Today I completed the Certificate in Career Thinking, this short course allowed me to gain more information on how to improve my confidence and how to generate a good CV. I am very grateful that I had the chance to complete this small course, as I feel that I have a lot more career readiness now. At the start of the short course, I thought that I already knew everything that I needed to know about the future of work. However, this was not the case as my knowledge has been expanded on what employers look for and how to prepare for application processes, this has really given me a great insight to improving my chances of achieving the role that I dream of having.
This short course involved completing 5 small units that gave different insights as to what I can do with my degree, looking at what my options are in terms of my career or further study. The course also went through where I should be looking for job roles and being in an applicant position, where I should be presenting myself as someone an employer wants to hire; this being through applications, CVs, and Interviews.
Throughout the 5 units, I made sure to make notes of all important information that will benefit me in the future when applying for jobs. However, to achieve the certificate I had to produce notes regardless, as evidence of learning throughout the different units. I found this very helpful as it meant that in the future I have the option to go back and look for advice on what I should or need to do from the information that I gained from the course.
As part of the evidence for this I will discuss some of the key points that I was able to take away from the short course. The first key point being, use smart targets to make sure you are reaching your goals efficiently, You will be able to see that I have demonstrated this information in my portfolio through my short, medium and long term goals. I took away new information surrounding employability in terms of the different ways to apply; CV, cover letter and applications along with tips for improving both my CV and future applications. In my portfolio, you will also have seen a CV comparison and in creating my new CV I used some of the tips suggested trough this course. The last key point that I personally thought was very important was the interview tips, I find interviews very daunting however, through listening to this short course I now feel a lot more confident in what I should be doing to make a good first impression. This including examples such as, body language, positivity, clarity and enthusiasm; these are tips that I have taken away and you will see these skills demonstrated in my video interview in my Portfolio.
Overall, I really enjoyed this short course, there were a lot of tips provided that will definitely be useful in the future. This short course was put together by the York St. John careers team who are Matt, Sophie and Lauren, they all did an amazing job of making it all so engaging even though it had to be done virtually.