leave of absence for a couple of years to pursue that advanced degree you can always study online and receive the very same credentials as those who opted to study on campus.Find an AACSB online MBA program and you can study nights and weekends from the comfort of your home and never miss a day of work. This is perhaps the most direct route you can take and with that graduate degree in hand you automatically qualify for higher-paying jobs with more responsibilities.evalIf you dream of advancing in a career that you love, it is imperative that you first define where it is you want to go and from there you can seek out your roadmap to your destination.Your short-term goals will be like rest stops along the way with your long-term goal being your final destination: an online MBA degree.Setting goals for career advancement is crucial, but first, you need to know exactly where it is you want to go.

Leadership 101 - Are you ready to be in charge

Leadership 101 - Are you ready to be in charge Power and authority have a bad connotation. Because of that many people shy away from taking charge at work. But what about servant leadership being in charge as a way to be of tremendous service to people. Its not a concept I created but one Im educating my clients and radio listeners about.Just last week, I had leadership experts Gail Steinel and Mike Policano onMaking a Living with Maggie talking about their book, Excuse Me, Arent YOU in Charge? These two are not just theorists. Gail in fact was a pioneer for women leadership in the consulting industry, recognized twice by Consulting Magazine as a Top 25 Consultant. I experienced Gails leadership firsthand when she was head of Arthur Andersens Business Consulting Practice where I was an employee.Heres what I learned from Gail about being a great leader:Be accessible. Gail is the type of leader who remembered your name and would stop and talk to you in the hallway. She was never too busy to make time for her employees.Support yo ur peoples ideas and passions. In their book, Gail mentions one particular leadership experience that stuck with me where she supported an employee who wanted to build a new recruiting strategy. Gail encouraged the employee to get involved and the young woman ended up winning an employee-of-the-year award.Be honest. I saw Gail lead during Andersens best times and its demise with the Enron debacle. She was always upfront with honest answers and I always felt I could trust her. For leaders today this is perhaps the biggest lesson be someone your people can really trust and your best employees will always stick with you.Find out more about leadership 101 on Gail and Mikes blog! And share your greatest leadership moments here whats the best quality youve seen in a leader? Do you consider yourself to be a servant leader?And tune into Making a Living with Maggie this Wed, 4pm EST. Ill share ways to be at your best and ready for an accidental interview! Not sure what I mean, tune in w ith this free 7-day SIRIUS trial!

How To Get Your Resume Past Resume Screening Software

How To Get Your Resume Past Resume Screening Software Did you ever consider that the resume you just sent to a prospective company would have computer software that screens your resume before any human person can see it? More companies are using these types of software due to the sheer number of applicants per job opening. Automated resume screeners or applicant tracking systems are regularly now being used to separate resumes into ones that fit the job and discarding the others. All regardless of how spiffy your resume is. These programs work just like SEO does for websites, keywords. The screener programs will take keywords from your resume and match it to the job requirements of a position. But wait, its not just about keywords in general like accounting or website design. The program is designed to watch for those generalities. You will need to get more creative about the keywords you use on your resume, even an executive resume. Use keywords that list a number of different job skills. Make sure you have researched the job position well and if you do have the skills, be sure to list something about the job requirements on your resume. Again, make sure your years of experience in a related field match the job requirements so you dont have your resume kicked out. It is also a good idea to have a resume writing service work out the details for you. They will know just what to do to get past the computer screeners and get your resume in the right hands.

Finding the Best Gig Resume Writing Service in South Africa

Finding the Best Gig Resume Writing Service in South AfricaIf you are looking for the best gig resume writing service in South Africa, you are looking at the perfect opportunity to make your dreams come true. When looking for the best online service to help you get that high paying job, you need to know what you are getting yourself into. Once you learn about the type of work you can expect and how to get started on that journey, you will have a much better chance of making that amazing career move you've always dreamed of.Since so many people are currently struggling to get by, many people are looking for the best gig resume writing service in South Africa to help them get that lucrative job they deserve. The only problem is, they don't know where to start. With so many companies out there competing to give the best quality service, this is no easy task to find the right one.However, you are not going to get a low quality, online service from anywhere else. What you want is a qualit y service that is capable of giving you the greatest results in a short period of time. That is exactly what you are going to get when you use a service like this. You can get the best gig resume writing service in South Africa because it has one main goal - to help you get that dream job you have always wanted.That means that you need to be able to find the best gig resume writing service in South Africa. It needs to be one that can do a thorough job of getting you the best service possible. In order to get the service you want, you need to know exactly what you are looking for.You don't want to settle for a quality service that cannot deliver. When you are ready to find the best gig resume writing service in South Africa, you need to know exactly what it takes to get that great service. Only then can you find what you are looking for in a freelance gig resume writing service.If you can afford it, you should always use the services of a professional service. This way, you can rest assured that you are only using a service that has been in business for quite some time. When you look for the best service in South Africa, you want to make sure that it is a reputable business.All you need to do is choose the best service to meet your needs. There are many different types of services available today, but you need to make sure that the one you select is reliable is what you need to do. When you look for the best gig resume writing service in South Africa, you need to make sure that it meets all of your needs.

