Careers and Personal Development Module
Introduction
The material in this module has been compiled to give you some practical advice on best preparing yourself to obtain a "graduate job". Over the past 10-15 years or so the competition for such jobs has increased with:
- the growth in student numbers
- major structural changes in the economy and labour market.
No longer is it possible to assume that just getting a geography (or sociology, or anthropology, or economics, or whatever) degree will automatically see you go on to get a good job.
I have drawn on a variety of sources in putting the module together. While on study leave in the United Kingdom I kept a look out for things Departments of Geography over there were doing along these lines. By far the most impressive program I came across was that run by the Department of Geography at the University of Portsmouth and a substantial amount of the material presented in this module derives from the program offered there. Other material has been accumulated over the past few years from scanning the careers/employment pages of Australian newspapers. Yet other material has come from former students whom I have asked to give me written recaps of the application and interview processes they went through in winning good jobs. Other input has in turn been drawn from my experience over the years of answering employers' questions about job applicants who have used me as one of their referees.
I hope you find the material in the module useful in your search for good employment. The aim of course will be to further develop the module over the coming years. So if, in the light of your own job searching and interviewing experiences, you have information that would be worth adding to it please contact me.
Kevin McCracken
Phone: +61-2-9850 8388
Email: kevin.mccracken@mq.edu.au