REBLOGGED: How to Organise your Job Search

Job-hunting can be a challenge, especially if you are sending a large number of applications to a variety of employers. How should you keep track of what you’ve done, and what you ought to do next? The key to managing your job-search is to be super organised, which isn’t nearly as time-consuming as it sounds. Here are a number of tips you can follow to ensure an easy, streamlined and less daunting job searching process:

Plan before you start
Before you even begin, start by deciding what your goals should be: identify your preferred role, industry, type of company and any other factors that are important, such as whether you wish to stay in your university town or prefer to move. Once you have highlighted these, set some realistic targets. This can be how many applications you want to send each week, how much time each day or each week you want to dedicate to your job search, or how many sources you want to consult (websites, newspapers, job boards). Aiming for a goal will increase your motivation and provide a sense of achievement once you reach them. There are a number of apps that you can use to help with your jobsearch too. Why not use  Evernote to help organise documents such as your CVs, cover letters and references and synchronise them across all of your devices?

Find a consistent routine
The job-hunting process can be very fast-paced and so finding the best routine early on will be useful in the long-term. If you are more productive in the mornings then use this time for the more challenging tasks. The mornings are also a good time to make follow-up calls or send emails to the companies you’re targeting. Similarly, if you are evening person make the most of this time by filling in online applications.

Organise a system that works for you
This begins with choosing a good place to work. Do you work better at home, or in the library with less distractions? Use a big open space where you can readily pile up all of the notes and documents that you will need.  It’s also good to keep the workspace you have selected clear of everything that’s not job search-related, as it helps focus on the task at hand. If you’re in that space, that’s what you’re there to do. Once you begin the search, find your preferred technique to keep your status with each company up to date, for example a spreadsheet, mind map or colour coded system. Maybe use an app such as Jibber Jobber, which will allow you to keep all your numerous contacts in one place. Finally, categorise your email responses into folders according to the status of the application.

Keep track of your progress
Progress will change on a day-to-day basis so keeping an accurate track will be crucial. Using a spreadsheet for this will be useful as it can be used to map everything out. Make sure that as soon as a reply comes in, or a status changes – for example if you’ve been invited to an interview or assessment centre – this is updated as soon as you can. Another great tip is to label which companies need to be followed up on which dates, to ensure that no opportunity is lost. That includes sending a thank you note after each interview you attend.

Remember to take some down-time
With the pressure of job hunting it can be easy to become overwhelmed with the amount of work involved. Taking regular breaks, or the evening off to unwind will give you some time out to relax and enjoy some time with your family and friends. They are the ones that should be supporting you and have probably been through the process themselves at some point. The process can be long and quite rigorous but by putting our tips into practice and adding a little structure and organisation to your job search will ease the stress and help you land your job much sooner than expected. Look at the roles that we have on offer and use our advice to keep on top of your progress.


Written by Enterprise Rent-A-Car

REBLOGGED: Networking’s not so Nerve-racking, Promise...

I recently came across an article from the University of Manchester with the title 'Networking? I'd rather eat my own shoes...' Aside from being a very eye-catching headline, I think it sums up pretty neatly how most of us feel about networking: it doses us with feelings of dread, inadequacy, sweaty palms, eminent embarrassment and sometimes outright terror.

If it’s meant to be the ‘key’ to finding a decent graduate job then why do we all seem to hate it?

I think it boils down to the fact that many of us have little self-confidence and approaching strangers to talk business is just too darn intimidating. University work is actually very solitary; you get an essay question via email or a virtual learning environment and you sit in front of a computer and get on with it. Later, you sit in silence in a big hall with an exam paper and you just get on with it. Professional social butterflies we are not.

So how can we boost our confidence and work up the nerve to network? Well there’s an amazing TED talk on body language by Amy Cuddy who gives some great advice: fake it until you make it. She explains it much better in the talk but the basic point is: if you’re not the confident go-getter, act the part of someone who is. So you could do this by thinking of someone you know who is chatty and confident and do what they would do. Eventually you’ll realise that you can do it, it’s not that scary and you’re a lot braver than you give yourself credit for.

Another thing to bear in mind is that ‘networking’ is just a buzzword and not as scary as it sounds. Really, all you have to do is have a chat with someone new and who’s never done that before? In the first seminars of your degree or when you joined that society, you managed to keep up a conversation with people you’d never met before – you were networking even if you didn't know it.

Top tips for networking success:

• Join LinkedIn and make connections with the people you meet.
• Keep in touch with lecturers – they usually know many people in their field.
• If you go to a guest lecture, go introduce yourself to the speaker afterwards.
• Talk to recruiters at careers fairs as well as graduates who are already employed at the company.
• Join a professional body for your career area and get involved in events and online discussions.
• Remember that it’s not about approaching someone and asking for a job outright – it’s about making yourself known so that when you do apply for a job, people already have a good impression.
• People love to talk about themselves so keep asking questions and listen to what people have to say and you’re already part of the way there.

Written by Jess Jennison

Editorial Intern
4th August 2014

TARGETjobs.co.uk

GRADUATED!!

Only a Matter of Time: UK Official Chart to Include Streaming Data

Sunday 22nd June 2014 - The UK's Official Chart Company is to start including streaming data in its chart for the first time from July 2014 (article from Official Charts Company). I had wondered when this would happen whilst writing my dissertation. If anyone's read my dissertation then you may have gathered I am rather anti-streaming. In which case, I'm not very happy with this news.

