BULLETIN Masaryk University Career Centre 2014
Bulletin 2014 Masaryk University Career Centre, Komenského nám. 220/2, Brno 602 00 1 www.kariera.muni.cz | www.jobacademy.cz | www.jobch.cz
Mgr. Šárka Karmazínová, Director of Masaryk University Career Centre
By connecting the university with a job market, Masaryk University (MU) Career Centre aids students in finding their first employment after school. With this objective in mind, we have created courses that help students develop important competences, provided career consulting services and facilitated contact between students and employers. We enhance the strong reputation of Masaryk University as an institution that produces competent and skilled young professionals who are employed at desired positions. We carefully monitor evolvement of the job market and adjust our offer of services to its needs. This bulletin will guide you through all we prepared for our students in the year of 2014. Thanks to the Development project of MŠMT for 2014 and a support from our partners, we managed to organize two major events, the JobAcademy conference and the JobChallenge career fair. We also managed to open new courses and send our colleagues on a business trip to the USA where they found inspiration at local career centres. We wish to thank the general partner and others for their support and we hope for further ongoing and mutually enriching cooperation in the upcoming years. MU Career Centre Komenského nám. 2, Brno 602 00, e-mail: info@kariera.muni.cz, tel.: 549 496 483, web: www.kariera.muni.cz Project JobAcademy Fair JobChallenge
www.jobacademy.cz www.jobch.cz
facebook.com/kc.muni
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Table of Contents We Develop Potential Personal Development Courses
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JobAcademy Courses: How to Overcome a Gap between Studying at University and Being Employed?
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We Show Possibilities and Welcome Opportunities We Show Possibilities and Welcome Opportunities
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Impress Your Boss
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Recruitment from the Inside
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JobAcademy Conference for Students
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Company Workshops
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JobChallege: Platform where Students Meet with Employers
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We Can Find the Most Suitable Candidates Assessment Centre
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You Can Grow with Us Ambassadors
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How to Be Successful in Your Area
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Lecturers´ Club
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Our Colleagues Visited Career Centres in the USA
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We develop potential
Students from Masaryk University gain professional knowledge during their studies. However, even in their leisure activities – be it studying or working abroad, special courses etc. - they are developing general and professional competences. If students want to really succeed in their lives it is necessary for them to possess employment related skills. These valuable skills enable university graduates to achieve success as employees or as businessmen and thus further positively reflect the name of Masaryk University.
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We develop potential
LukĂĄĹĄ HrdliÄ?ka is giving a lecture on basic rules of self-presentation.
Graduates who possess employment-related skills are in a significant advantage compared to others entering a job market. Based on our dialogue with employers, we identified skills that are in high demand. The most demanded skill appeared to be the competence of effective communication. We adjusted our offer of courses with a regard to this finding. In our courses, we taught students how to present themselves at a job interview, how to form persuasive arguments, and how to behave assertively.
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Students are completing a task.
We develop potential | JobAcademy courses
JobAcademy courses: How to overcome a gap between studying at university and being employed In 2014 Masaryk University Career Centre launched a new series of educational courses and career consultations. Pavla Horáková is in charge of this project and she will share with you more details about the methodical part of the program.
Pavla Horáková
Career counsellor and psychologist
What are JobAcademy Courses? It is a series of lectures and workshops that help students to successfully find their first job after graduating from university. Students usually have little experience with the job market when they finish their studies. They do not know what they may encounter at a job interview, how to write a résumé, or how to present themselves to a future employer.
What does it consist of? The program has several levels. At the first level there are lectures oriented to career planning, writing résumé and cover letters, and self-presentation at an interview. The lectures are independently followed by practical training, where students can practice presenting themselves in front of an audience. Through this exercise, they have a chance to discover what they need to prepare for an interview with a recruiter and how to leave a good impression. At the next level, students can work on their individual career plan. They are able to take advantage of psychological and professional testing and couching.
What about the last part? In the last part of the program students can pass through development centre which is a half-day experience program that tests their employment related skills developed in the previous levels of the program. Participants try psycho-diagnostic tests, individual and group model situations and they are observed by at least two evaluators from whom they receive an individual feedback.
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We develop potential | JobAcademy courses
How did you choose lecturers for each course? We selected professional lecturers who know how the job market works and who are also able to impress students.
