On Wednesday we kicked off the day at Macquarie where we heard four Macquarie female employees talk about their careers.

After lunch we heard from Taye Morris from UNSW Careers and Employment about “Making the Most of Your University Career Services.” Taye emphasized that career help from a Career Services Office is free while one is a student, but that afterward many colleges only offer such services for a fee. She recommended that students avail themselves of the following specific opportunities:

-Employer events

-Opportunity to be videotaped while giving presentation

-One on one assistance

-Check out the career library and see if your college subscribes to Vault.

-Participate in mentoring programs.

-Attending Career expos and specialist career fairs (Hint: A fair is not just an opportunity to get free stuff. Don’t just grab things. Introduce yourself at career fair. Pose intelligent questions. You can fastrack yourself in the career process if you know WHO you’re talking to and what questions to ask. Young graduates at the expo can offer you background on how to get through recruitment process. Just keep in mind that they are promoting the company. However, the young graduates are not the decision makers. Look for the HR person or partner and focus on them. )

Taye recommended that students get involved in student club and societies because employers like to see that you’re involved, that you’ve organized events and been in a leadership role. If you start up your own society, that’s impressive as well. Career Services can also be helpful as you run or start up a club. They can provide speakers and contacts for events. As they have expertise in planning events, they might be able to facilitate and plan the event.

The Four-Year Plan

First Year

Focus: Exploring Interests and expanding options.

-Establish good time management and study skills.

-Jon an activity or student organization.

-Acquire computer skills by familiarizing yourself with word processing and various types of software.

-Take courses that interest you while fulfilling your academic goals.

-Visit your Career Services office and start researching various majors and careers.

-Seek a part time or vacation internship to gain valuable experience.

Second Year

Focus: Narrowing educational and occupational options.

-Decide on a major.

-Concentrate on maintaining a competitive average overall.

-Become a leader in student organizations.

-Gather information about internships, volunteer and study abroad opportunities.

-Attend workshops on resume writing services to you can begin building a professional-looking resume.

-Speak to professionals in your field of interest and set up job shadowing opportunities.

Third Year

Focus: Gaining career-related work experience.

-Update your resume

-Establish relationships with those professors and supervisors from whom you want recommendations.

-Continue to build practical experience through internships, related part-time jobs, and student activities.

-Create a network of contacts.

-Attend workshops and career fairs.

-Check with your academic advisor to make sure you’re on track for graduation.

-Gather information on graduate options if you plan to further your education.

Final Year

Focus: Developing job search strategies.

-Organize your job search and send out resumes.

-Attend workshops on interview preparation.

-Attend Career Fairs and apply for graduate positions.

-Evaluate job offers and make decisions.

-Apply for post graduate study if you plan to further your education.

-Talk with a careers consultant to assist you in making the transition from university to work.

-Graduate!

Then we heard from Jess Kiely from the Frank Opportunities. In Entrepreneurship 101, Jess Kiely lead the participants in an entrepreneurship challenge. The winners received books donated by McGraw Hill. She urged attendees to commit to their journey in the worlds of Star Wars: “Do or do not. There is no try. “

Entrepreneurship Challenge

Your Market=Young Women 15-25 years old.

IDEA: Identify a need and solution for your market. Capture your idea on one piece of paper.

MARKETING: Identify and Develop THREE methods you would use to market your idea. Your total marketing budget is $500 and you must incorporate a Styrofoam cup in some way!

STRATEGIC ALLIANCES: Make a minimum of TWO deals with other business teams in the room today. Deals that will have you both “win.”

FINANCES: Identify your key start up and ongoing costs and how your team will finance those costs. Then decide on the price of your product/service.

THE PITCH: Now bring all of this information together and prepare a 3 minute presentation on your business.

You have 20 minutes!

The Broad Advantage teams put together some fantastic business plans in 20 minutes. One of my favorites was a bag that had a storage compartment at the bottom specially designed for holding a spare pair of shoes. This could make switching from flats to high heels much easier!

Key Take-Aways from FRANK Team

Attitude

-Find something you’re passionate about.

-Have vision, see that vision every day and know it will come true.
-Know that YOU can do it.

-Don’t be afraid to be different.

-Take risks. Being an entrepreneur is risky and adventurous.

-Question everything.

-Never give up (but know and assess when it’s best to walk away.)

-Work hard.

-Practice infinite flexibility; expect and accept change.

the IDEA is where it all starts:

-Start with 1 or 2 great ideas and focus all of your energy on them.

-Make your idea unique.

