{"id":742,"date":"2020-10-27T11:31:19","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T01:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/?p=742"},"modified":"2021-03-24T12:52:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T02:22:36","slug":"make-the-most-of-your-summer-like-a-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/2020\/10\/27\/make-the-most-of-your-summer-like-a-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Make the most of your summer&#8230; Like a Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hi all and welcome to the last Like a Boss of the season!<\/p>\n<p>For the last few weeks, we\u2019ve been talking about exams: how you can improve your focus, manage your stress, and use some evidence based revision strategies to get you over the edge.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Like a Boss - S2E011 - Make the Most of Your Summer\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YvhRnvfAiVo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>End of semester also means that the summer is looming on the horizon. So for this week\u2019s Like a Boss, I had a chat to two of the folks from Careers, Ursula and Jenny, to find out about how you can make the most of your summer. What opportunities should you look out for, how can you beef up your CV, and how can you have some fun and beef up your skills along the way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How Can You Make the Most of Your Summer?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ursula Bronecki \u2013 Flinders Horizon Award Senior Coordinator<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s three key things that I recommend that students do to make the most of their summer.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Reflect on your career goals. Take some time to reflect on your career goals and think about updating some important career documents like your CV and cover letter and get those into shape.<\/li>\n<li>Get some real-world experience. This is a great opportunity to get some real-world experience and we know that that\u2019s something that employers really look for when they\u2019re hiring new graduates. Have a look at casual positions that are out there, get some volunteering experience in your industry or field, look for what kinds of career placements there might be like internships or vocational programs that many organisations offer.<\/li>\n<li>Develop your professional skills. Explore some online MOOCS (Massive Open Online Course) like LinkedIn Learning \u2013 which is free for Flinders students! There are so many different courses you can explore like digital and data literacy, communication skills, teamwork, all of those professional things that are really going to help you in your career.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-743\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"674\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB1-1.jpg 674w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB1-1-300x196.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 674px) 100vw, 674px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Jenny Barker \u2013 Career Development Consultant<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Another thing that I\u2019d recommend that you do is investigate potential graduate programs that are relevant to your degree program. There\u2019s two great websites for that: <a href=\"https:\/\/gradaustralia.com.au\/\">GradAustralia<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/au.gradconnection.com\/\">GradConnection<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/careerhub.flinders.edu.au\/\">CareerHub<\/a>, we also have job vacancies where we include internships, graduate programs and a range of resources that we link to for volunteer work.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-744\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"718\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB2-1.jpg 718w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB2-1-300x213.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 718px) 100vw, 718px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>What are the Benefits of Volunteer Work and Internships?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jenny: The benefits of doing volunteer work, internships and vacation programs are really in developing your transferrable skills, testing your interests \u2013 internships can be a really great way to get practical experience and turn theory into practice \u2013 and build relationships, so making connections and getting new referees.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a fantastic website called <a href=\"https:\/\/dosomethingnearyou.com.au\/\">Do Something Near You<\/a> which means you don\u2019t actually have to go very far to find some volunteering opportunities. Volunteering and internships are a great way to feel like you\u2019re contributing to broader society, building feelings of wellbeing, connection with others, and confidence. Particularly if you\u2019re full-time looking for work, this can be a great way to get out there and meet others.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-745\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB3-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"407\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB3-1.jpg 780w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB3-1-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB3-1-768x401.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>How Do You Find Opportunities? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ursula: Start by <strong>asking around<\/strong>: friends, family, other students that you study with, lecturers. We know that a lot of job opportunities are in the hidden job market. Up to 80% of jobs aren\u2019t advertised!<\/p>\n<p>The next thing I\u2019d recommend is to <strong>subscribe to a bunch of job alerts<\/strong>: Seek.com.au, LinkedIn, Volunteering SA and NT. Pick specific organisations that you might want to work for and go to their websites. They often have places where you can register your name and get any alerts to jobs that are coming up.