Oscars 2016 The Hollywood Wage Gap Persists

Oscars 2016 The Hollywood Wage Gap Persists Back in October, Jennifer Lawrence gave voice to underpaid women everywhere when she penned an open letter asking why her male costars earned more than she and Amy Adams did in the David O. Russell film American Hustle. At the time critics lashed out, suggesting that someone making millions of dollars had no right to complain about being shortchanged a few million more. Even other actresses were circumspect. “To me it’s frustrating, but at the same time, I’m just grateful to be getting paid at all for what I do,” fellow Oscar nominee Rooney Mara told The Guardian. “I don’t like talking about money,” Kate Winslet said to the BBC. “It’s a bit vulgar isn’t it?” Perhapsâ€"but there’s a reason why anyone who cares about the wage gap quickly adopted Lawrence as a symbol. If one of the biggest celebrities of the moment, of either sex, can’t pull down as much as her male costars for the same job, what does it say about how we value any woman’s work? Lawrence is just the most visible example of the dismal state of pay equality in Tinseltown. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Management Inquiry entitled Age, Gender, and Compensation: A Study of Hollywood Movie Stars concluded that pay for female movie stars increases until they reach 34, then rapidly decreases (as does the number of roles for women of a certain age). For men, the peak earning year is 51, and there is no noticeable decline in wages after that. As Helaine Olen noted in Slate, that means “25-year-old Lawrence has nine years to go, while 40-year-old [Bradley] Cooper has 11.” A similar thing happens to the salaries of non-celebrity workers as well. Studies have shown that earnings peak for women between the ages of 34 and 39, while wages continue to rise steadily for men until around age 50. It’s worth pausing here to note that many of the traditional justifications for the wage gap just don’t hold up in Tinseltown. Actors and actresses fulfill the same job in the same time frame, using the same set of tools. You can’t attribute the gap to differences in productivity, strength, or women being less skilled as performers (sorry, Aaron Sorkin). And what of the other oft-cited reason for the disparityâ€"that women take time out of the workforce to have and care for children? Gaps in one’s resume don’t matter much in Hollywood, where hours put in “at the office” mean virtually nothing. “You’re only as big as your last hit,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore. Most compelling, though, is the economic argument: Male-led movies do not make more money than female-led films, despite the constant refrain that they do. In fact, research shows that hit movies starring women make more money than those starring dudes. News and culture website Mic compared the box-office grosses of the top 25 highest-earning films from 2006 to mid-October 2015 and found that: Over the past decade, a box office hit about a manâ€"think the Harry Potter series, or about a group of men like Wild Hogsâ€"grossed an average of $80.6 million. In the same period, a hit film about a woman grossed an average of $126.1 million. That means, on balance, top-grossing movies about women earned $45.5 million more at the box office than movies about men. In 2015 alone, the female-helmed Spy and Pitch Perfect 2 smashed box office projections, bringing in $235 million and almost $300 million, respectively, on budgets of $65 million and $29 million. Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck brought in $138 million. Not exactly chump change. What’s more, Lawrence is by far the most profitable star out there, by our calculations bringing in $50 for every $1 in salary from her last three major motion pictures. Video Player is loading.Play VideoPlayMuteCurrent Time  0:00/Duration  0:00Loaded: 0%Stream Type  LIVESeek to live, currently playing liveLIVERemaining Time  -0:00  Playback Rate1xChaptersChaptersDescriptionsdescriptions off, selectedCaptionscaptions and subtitles off, selectedAudio TrackFullscreenThis is a modal window.Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindowColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaqueFont Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadowFont FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall CapsReset restore all settings to the default valuesDoneClose Modal DialogEnd of dialog window. But you wouldn’t know it based on her take-home pay relative to that of the highest-earning men. Consider the example of the top-paid actor, Robert Downey Jr. Both he and Lawrence are in their “peak earning years,” according to the study cited above, and both have starred in flops and massive box office successes in the past year. Downey was reportedly paid $40 million for the latest installment of The