Who can participate in courses? Courses are open to all students of Masaryk University and graduates up to one year after they complete studying at the university. Courses are directed mainly to students in their fourth and fifth year of studies. At this point, they realize they will start working soon and that they might have little work experience.
What are your future plans? We would like to prepare a so-called “Etiquette dinner” that would be a business dinner where company representatives and the most successful students from JobAcademy courses could interact. We want to open a space for networking and directly present our students to companies.
Students are writing their career plan.
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We show possibilities and welcome opportunities Networking means creating new contacts and it plays a very important role in a job searching process. MU Career Centre creates opportunities where students and employers can meet face to face. We do not introduce students only to employers, we also search interesting people whose achievements can inspire students to grow. In the spring semester we organized the second edition of the JobAcademy development conference for students. In the winter semester we organized the eighth edition of a career fair called JobChallenge. Students were also to participate in a two day project called “Impress your boss” and “Recruitment from the inside.”
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We show possibilities and welcome opportunities
JobAcademy attracted 300 students.
We won the National career counselling award in 2014. We were awarded for the innovative approach taken in our project „Recruitment from the inside.“ The second award we received jointly with Mendel University and VUT Brno University for the support of individual participants from the area of career consulting at the realization of the JobChallenge fair. Thanks to these awards and feedback from students, we know that our activities are seen as both meaningful and helpful.
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We show possibilities and welcome opportunities | Impress your boss
Impress your boss Project “Impress your boss“ consists of two parts: theoretical and practical. During theoretical courses students discover useful information about company culture, career planning, time-management etc. Practical workshops include model situations which contain selected confrontational topics from work environment, such as asking for a pay rise, handling conflict with a colleague, defending one’s own team, or defining competences that fall under an employment contract.
Students are at a practical course that is focused on communication.
At the course “Impress your boss” participants learned: • how not to be intimidated by your superior or dominant colleague, • how to negotiate and behave diplomatically, • how to manage directing a project when dealing with a lack of time and too many tasks, • how to fill in a tax return, insurance, and everyday accounting, • how to create a career plan and self growth plan, • how to find new contacts.
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We show possibilities and welcome opportunities | Recruitment from the inside
Recruitment from the inside “Recruitment from the Inside“ was a two-day project full of courses, seminars, and individual consultations. Representatives from the Czech Government employment agency and EURES (European Employment Services) accepted an invitation to participate in this new project. The event was followed by a competition with Komerční banka.
The team of lecturers who organised “Recruitment from the inside” was supervised by Mgr. Pavla Horáková.
At “Recruitment from the inside” students discovered: • what the latest information regarding the job market for university graduates is, • what possibilities of a work abroad (EU, EHP, Switzerland) there are, • what recruitment methods are, • how to write a résumé and a cover letter, • what tests can be encountered at job interviews, • what team roles there are and which one is the right one for them, • how a LinkedIn profile should look (with the possibility to analyze one’s own profile individually).
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We show possibilities and welcome opportunities | JobAcademy conference
JobAcademy conference for students The second year of development conference JobAcademy, entitled “There are many opportunities just choose one” encouraged students to find a job that they will like. Speakers from area of psychology, human resources, personal development coaching and former MU graduates each motivated students to start to think about their future job differently at seven lectures and four workshops. At a round table discussion that was a part of the conference, representatives of: MU Career Centre, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Veterinary Faculty and Pharmaceutical University, Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce, Czech Government Recruitment agency and 13 partner companies all talked together about the competences of candidates that employers are searching for today.
Students could visit 12 lectures and workshops at JobAcademy conference.
