You may remember that the Careers Service asked you to complete a survey on careers support for online distance learning (ODL) students a few months ago. It produced a few interesting results about what you are thinking so we thought we would share an overview with you.
Who you go to for careers support
When asked who you go to for your careers support, most common choices were your professional network (70% of you said you used this frequently or occasionally), friends and family (65%) and work colleagues (62%). This is really common and rightly so.
Your work colleagues and people in your professional network know your sector of employment, understand what the trends are, which employers could be recruiting and which down-sizing, what skills may be in demand in the next few years, and more. You will be aware that all views are likely to be subjective, you must apply them to your own situation, and that you need to check how up-to-date the information is (e.g. someone who has been in the same job for a number of years may not be familiar with what is asked for from new entrants now), but if you bear that in mind you can get a wealth of information which can help with your career development.
From friends and family you gain their insight into your strengths and weaknesses (often invaluable), as well as their knowledge of the jobs they work in. You can use this to help clarify how you want your career to develop but remember not to allow other people’s opinions (especially if you’re not sure how well-informed they are) to substitute for you doing your own career research and reflection.
What you think about the University of Edinburgh Careers Service
A massive 92% said you had never consulted the University of Edinburgh Careers Service. This was for a variety of reasons, some very real and some possibly due to misconceptions about what we do
1. You didn’t know the University of Edinburgh Careers Service existed. This is a real problem! We need to ensure all ODL students know of our existence. Hopefully we have gone some way towards that with information about the Careers Service on the University ODL webpages, and by contacting all ODL course organisers to ensure they share information on University support services with you. We’ll also work harder to contact ODL students directly with information of interest.
2. You didn’t know what sort of support we provided that was appropriate for distance learning students. Quite a few of the messages on our website suggest coming in to the Careers Service offices or attending one of our talks around the University. Clearly this is not appropriate for the majority of ODL students! We have created Career Connect as a first point of communication with you to ensure our information and support is appropriate for your situation.
3. You aren’t thinking of changing your job so you don’t need careers support. This reflects the common understanding of what Careers Services do; we are here to help people decide what they want to do with their life and find a job. That is of course part of what we do but we actually offer a broader range of career management support. How can you shape your job to move in a particular direction with your current employer? How can you prepare an effective CV for promotion? How can you improve your networking skills? These, and many more, are all familiar topics for University careers advisers.
4. You are just in the first year of a 2 or 3 year course so it’s too early to access support. We would encourage all of our students to spend time thinking about their career as early as possible during their studies. What else could / should you be doing alongside your studies (apart from all of your regular work / family commitments!) that would help with your career development? We are not suggesting you rigidly plan years in advance, although that will suit some people’s decision making style (see earlier post), but instead spend time reflecting on where you are now and what you would like to change in the future. This will ensure you make the most of opportunities over the coming years that will help move you forward. The Careers Service can support you with this reflection and planning.
What you want from the Careers Service
There was a lot of interest in opportunities to network with employers. Although we provide those opportunities in person through careers fairs and employer presentations (see employer presentations and events) we don’t provide very much virtually (with the exception of a Careers in Asia virtual careers fair). We are currently exploring ways to make it easy for our distance learners to connect with employers. We’d welcome your ideas too.
You wanted a job vacancy service. Luckily, that’s something we already have (it’s called SAGE) and it’s available online here. We share vacancies with universities across Scotland and although many of our vacancies are UK based there are a growing number of international opportunities. It’s not going to be the only place you look for jobs but it is an additional resource.
You wanted help with your CV or applications and a chance to speak to a careers adviser. You can do both either by e-mail or telephone. Just complete our online enquiry form here.
The survey helped us to find out a bit more about you so we can develop services more appropriate to your needs. We hope Career Connect is the start of this process.