-Know your competitive advantage and promote it all the time.

RESEARCH continually

-Thoroughly research your IDEA, customers, competitors, prices, costs, funding, etc.

-Seek out new and more information all the time.

-Get your hands on and read business books and those about other entrepreneurs. Stories of their successes (and failures) will inspire you and teach you some valuable lessons.

-Ask yourself why isn’t someone else doing your business idea? Maybe that research will tell you why it’s a not good idea or that your IDEA needs tweaking.

-Think about whether you can start small and test the market before going big.

LEARN more, more, more…

-Continually update and add to your skills.

Recognize and realize the skills you’re acquiring when running your business.

know your CUSTOMER

Develop a profile of your prospective customer know their age, geographic loctoin, income, level of education, etc. This will help you to market your product or service.

-Get testimonials from happy customers/clients to attract more customers.

CONNECT with others

-Start networking: get out there. Remember when you meet new people you don’t just meet them, you meet their whole network.

-Build a team of experts that you trust, and call on them for advice.

be PROTECTED

From the beginning, protect YOUR ideas they’re valuable!

-Know your rights and ensure they’re upheld.

-Be vigilant but not vengeful.

-Have written agreements/contracts for all types of partnerships.

MANAGE& MONITOR your MONEY

-Be confident with numbers or find someone who is!

-Monitor cash flow ALL THE TIME.

-Keep an accurate and up-to-date budget.

-Be able to read and interpret profile and loss reports.

Ensure consistent BRANDING

-Become aware of what ‘your brand’ is and ensure you communicate that brand consistently.

-Know that powerful impressions are made through your personal appearance, how you introduce yourself and your use of business cards, and that you only get one change to make a first impression.

Speaker Bios for Wednesday, July 9th 2008

Taye Morris
Manager of Careers and Employment at the University of New South Wales

Taye completed a Bachelor of Applied Psychology (Organisational) and began her career in HR Consulting and Psychological Assessment with Morgan & Banks (now Hudson). She has also worked as a Recruitment Consultant within the Banking, Finance and IT sectors and as an English Language Instructor in Tokyo.

Taye’s focus at UNSW Careers and Employment is to deliver education programs and advice that empowers students with the confidence and skills to attain their career objectives. In 2007, Taye co-ordinated the inaugural Lucy Mentoring Program at UNSW – a leadership program for female students in Business and Law.

Jessica Kiely
Director of The FRANK Team

Holding down a full time desk job isn’t Jessica Kiely’s style – because she’d prefer to run the company! Which would explain why Jessica has been running her own companies from the age of 19 – She is currently the Director of The FRANK Team (formerly Youth 2 Youth) and previously New Horizon Tutoring, her first ever business that she started at the age of 19.

An entrepreneur from an early age without really realising it, Jessica has never worked for anyone else having created her own employment since the end of school.

In addition to offering in-house tutoring for school students through New Horizon, her company The FRANK Team assists young people, young professionals and adults to build their career, business and enterprise skills through fun, interactive workshops, guest speaking and resources in schools, universities, councils, youth organisations and corporations.

With The FRANK Team, Jessica has taken an idea that she was told “would never work” to a national success story to show that people before profit does work. Her company has undergone amazing growth in the last year with the number of participants experiencing her programs hitting 30,000 this last financial year.

From its beginnings in her bedroom in 2001, The FRANK Team now has 4 full time and 1 part time staff and 27 facilitators across Australia, and the impact of their programs have been felt from Halls Creek in WA to King Island in Tasmania and everywhere in between. 2006 also saw The FRANK Team run its first truly international program with Jessica travelling to Bahrain in the Middle East to develop the leadership and skills of their young people.

The FRANK Team transforms skills & attitudes by making it fun to learn. Our authentic, fun and engaging presentations for youth, young professionals and those that work with them centre on career development, entrepreneurship and community work. We aim to inspire and empower people to make their career, business and community goals a reality.

In addition to running her business, Jessica has been a dance teacher – teaching jazz, contemporary and tap – for the past eight years. In her ‘spare’ time, Jessica loves working at her family’s sheep station near Mudgee in regional NSW.

Jessica’s key passions are equipping people with the skills to turn their ideas into a new business venture or community project, inspiring others to protect our environment, and working in collaboration with other passionate people in business.

“I love to combine my endless enthusiasm and teaching ability to encourage and empower all people I come in contact with to help them take their ideas and make them a reality.”

Jessica was featured in BRW as a Female Entrepreneur and was a 2005 NSW Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year Finalist.