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We show possibilities and welcome opportunities | Company workshops
Company workshops Partners of Masaryk University Career Centre introduced themselves to students at workshops. All participants had the chance to discover interesting information and form ideas about how the job market works. Employers, in turn, had the opportunity to meet with young and talented people who may one day become their employees. EmbedIT:
CV from the point of view of recruiters from EmbedIT
FNZ:
CV from the point of view of recruiters from FNZ
Komerční banka:
AC - burden of today´s job interviews? How to get a job in Komerční banka
KPMG:
CV from the point of view of recruiters from KPMG Career in KPMG - how to be successful in the recruitment process
MSD IT Global Innovation Center: O2:
Connecting IT and pharmaceutical industry How to impress during recruiting & how to start your career CV from the point of view of recruiters from O2 Start your career in O2
PwC:
How to get a job in PwC
Raiffeisenbank:
Banking, what is said at school and what is the reality CV from the point of view of recruiters from Raiffeisenbank
Socialbakers:
What is the life and work in Socialbakers like
Škoda Auto:
Career alias being able to sell yourself well
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We show possibilities and welcome opportunities | JobChallenge
JobChallege: platform where students meet with employers
Tereza Tichá
project manager of the JobChallenge
3 universities. 75 exhibitors. 20 lectures at accompanying program. More than 2600 visitors. These numbers sum up the 8th year of the JobChallenge fair that was prepared by Masaryk University Career Centre in cooperation with counseling centres at VUT Brno and Mendel University Brno. At the organization of the event, students from all three universities played a very important role and their fresh ideas contributed to a great success of the fair. We talked to a project manager of the fair Tereza Tichá.
It was the 8th edition of the fair in 2014. In what way was this year better than previous years? It combined all the good from the past years and improved it. At other fairs students get lost and have troubles to find what they search. This cannot happen at our fair. We divided an exhibition hall by colours and companies were also divided according to the areas in which they work. They were all visually distinguishable.
I noticed that even students wore coloured bracelets. Yes, company representatives could approach students individually too.
Did it work? Visitors and companies liked this idea very much. Company representatives noted that students that visited their stands were prepared and better presented themselves than in previous years. One HR manager mentioned that 600 students passed by their stand!
Why is it that students presented themselves better this year than in previous years? We organized accompanying conferences at Masaryk University and at Mendel University that were supposed to prepare students for contact with a future employer. We created a blog where students could find information and tips what they should do before the fair, at the fair, and after the fair.
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We show possibilities and welcome opportunities | JobChallenge
There was a competition at the fair. Can you specify what it was about? If students actively approached a company representative and left a good impression they received a special sticker. A student needed 5 stickers to be nominated for a lottery. We wanted to motivate students to be active and to take initiative. There were a total of 700 students who were nominated for the lottery.
What was the biggest success for you this year? There were big market players like Amazon, FNZ, big banks and the Big Four auditor companies were among the exhibitors. No complications appeared during the fair and we managed to attract a lot of students. As we opened the door of the Richard Adam Gallery, crowds started to enter the hall. Some exhibitors spoke to us during the day and said: “We don´t have time for a break, there are so many students here today, we can´t even go for lunch.” The second day we received several thank notes via email. I consider this a great success of the organizational team that was combined from representatives of all three counselling centres of Brno Universities.
JobChallenge fair in Richard Adam Gallery.
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We can find the most suitable candidates Assessment centre (AC) is one of the most often used method during a recruitment process nowadays. We organize several ACs a year so students can see what the process entails before they experience it at a job interview. In 2013 we focused on model AC, in 2014 we also organized recruiting AC in cooperation with partner companies. After each AC, the student received individual feedback about his or her performance during the whole program. Trained psychologists evaluated the performances and wrote reports based on observed behaviour in individual and group situations and psychometric texts and recruiting interviews.
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We can find the most suitable candidates
Participants of AC, which was organized for FNZ, are dealing with assigned task. Evaluators are writing notes about applicants´ performance.
Assessment centres 11.4.
Model Assessment centre
25.4.
Model Assessment centre
12.9., 18.9.,
Assessment centre for Faculty of Economics
19.9., 22.9, 25.9.
and Administration under a project TOPSEC
30.10.
Recruiting assessment centre for KomerÄ?nĂ banka
25.11 .
Recruiting assessment centre for FNZ
29.1.
Development centre
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You can grow with us
MU Career Centre offers an open space for student internships. We established a long-term work relationship with many of our original interns. Career ambassadors and Lecturers´ club was established in the same way. Other interns take part in events like JobChallenge fair or JobAcademy conference. Thanks to their creativity and fresh ideas, our events remain of high quality and add development value to students. Interns also gain experience in the areas of planning, promotion, realization, and evaluation of organized events.
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You can grow with us
Ambassadors Masaryk University consists of nine faculties which offer a wide range of study areas. To be helpful to as many students as possible, we need to know what challenges students from different faculties face, what job placements they are searching and in what direction they want to go after finishing their studies. Ambassadors are intermediaries between faculties and Masaryk University Career Centre and they help us with this task.
