We were really pleased to see a number of Year in Business students from the 1st year at the Applications' workshops run over the last couple of weeks by Emma Baker from the Careers Service.
In this practical session students had a go at preparing answers for competency based questions for application forms and looking at motivational questions such as why they had chosen a particular industry/ role to apply to.
Emma was on hand to provide feedback on written responses and to answer questions.
Emma talked about demonstrating skills using the STAR approach:
S – situation
T – task
A – action
R – result.
Emma talked about the importance of spending most time talking about the action/ result of each example; making it clear what the student had done (avoiding “we”) and where they had made a difference.
For the motivational questions Emma encouraged students to look at where there was an overlap in interest between the student and their chosen company/ sector and encouraged them to research broadly on top of reading company websites. eg for Marketing placements students could look at Marketing websites such as Brand Republic. She also recommended the Prospects site to help students get a better understanding of different job descriptions and what roles could entail.
Emma directed students to online sites such as:
> Royal Holloway Year in Business moodle page
> https://www.ratemyplacement.co.uk/
> https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/work-experience-and-internships
Any Year in Business students who would like to discuss their placement plans or review their CVs with Emma over the summer can book a 30 minute 1: 1 with her. She can conduct this meeting via skype/ over the phone or in person.
Contact Emma.Baker@rhul.ac.uk Katharine. Radford@rhul.ac.uk to make this appointment.