Careers Centrewww.anu.edu.au/careers

Beyond legal research:

Researching your Career – July 2010

Careers Centre

The ANU Careers Centre

Career guidance Applications Resume’ Selection Criteria Job Interviews & Assessment Centres Employer information Career Resource Library Career related workshops CareerHub

*services are for postgraduates too!!!

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Leichardt Scale Exercise

Imagine this line represents your career. If X represents working in a university every day, and Y represents having no direct work within it, where would you like to be on this line?

X---------------------------------------------Y

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Career Development – the basis of Career Decision Making

You

JobsEmployers

Common denominator?

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Your Preferences

Imagine there are only 4 jobs to choose from:

Set Designer Actor Ticket Seller Lighting Technician

Which would you choose and why?

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Career Values

Values poker- what are you top 2 cards?????

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HANDOUT…..

My top two work values are

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Career Decision making requires …information about…

Jobs…

..What would my future job involve?

What duties would I be involved in on a day to day basis?

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Career Decision making requires …information about…

Employers…

.. What type of organisation would I like to work for?

What sort of work culture would I be the most comfortable and productive in?

Eg. Different work cultures – APS vs Corporate Law vs

Academia vs NGO

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If you are not sure of where you want to work in the future or in what capacity…..

Use this format to refine your choice…

Career choices, like any other life choices are based on information

The more specific you can be , the more informed your job search will be ..

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A more fundamental postgrad issue……..

Your degree can be viewed as both a package of knowledge, and a set of skills.

As well as technical skills, your PhD provides you with ‘Transferable skills’

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How ‘research’ enhances your career Unique skills & knowledge set

Highly creative & innovative

Highly developed analytical/problem solving skills

Excellent project & self management skills

Strong communicators (teaching, writing, persuading, conference presenting)

Not just to clarify career choice, but to prepare you for behaviourally based selection processes.

Generic? (context and associated language can be incredibly important)

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GDS Stats – Who might employ you

Some options to consider: Academia (in Australia) – different pathways

Academia (abroad) Australian Public Service (APS) Private sector (including private sector

research) Consulting (selling your knowledge) –

*time spent on getting your next consultancy

Entrepreneur (selling your ideas) Not-for Profit Consulting firms

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GDS Stats – Employment Outcomes

2007- general overview:

77.8% of postgraduates were available for full-time employment

89.5% of those were in a full-time position at the time of the survey

5.9% of postgraduates were undertaking further full-time study

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Outcomes

26.8% of graduates from research masters/PHD awards were in their first full time employment position

This figure is not as high as Bachelor degree students (60.6% in first full-time employment)

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Median Salaries

The median salary for research masters/PHD graduates was $64,000

Where they were in their first full-time employment, this figure was 6.2% less

This demonstrates the value employers place on previous work experience

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Where to from here?

In 1 years time I’d like to be working as a? (job)

In a ? (organisation)

In 5 years…

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How do I get there?

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In summary…

Career Planning leads to informed career choices… while there is always a place for serendipity, knowing what you want ( values ) and what you are skilled at leads to smarter job search!

Good luck in your brilliant careers!