Well nearly a year after starting this blog, I am now proud to report that two friends and I have teamed up to create http://www.gradjobs.co.nz/. Being recent(ish) graduates , we can relate to the problem that all graduates face of trying to find their first job and make their first move into the working world. Well we decided we wanted to have a go at giving graduates a few more options when it comes to graduate recruitment, which is why we put this site together.
In a nutshell, http://www.gradjobs.co.nz/ is a site dedicated to helping New Zealand's talented graduates find their first job. It's all very well looking through the newspaper or other recruitment sites online but the problem is 95% of the listings require previous experience, which means it can be a needle in a haystack affair to find graduate positions.
So we decided to launch a specialist graduate recruitment site and if you have a browse around you will see we have:
- Employer Profiles - where employers can put up information about their company and how to apply for a graduate role
- Past Graduates - where we profile a number of different past graduates in different careers to give students an idea of where they could end up in 'real life'!
- A gradjobs Newsletter - so that we can email jobs out to graduates as they come up...
This is only the first phase of course and we're looking to add more functionality to the site over time, so stay posted and if you have any feedback I'd love to hear it!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Friday, October 5, 2007
How did you choose your career?
That's a question I'm intrigued by. I think many young people don't do enough to plan their careers and I want to find out why this is. Many people just stumble along, going to University because their friends are going to University or because their parents told them to. They study Medicine because their friends are studying Medicine and it pays well. Or they study Surveying because the lecturers said on open day that 98% of Surveying grads get a job straight out of Uni.
I don't think there are enough resources available to help young people decide what they want to do in life. Sure, if young people don't take an interest in what they want to do with the rest of their lives, it's their own damn fault... but that doesn't mean we can't do more to encourage them.
To give you an example, I just snap interviewed my flatmate Paul for your reading pleasure:
I don't think there are enough resources available to help young people decide what they want to do in life. Sure, if young people don't take an interest in what they want to do with the rest of their lives, it's their own damn fault... but that doesn't mean we can't do more to encourage them.
To give you an example, I just snap interviewed my flatmate Paul for your reading pleasure:
J: So Paul, how did you make the choice to become an Accountant, or study Accounting?
P: Well I kinda fell into it to be honest, it wasn't a conscious decision. I wasn't any good at Sciences or English, so I decided to do a general finance entry course at University and then after 1st year a group of us decided we'd do Accounting. Didn't really know what it meant or what I'd be doing in 5 years time, but I knew it is a pretty solid job that people will always need. Had no idea about CA (Chartered Accountant qualification - 3 years study after University) or anything like that at the time.
J: So what information was available to you to make that choice?
P: We had a career counsellor available at school, but I don't think I ever went to see him. One guy came out from Victoria University to speak to us for an hour on some
courses.
J: Yeah I reckon many other people, maybe as high as 8/10, would give a very similar answer if you asked them why they chose their careers or courses of study. Crazy to think so many people just cruise through and take the first default option that makes sense huh?
P: Yeah, I suppose that's why you get people going through mid-life crisis situations and totally changing careers down the track.
Obviously it's not the end of the world for people to study the wrong course or choose the wrong career. Life is a long time and anyone can change what they're doing at any time. It does seem a little strange however, that for the majority of University students, more thought or research doesn't go into what is at least a 3 year, $20,000 investment.
What more could we be doing to help our youth make the right decision for themselves? Can we change the default option of drifting into a study course or career?
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Advertising - Google AdSense
I decided to take the plunge and add Google AdSense to my blog, more to satisfy my own curiosity really, although I have heard of others who were able to replace their salaries! To be honest I never really click advertising when I'm browsing the web, however internet advertising has been booming for years so obviously plenty of other people do.
Signing up for AdSense is a pretty straightforward process, you just sign up with a google account and then wait a couple of days for your application to be processed. Once you have confirmation that your application has been successful however, the next steps are a little less obvious and I had to do a little digging to find out how to make ads appear on my page. I was surprised to see was how many different ad formats there are on offer! Check them all out at https://www.google.com/adsense/static/en_US/AdFormats.html
One clear advantage of adding AdSense is that it has fantastic reporting. You can see quite clearly how many page impressions are served, how many clicks on the ads, earnings etc, all in real-time. Quite useful info and makes up for the fact that I couldn't inherently find a page counter in Blogger itself.
Signing up for AdSense is a pretty straightforward process, you just sign up with a google account and then wait a couple of days for your application to be processed. Once you have confirmation that your application has been successful however, the next steps are a little less obvious and I had to do a little digging to find out how to make ads appear on my page. I was surprised to see was how many different ad formats there are on offer! Check them all out at https://www.google.com/adsense/static/en_US/AdFormats.html
One clear advantage of adding AdSense is that it has fantastic reporting. You can see quite clearly how many page impressions are served, how many clicks on the ads, earnings etc, all in real-time. Quite useful info and makes up for the fact that I couldn't inherently find a page counter in Blogger itself.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
What's in a Career?
It goes without saying that a 'career' means different things to different people.
To the older generation, a career was something you started with a reputable employer and hopefully finished with that same employer. A successful career was sealed with a gold watch at retirement, a momento to commemorate 40, 50 or even 60 years of service and dedication. There are still people at my company that are celebrating 45+ years of service and I'm sure they don't plan to leave soon (at least not unless they get paid out!).
To Generation Y (which I am part of), a career means something quite different. I've read that for Gen-Y, 2 years with the same employer is a long time and that for most Gen-Y individuals it's "all about me". I joined my employer over 3 and a half years ago as one of 12 graduates on their graduate recruitment programme and now I'm the only one still around. It's pretty hard to argue with those statistics!
The reason I'm still around is that I've had many different opportunities and roles that have kept me interested. I've had Consulting, Pre-sales and Service Delivery Management roles which have taken me to interesting places like Shanghai, Singapore and Australia. I've worked with a lot of people and seen a variety of different organisations at work which means I now have some fantastic experience in the bank to draw upon.
To me, my own career is going to be one that goes down many different paths, as I'm one that likes to try many different things. As long as I can keep moving and keep learning at full speed I think I'll be happy and there's definitely an entrepreneurial spirit within me that'll burst out before too long...
To the older generation, a career was something you started with a reputable employer and hopefully finished with that same employer. A successful career was sealed with a gold watch at retirement, a momento to commemorate 40, 50 or even 60 years of service and dedication. There are still people at my company that are celebrating 45+ years of service and I'm sure they don't plan to leave soon (at least not unless they get paid out!).
To Generation Y (which I am part of), a career means something quite different. I've read that for Gen-Y, 2 years with the same employer is a long time and that for most Gen-Y individuals it's "all about me". I joined my employer over 3 and a half years ago as one of 12 graduates on their graduate recruitment programme and now I'm the only one still around. It's pretty hard to argue with those statistics!
The reason I'm still around is that I've had many different opportunities and roles that have kept me interested. I've had Consulting, Pre-sales and Service Delivery Management roles which have taken me to interesting places like Shanghai, Singapore and Australia. I've worked with a lot of people and seen a variety of different organisations at work which means I now have some fantastic experience in the bank to draw upon.
To me, my own career is going to be one that goes down many different paths, as I'm one that likes to try many different things. As long as I can keep moving and keep learning at full speed I think I'll be happy and there's definitely an entrepreneurial spirit within me that'll burst out before too long...
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