Be all that you can be

Every interview is nerve racking especially your first ever one as you don’t know what to expect and what questions are going to be fired at you.

I have come up with questions that tend to come up in every single interview so you can prepare yourself beforehand.

Tell me about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses

Assess yourself

Sell yourself experiences

How would you perform as part of a team

How do you deal under pressure

If you have just left a job you may get asked why

What could you offer to the company

Why do you want this job

How do you organise your work

If you need answers or advice for any interview that you are going to be attending let me know and I will be happy to help!

It can be pretty daunting when planning out your future and deciding what career path you want to go down, that’s why it is extremely important that you think things through and do what you want to do.

If your friends or family are trying to push you into a job sector that you are going to be unhappy in then already this is a big No No! If you want to succeed in life you have to discover the right career path for yourself.

If you focus on your skills before you uncover your passions, you limit yourself to jobs that utilise your currently recognised skills.

Follow the below tips for ways to discover what is best for you:

When you are looking for a job if you come across one that makes you excite your imagination it means that you are interested and could picture yourself in this kind of sector, so always look out for clues!

Pay attention to activities that make you happy and ask yourself why you are happy doing this?

Don’t feel like a failure before you apply for a job and have a negative attitude of “i could NEVER do that”, never say never and consider them as real possibilities.

Then there are the major questions that you need to ask yourself:

How much money do you want to earn?
Location?
Do you need further education?

One of the things we talk about a lot on this site is changing your career.  After all, the job-for-life no longer exists and we need to not only adapt with the times but many people fancy a change of career, more variety, more money or simply want a different challenge.

With the current credit crunch, many people are searching for a career that can survive and a mortgage advisor is one that appears to do just that.  With the boom of property prices, mortgage advisors enjoyed huge commissions and plenty of business.  Now, with a credit crunch and rising interest rates, mortgage advisors are still enjoying plenty of business as people know they must find the best deal for them and so professional mortgage advice seems even more important.

To become a mortgage advisor, it is a legal requirement that you must hold an appropriate qualification so your first step is to get one!  If you aren’t already in the industry, then you can either search for a company willing to put you through your training or if you want to show how keen you are, then you can do the training yourself first.

80 per cent of UK mortgage advisors hold their CeMAP qualification (Certificate of Mortgage Advice Practice).  When you register for the exams with the ifs (Institute of Financial Services) you pay £135 per module, of which there are three.  The registration also comes with a study manual, but these are very difficult to understand if you do not already understand the subject, hence there are many CeMAP training companies out there who can help, and offer training in an city close to you.  You could take CeMAP training in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, London, Birmingham or Scotland.  If you live in Scotland and want to get your CeMAP qualification, be sure to choose a CeMAP training company who can offer CeMAP training specifically tailored to Scottish Law.

With a good CeMAP training company, with a high pass rate, it is possible to study and take your CeMAP exams in as little as two weeks.  So what are you waiting for?

Finding the career you want after graduating can be a daunting and difficult process, and it doesn’t matter whether you are a young graduate from your first degree or a an older graduate leaving university in your thirties.

It’s difficult to know where to begin with your research into jobs and although looking at vacancies is often the usual starting point it is worth bearing in mind that most vacancies are not advertised in that way, and so you are likely to get a skewed vision of what the graduate employment market is like.

Also, deciding what career is right for you can be problematic. If you are unsure you would do well to think about your interests and whatever expertise you may have and think how they may apply to a career. Keep in mind any constraints upon your time or mobility before applying for certain jobs. Children and disabilities can make some jobs less viable for you than others.

Once you have a profile of what you want from life and what you think you have to offer in terms of skills and knowledge, you can use this to narrow down your search for jobs, further courses or whatever else you might want to do after graduating.

Be brave. Your mantra should be “who dares, wins” and “it doesn’t have to be forever”. In other words, if you are free to do so, take a risk. If you aim for the stars and miss, you might still hit the moon, and if you aren’t sure that in 5 or 10 years you will continue to like the career you’re going for now, remember that you can always change careers providing you plan well. Never feel trapped by your circumstances. There is always a way to change them, even if they are in ways that you would not have expected or thought of under normal circumstances.

Once you have a good idea of what you want to do having graduated from university, think hard about your feelings about further education and/or training, what skills and experiences you already have, what sort of working environments may or may not appeal to you and the sort of life you want to live.

Once armed with all this self-reflective knowledge, go out there and start asking around, but try to do so in a focussed and structured way.

Here are some examples of ports of call during your enquiries:

- University careers adviser.

- The information garnered by Prospects, particularly the ‘What jobs would suit me?’ section (found at: www.prospects.ac.uk/links/Pplanner). This service offers CV checking, careers advice and details for a whole range of regional graduate services in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

- Psychometric tests. These are often offered by university careers offices and are an excellent way of analysing oneself. They test numeracy, literacy and diagrammatic reasoning, and show your strengths and weaknesses in these areas. Some companies and organisations (like the Civil Service) require candidates take psychometric tests, and research shows that practice actually improves performance, so never be disheartened by a poor first showing after one such test.

- Prospects.ac.uk also offers a wide range of tests and self-assessment exercises for you to peruse at your leisure. Take a look at www.prospects.ac.uk/links/Online/Tests.

Employers more often than not look for skills as well as education.

If you have been taking psychometric tests or any other recognised character development tests or courses, use what you have learned, any qualifications you have earned and any work experience that you have to produce a personal profile.

Your profile should provide evidence that you posses competencies that your potential employers are looking for. They will want some sort of evidence that you posses skills and experience for a wide range of jobs.

You should make a list of the skill and competencies that you already have. Here are some ideas of the sorts of things you might include if you think they are relevant to you:

• can you plan time effectively?
• are you good at working under pressure and to deadlines?
• how are your reading, analysing and synthesising skills for large amounts of text?
• can you work independently?
• are you adaptive to new circumstances?
• are you good at problem solving? (can you give examples?)
• are you capable of thinking originally and imaginatively? Like how?
• do you take the initiative?
• are you articulate and can you express your ideas clearly both in writing and orally?
• do you have experience presenting information in many ways, such as through seminars, under timed examinations, projects or presentations, group discussions, lab or technical reports?

All of these are potentially relevant to your potential employers. All of that said, be sure to tailor make what you are writing to suit to job you are applying for. Be honest of course, but you need not dwell too liong in your personal statement about your skills as a brick layer if you are applying for a new job as a computer programmer, say.

Both careers centres at universities and even government advice centres can help you write an appropriate CV.