Revenue
Streaming only provides a substantial enough revenue for the more established artists so providing data for the charts will not significantly generate a higher revenue out of streaming. For many unsigned artists, streaming is one of the few routes through which they can actively distribute their music. However, even with this new development within the charts, we are very unlikely to see any change as to what music features within the Top 40. America's Billboard chart already has its own streaming chart but comparing those top 10 singles with the top 10 of the Billboard 100, there is very little difference.

Missing Out?
Not all tracks released for sale, either physically or by download, are added to streaming sites. Beyonce's latest self titled album wasn't shared on Spotify and both Coldplay and Black Keys have also resisted putting their music on the site (article). So does this mean some artists will miss out on 'the top spot'? Spotify went on the offensive after these artists didn't share their music so perhaps this is a ploy to forcibly get music onto the site. Providing data to the chart will not change the music featured but it may well have an impact on what positions the tracks ultimately get, especially if artists are absent from another avenue of figures by choice.

Christmas No.1
Every year we moan about the Christmas No.1 always going to the X Factor winner of that year, well, maybe that could all change now. It's Christmas party time so someone's got to make a playlist for the office do - this is going to be filled with Christmas songs that will be played over and over again and no doubt the person creating the playlist will do it on their Spotify account (if they've got one that is - I'd rather just get out my Christmas CD). This could be a golden opportunity for us to finally start getting proper Christmas songs back to No.1, where they belong. Just got to wait another 6 months to find out now!

The Official UK Singles Chart was always based on sales figures and that aim is about to be lost with the introduction of streaming data. 100 streams will equal 1 sale but it's not the same as many people don't even pay to stream the music as they have only opted for the free account option.

When I was younger I often used to listen to the charts on a Sunday evening, now I usually only listen to them when I remember it's a Sunday and happen to be in my room. I've always tried to make a point of listening to the Christmas chart though. Now I'm not so sure I'll bother listening to the chart show any more, knowing it's no longer truly based on sales figures. It came as a bit of a shock to many when the Arctic Monkeys shot straight to No.1 with their debut single, I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, based on download sales alone, but at least they were still sales figures. It is possible, however, for old tracks to make a bit of a comeback into the charts. This usually only happens at Christmas, if a track gets re-released or covered on the X Factor. Streaming sites are an archive of tracks just waiting to end up on people's 'guilty pleasures' and 'old skool' playlists that this is likely to be the most visible change we see to the charts.

I knew this would probably happen at some point but I'll never be happy about it. Just nobody suggest including the figures from illegal downloads please - not even as a joke.

And just to prove the foresight...

Lightning over Liverpool!

DISSERTATION - Complete!!

PRINTED, BOUND AND SUBMITTED!! At long last I have finished my dissertation! I'm so pleased that it's finally done but in a way I'll miss writing it, it's not been easy but I've definitely enjoyed the experience. I am so proud of my dissertation and would love to get it published one day.

A 7 month process in 4 pictures:

LJMU Showreel

3 years in 3 minutes - showcasing some of the production work which I have produced as part of my course (BA(Hons) Media Professional Studies).



I'm nearing the end of university obviously!

Schindler's List

I wasn't quite sure why I started watching Schindler's List (Spielberg, 1993) but I suppose it was because of the iconic image of the little girl in the red dress. I knew it wasn't going to be an easy film to watch but I stuck with it (right until 2am in the morning when it finished). I've studied Nazi Germany for A-level history so it was a film I thought I ought to watch. Schlinder's List is a long film but one I'm glad I saw through to the end, mainly for the ending itself which was really quite something - you really should go and watch it if you want to know what I mean.

Blue Peter Trip

Yesterday we went on our very first uni trip to Media City in Salford to have a behind the scenes look at Blue Peter and have a talk from those in charge of set design and lighting. That was also accompanied by a tour of the studios that Dock 10 own and hire out to channels like the BBC and ITV, along with the galleries and edit suites.

Having grown up watching Blue Peter, it was nice to be able to visit the studio. However, it wasn't the same studio that I was used to watching and I was surprised at just how small it really was. We went the day before the live shoot (which was aired tonight) as they were redoing the set ready.

I watched that episode of Blue Peter today and I don't know whether it's just the fact that I've got older but they don't make it like they used to and wasn't the same for me unfortunately.

Final Production Project

WE'RE DONE!! Yes, at long last we've finished and submitted our final production piece.

The past 4 months have seemed like a very long time in which I don't think I've ever really been able to stop thinking about the project. It has been hard work and it has been stressful but it's still been enjoyable (most of the time anyway).

So, just as a bit of a re-cap, this is what our project's about.

Way back at the end of October I made contact with the Liverpool band, Rangoon Sons. I put the idea to them of doing a music promo as my final piece for uni and they agreed that they'd be up for being involved. I then pitched this as my idea and took on 3 more people to form my group. Since then we've been having endless production meetings and brainstorming, organising shooting dates with the band and getting various pieces of content off of them, going out filming (in most weather) and then topped off with long hours in the edit.

It's not all been plain sailing but we got there in the end - thankfully - and still all in one piece. So here it is:



We had also decided we would be creating a website for the band as part of the project but we were unfortunately told to drop this in the final week before the deadline. As we had done a fair it of work on the website already and the band were still interested in having it, I am taking on the project to finish it off to be able to hand it over to the boys. In the mean time, check them out on Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud and Instagram.