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What Traps Should You Look Out For?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ursula: The first trap to look out for, partiuclarly when you\u2019re applying for jobs, is <strong>don\u2019t assume that the employer knows anything about you or your past experience<\/strong>, for exmaple a past job. Give as much detail as possible, particualrly aroun the key duties or responsibilities you\u2019ve had on a job. Assume they know nothing about you and make sure your resume and cover letter really tell a story about who you are, what your skills are, and what your strengths are.<\/p>\n<p>The second thing is to <strong>be really prepared<\/strong>. Maybe have an elevator pitch ready to go, particularly if you get an unexpected phone call from an employer. You want to make sure you can really summarise your skills and why you\u2019re interested in that position and organisation.<\/p>\n<p>When you are looking for positions, <strong>make sure that your resume and cover letter are tailored to the actual job<\/strong> and organisation you\u2019re looking at. That\u2019s probably the biggest thing that we see going wrong!<\/p>\n<p>Finally, make sure you <strong>have some sort of system or tool to keep track of all the job and volunteering opportunities that you\u2019re applying for<\/strong>. That way you won\u2019t get caught out when you get an unexpected phone call from an employer. So use a tool like Excel or Trello so you can keep track of everything you\u2019ve applied for, who was the contact, and what was the job about.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-746\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB4-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"556\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB4-1.jpg 556w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB4-1-300x214.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 556px) 100vw, 556px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Any Last Tips?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jenny: Really, you can use your summer, everything and anything you pick up during that time, as long as you\u2019re moving towards your career goals, getting out there and taking advantage of opportunities. Remember that any casual work you pick up is a really important foundation for transferrable skills and they are really valuable in the workplace. If you can, look for sector experience, things that are linked to your interests and your career goals. But if you find that you\u2019re applying elsewhere, remember you\u2019re testing your interests, learning new things about yourself, and you\u2019re getting out there and having a go.<\/p>\n<p>Ursula: Remember it can take a few goes, so just be open, stay curious, keep looking out for opportunities and have fun with it. It\u2019s a great experience to meet new people. Enjoy learning about all the skills and strengths that you can offer.<\/p>\n<p>Jenny: There are a whole raft of resources for where you can go to learn more about volunteering opportunities, grad programs, vacation work and internships. Go to CareerHub to start with, it\u2019s available to all students on your OKTA dashboard. We have a whole range of resources there for you to update your resume, cover letter etc. Generally, let your fingers do the walking: a lot of desktop research!<\/p>\n<p>Ursula: I\u2019d also check out what\u2019s happening here at Flinders. There\u2019s likely to be a lot learning opportunities and workshops over the summer break.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-747\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB5.jpg 650w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2020\/10\/LB5-289x300.jpg 289w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Thanks so much to Ursula and Jenny. I\u2019ve linked to those resources at the bottom: remember that <a href=\"https:\/\/careerhub.flinders.edu.au\/\">CareerHub<\/a> is the place to go for that first entrance into that information.<\/p>\n<p>This is, as I said, the last episode of Like a Boss for this series so thank you so much if you\u2019ve been watching and I hope you\u2019ve found it useful. A big thank you to Associate Professor Lydia Woodyatt, Dr Gareth Furber, and Melissa Veale and Stephanie Walker at Student Experience. Remember the Student Learning Support Service have been working on a range of new resources \u2013 including a new exam study guide \u2013 and are running exam workshops during weeks 12 and 13.<\/p>\n<p>Good luck with those last assignments and best with your exams! I hope you all enjoy your summer break and that I\u2019ll see you all online or on campus soon!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CareerHub: <a href=\"https:\/\/careerhub.flinders.edu.au\/\">https:\/\/careerhub.flinders.edu.au\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>GradAustralia: <a href=\"https:\/\/gradaustralia.com.au\/\">https:\/\/gradaustralia.com.au\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>GradConnection: <a href=\"https:\/\/au.gradconnection.com\/\">https:\/\/au.gradconnection.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Do Something Near You: <a href=\"https:\/\/dosomethingnearyou.com.au\/\">https:\/\/dosomethingnearyou.com.au\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Volunteering SA\/NT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.volunteeringsa-nt.org.au\/\">https:\/\/www.volunteeringsa-nt.org.au\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>LinkedIn Learning: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/learning\/me\">https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/learning\/me<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi all and welcome to the last Like a Boss of the season! For the last few weeks, we\u2019ve been talking about exams: how you can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1350,"featured_media":748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,119,1693,1548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-students","category-college-of-business-government-and-law","category-like-a-boss","category-student-success"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}