How to be successful in your area The ambassadors launched a series of lectures and meetings with successful graduates of Masaryk University. They chose a person that either studied in their faculty or worked in a related area. Present students could ask speakers about steps that led to their successful career or what they believed helped them to become successful in general.
Lecturers´ club We founded a Lecturers´ club together with students who want to engage themselves in coaching in the future. MU Career Centre offered to build several hour-long programs focusing on selected development topics with the opportunity to present a program in front of the audience. Lecturers prepared themselves for the lecture under the supervision of colleagues from our centre.
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You can grow with us | Our colleagues visited career centres in the USA
Our colleagues visited career centres in the USA While career centres are still being built in the Czech Republic, they have been working successfully for decades in the USA. This was one of the reasons MU Career Centre representatives left for the USA at the beginning of October. In their itinerary there was Columbia University in New York, Stanford andBerkeley, three universities in Florida and, last but not least, they journeyed to Yale in Connecticut. We talked about experiences from these travels with a manager Radoslav Pittner of MU Career Centre, Radoslav Pittner. Manager of MU Career Centre
Why were you interested in career centres in the USA in particular? American universities have established well functioning programs providing career counselling. They also developed strong relations with employers. American universities and employers have established an association dating back to the 1950s that supports service of career centres. Centres use highly effective software that interconnects individual career centres across the states. We also plan to develop and employ similar software here.
What is different in viewing a university in the Czech Republic and the USA by employers? There is no significant difference. Career centres connect the academic world to the job market in both cases. Employers in the USA stress the importance of choosing the right interns for their company more than it is common here. They choose qualified and effective students and from the best students they choose the best interns and those are offered a job placement.
What is different in the way Czech and American students view their university? American students pay high tuition fees and this is reflected in their attitude towards the university and their job search. That is also why career centres and universities take higher responsibility for employing graduates. Service provided by career centres is one of the criteria students look at when they choose their university. All universities that we visited had graduate mentoring programs for younger students (e.g., 80 % of students graduating from Yale found their job thanks to a graduate).
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You can grow with us | Our colleagues visited career centres in the USA
Is the main task of Masaryk University Career Centre to connect students to employers? Career Centre is an intermediary between university, students, and employers. Employers assume that university prepares students for a real job. Students, on the other hand, want to work in their study area; they want a job they enjoy and to earn enough money at that job. The main role of university, however, is education and research. The task of the Career Centre is to put all three approaches into harmony.
Did you copy some work vision? We had already had a vision before we left for the USA. We proved to ourselves that we are heading in the right direction. We want to make the search of employment for students easier and keep connecting them to interesting and important employers and people. In addition to other plans, we want to create our own recruiting web site and we would also like to prepare a mentoring program with graduates.
What will the planned recruiting web site look like? Employers, students and faculty representatives will have access into the system. Students will create there their own profiles where they can add newly gained competences. Employers will be able to filter the database according to desired competences in an employee (e.g., if the company needs someone who speaks English and German, the system will be able to filter the students to determine that fifty students have this competence). The company will be able to specify its search by adding more characteristics that they want their employee to have. This time, they may filter out only five students with the desired competences and skills. The system thus will make the recruitment process easier for students as well as for employers.
Radoslav Pittner spoke about experiences at foreign career centres after his arrival in front of academic community.
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Want to work with us?
Director of Masaryk University Career Centre Mgr. Šárka Karmazínová karmazinova@rect.muni.cz 549 494 599
Manager of Masaryk University Career Centre Mgr. et Mgr. Radoslav Pittner pittner@kariera.muni.cz 549 496 483
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Career counsellor and psychologist Mgr. Pavla Horáková horakova@kariera.muni.cz
Relationships with employers Bc. Eliška Gončarová goncarova@kariera.muni.cz
JobChallenge fair Mgr. Lenka Kováčová kovacova@kariera.muni.cz
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Thank you to our partners We managed to open new courses and seminars for our students thanks to the Development project by MŠMT for the year 2014 and a support of our partners. We would like to thank to our general partner and others and we hope to operate in mutual continual cooperation in upcoming years.
General partner
Partners
MU Career Centre Komenského nám. 2, Brno 602 00, e-mail: info@kariera.muni.cz, tel.: 549 496 483, web: www.kariera.muni.cz Project JobAcademy Fair JobChallenge
www.jobacademy.cz www.jobch.cz
facebook.com/kc.muni
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