Avengers, while Lawrence brought home $15 million total for the third and fourth installments of The Hunger Games, or about $7.5 million a pop. So far both franchises have earned more than $2.9 billion worldwide. And Lawrence is the undisputed star of her films, whereas Downey shares the screen with five other leads. (A representative from Creative Artists Agency, which represents Lawrence and many other top stars, would not comment on pay or contract negotiations. Several agents did not return requests for comment.) It’s not much better for women behind the camera. According to UCLA’s 2015 Media Diversity Report, 100% of film studio CEOs are male. But even high-ranking female movie executives don’t make as much money as the boys: 2014’s infamous Sony email leak revealed that Michael De Luca made almost $1 million more than Hannah Minghella, despite the fact that they both had the same job title, as co-presidents of production at Columbia Pictures. #HollywoodSoWhite It only gets worse when you factor in race. Eight actors routinely command salaries upwards of $15 million per film, according to The Hollywood Reporter, while four actresses (Lawrence, Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie, and Melissa McCarthy) can make the same claim. And just two of that elite dozenâ€"Denzel Washington and Dwayne Johnsonâ€"are nonwhite. (Notice both have a Y chromosome.) In fact, while discrimination certainly isn’t a competition, this year’s Oscars host, Chris Rock, made a valid point when he told The New Yorker, “You hear Jennifer Lawrence complaining about getting paid less because she’s a womanâ€"if she was black, she’d really have something to complain about.” Read Next: Turns Out Women Can’t Even Be the Boss in Fiction Washington and Johnson may make bank, but you’d be hard-pressed to find an actress of color being paid anywhere near as much. China’s Bingbing Fan is the only non-white woman on Forbes’ 2015 list of highest-paid actresses, and she makes her money overseas. Men fare slightly better, with Johnson and Will Smith appearing on the highest-paid actors list. Rock, Kevin Hart, and Idris Elba all bring home healthy paychecks as well (though not enough to make it onto the list, which features 34 actors). But the most striking discrepancy is just how many fewer big-time roles there are for women of every color, but especially for non-white women. Women made up just 22% of protagonists in the top 100 domestic grossing films of 2015 and 34% of major characters, according to a report from San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television Film. Meanwhile, 76% of all female characters were white, 13% were black, 4% were Latina, and 3% were Asian. “Why don’t we have a Black Jennifer Lawrence or a Latina Jennifer Lawrence?” says Melissa Silverstein, founder of Women and Hollywood and artistic director of the Athena Film Festival. “We’re still a white, white business and a white, white world in terms of power, but we’re not a white, white country.” Viola Davis noted as much in her Emmy acceptance speech last year. “The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity,” Davis said. “You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.” Or get paid for them. So is there a silver lining in all of this? Dergarabedian says things are improving for women in Hollywood, thanks to the star power of actresses like Lawrence and Charlize Theron (see: Mad Max: Fury Road) and the influence of social media. It has finally gotten to the point where it’s impossible to ignore the double standard. “I think the marginalization of women and their roles and power at the box office is diminishing,” Dergarabedian says. “The lines are thankfully being blurred. Women have just as much star power as men.” Lawrence, for her part, benefited mightily from sharing her salary information publicly (and you can too). She’ll take home $20 million for her next movie, Passengers, a sci-fi flick co-starring Chris Pratt, who will reportedly be paid significantly less. Estimated Earnings for Top Actors and Actresses in 2015 Movie Star 2015 Film Credits Total Compensation Robert Downey Jr. Avengers: Age of Ultron $40 million George Clooney Tomorrowland $20-$40 million Matt Damon* The Martian $25 million Leonardo DiCaprio* The Revenant $25 million Dwayne Johnson Furious 7; San Andreas $25 million Jennifer Lawrence* Joy; The Hunger Games: Mockingjay â€" Part 2 $22.5 million Scarlett Johansson Avengers: Age of Ultron $20 million Vin Diesel Furious 7 $20 million (not counting percentage of backend) Daniel Craig Spectre $20 million Melissa McCarthy Spy $15 million * = 2016 Oscar Nominee Methodology: These figures were estimated using information from IMBD, Box Office Mojo, interviews with Hollywood insiders, leaked emails, ComScore, and reports from other publications including Forbes, The Hollywood Reporter, and more.

7 Tips To Help Dust Off The Old Resume And Get It Ready For Your Job Search Now - Work It Daily

7 Tips To Help Dust Off The Old Resume And Get It Ready For Your Job Search Now - Work It Daily Typically many people don’t bother to update the resume until there’s a need for it, and when they do they don’t know where to begin. If you’re finding yourself in such a scenario, help is on the way. Whether it’s been two years or ten years since you last updated your resume, you can get it back in tip-top shape for your new job search. Related: 4 Tips To Updating The Old Resume While there are many things about the resume that haven’t changed, there’s also things that have changed that you need to know about as you go about updating your resume. Here we’ll begin with the things that have changed in resume writing and then follow it up with what hasn’t, but that you should pay special attention to. 1. Header The Header is where you include your name and contact details on the resume. If yours still lists an AOL e-mail address, it’s time to get a Google email address. Little things like this can leave an impression with employers that you’re not up-to-date and stuck in the past. More employers are also comparing information on the resume to the candidate’s LinkedIn profile, so rather than have the employer do their own search for your profile, include your personalized LinkedIn URL in the header. This is especially important for those who may have a common name because you don’t want to the employer to receive misinformation by viewing a profile that’s not yours. If you’re not on LinkedIn, it’s time to set yourself up with a profile because a job candidate that doesn’t have an online presence today (at least on LinkedIn) is a sign they’re not up with today’s times. Read: “4 Steps For Building A Great LinkedIn Profile.” 2. Profile Summary / Executive Summary A Profile Summary, also known as an Executive Summary replaces the ancient objective statement on the resume. It’s no longer about indicating what you want the employer to offer, but what you have to offer the employer that it needs. Speaking of ancient lines on the resume, the statement of “References available upon request” can also come out. Clearly it’s expected you’d provide references to help complete screening and background checks if the employer has an interest in you. 3. Experience Provide detail to your roles and responsibilities and key accomplishments on the job. At one point most people were informed to simply include highlights and key accomplishments under Work Experience because the general roles and responsibilities are known, but with more employers now using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to help filter through resumes, any match in keywords related to roles and responsibilities helps improve your resume ranking. 4. Keep Everything Bite-Sized Most employers today aren’t sitting down and spending several minutes on each resume, it’s more like seconds â€" 7â€"8 seconds to be exact. When you keep information bite-sized, it makes it easier for hiring managers and recruiters to read and find information they need to determine if you’re worth a callback. 5. Dates Since many of today’s resumes are run through the ATS, you need to take caution with how dates are presented on the resume. The ATS reads information on the resume with a different approach than how a human reviewer would, so you want to avoid throwing in dates randomly as you describe experience or accomplishments because the ATS will typically associate it as an employment date. You also need to avoid using seasons like Winter or Summer to indicate and employment period because the ATS does not know how to interpret that information. For more tips and insight, read: “How To Make Dates On A Resume Work For You.” Lastly, it’s unnecessary to state the year you graduated from college because it can give away your age, which can be a factor for discrimination. 6. Education Education is less a factor of importance in most cases when you already have some years of experience under your belt in the field. Prioritize the information you present on the resume leading with what’s most important to the employer for the job. You want to shift sections of the resume, like placing Education towards the bottom when you have more important sections to highlight like Work Experience. 7. Spelling A resume filled with misspellings and other writing errors call out unprofessionalism. Don’t rely on Word to help you catch mistakes because they may catch some, but not all. Always get the help of another pair of eyes to read it over for you. As you can see, while there are things about the resume writing that are still familiar, a lot has also changed. Apply the tips above so you present yourself with the best front and get that callback for an interview. Related Posts Should I Remove My Volunteer Work From My Resume? 5 Ways To Remove Digital Dirt 7 Phrases To Delete From Your LinkedIn Profile   About the author Don Goodman’s firm was rated as the #1 Resume Writing Service in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Don is a triple-certified, nationally recognized Expert Resume Writer, Career Management Coach and Job Search Strategist who has helped thousands of people secure their next job. Check out his Resume Writing Service. Get a Free Resume Evaluation or call him at 800.909.0109 for more information. Disclosure: This post is sponsored by a CAREEREALISM-approved expert. You can learn more about expert posts here. Photo Credit: Shutterstock Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!