We don’t have many students from Peru, and as this vacancy is specifically targeted at Manchester students from Peru, I thought I would give it an extra push. If you are from Peru, please read on:

Full time jobs, based Peru

• Managing Instruments for financial valorization

• Developing financial software (investment)

The British Council in China are coming over to the UK to deliver a series of career workshops for Chinese students currently studying in the UK and planning to return to China after graduation. They are also bringing with them a number of senior executives from major organisations in China to share information about the graduate job market and how best to boost your employability. 

The workshops take place during the next 2-3 weeks and happen only once every two – three years. If you don’t want to miss out, please download the attached publicity information with link to sign up options.

I attended one of these events over 2 years ago and it was very popular. It was all in Mandarin (making it a little difficult to understand at the time!). However, a student translated the event for me, and I can assure you that it is well worth attending. If I could push anything, I would push this…

So here is everything you need to know on the Employability Workshop Invitation to Students.  Book early to avoid disappointment!

Yes, I know that it is not conveniently located in Manchester, but a train to London only takes 2 hours, and if you book early enough in advance it can be pretty cheap too.

If you wondered when all the graduate scheme closing dates were, and how seen you need to start crafting your “perfect answers to tough application form questions”, then worry not, help is at hand.

A member of our resource team has lovingly put together a handy chart of the closing dates for the coming months, plus a list of the “recruit all year round” recruiters.

To read more, and download the chart, please see the blog posting on the Postgraduate Careers blog last week (Elizabeth managed to blog about this too). She has also put on some rather fetching images of the two directories from where the information came.

The good news -  you now have a handy list; you can  pick up a free directory from the Careers Service with all the info in, and you even have an image of it too, so you know what you are looking for. On the downside though, it is worth remembering that this list only covers those firms who paid to be listed in these guides. There are lots more firms recruiting alongside this.

To maximise your chances of keeping on top of deadlines, just ensure that you have registered to receive job vacancy emails from the Careers Service website. It will also inform you of extended closing dates and new deadlines too.  If it’s something that we know about, then you will too.

Happy typing.

Just a quick one to let you know about this recruitment fair – Careers in Asia.  Unlike other graduate fairs in the UK, you have to apply in advance to attend. If an exhibitor at the fair wants to interview you, you will be invited along (with the chance of further interviews on the day). It is competitive to get a place on these fairs, so a quality application is always advised.

Global Career Company also run a number of these fairs.. including ones for

Careers in Africa

Careers in Eastern Europe

Careers in The Middle East.

Take a look online for more details of their forthcoming fairs. Also, take a look at our webchat with Global Career Company online last year, we still have the transcript online to view. You may find some useful tips there.

We tried it in the Summer, and it worked well. Now we are pleased to offer it again to Japanese students.

If you are a Japanese student, or can speak fluent Japanese, we will have a live link up with careers professionals in Japan taking place in December. If you want to find out more about returning to Japan, graduate opportunities and what recruiters are looking for, this event is perfect.   (nb) if you are not a Japanese speaker, you are welcome to attend, but you may struggle.. .the video conference will be delievered entirely in Japanese!

BEO, a unique careers service in Japan will be delivering the video conferenced presentation and will be available to answer all your questions.

To find out more about BEO please see their website, and to sign up for the event please see the listing on our Careers Service website.

… well it may be that it has already been answered.

In the past week or so, there have been a couple of webchat specials all about work visas for international students taking place. You can now view the transcripts for both chats online. This gives the text of the questions asked and answers posted.

To view the chats you can go to our general webchat page or view the specific chats at: 2nd November and 23rd October.

… take a look at this Placement Fair & Career Development Day coming up on Wednesday 25th November – 12.30 pm – 3.30 pm at the John Dalton Building, Oxford Road (opposite BBC).    (5 minutes walk down the road)

Although this is being organised and hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University, this career fair below is open to Manchester students too, who are welcome to attend. .

Here is the promotional information from the fair organisers:

The Fair is a fantastic opportunity for students seeking placements, internships, projects, vacation work or graduate positions. Come along and network with employers and gain professional advice about the opportunities available.

Open to students studying on any year of any course but may be of particular interest to those studying; Business, Marketing, Accounting, Finance, IT, Computing, Law, Media, Advertising and PR.

Exhibiting organisations include; Kellogg’s, Deloitte, General Motors, MC2, Aldi, Barclays, Grant Thornton, Rate My Placement, Cobbetts, Zurich, SSL International, HSBC, Enterprise Rent a Car, Jepson Holt, Pro Manchester, Willis, Manchester Masters, IBM, Kintish, The Co-operative Group, The Rainmaker Academy, DWF, Adidas, Ralli Solicitors, Oxygen, Outokumpu Stainless Ltd, KPMG, Wireless CCTV & Cellhire, Weber Shandwick, HSBC, Heath Lambert, GMPTE, Aviva Insurance and Financial Services Skills Council

Find out what it is like to work for a particular company or in a particular sector by attending one of four employer led workshops. You can register for these on the day.

Find out more and pre-register online now at: 

http://www.business.mmu.ac.uk/placements/placementfair

You can also find a listing of the workshops taking place on this Placement Fair Flyer Nov 09.

 If you are not sure about what to expect from a UK recruitment fair, please take a look at one of my recent postings here. There may be more flexibility at this fair, with companies perhaps accepting CVs or inviting you for interview, but don’t be surprised if companies do refer you to their online forms. Having said that, it is no bad thing, you can go away &  put together a stunning application based on your insights from the fair.

Hello, hope you all had a good weekend. Lots going on for Japanese students to tell you about this week. In this post I have news of a company coming to the UK to do a presentation and also the opportunity to attend an international recruitment fair for Japanese/English bilinguals.. held in USA! 

  (and look out for the second Japan posting this week on a live video conference with Japan too – very exciting)

1) Recruiter presentation:

We have been informed of a Japanese glass company - Asahi Glass Company - who are coming to the UK to recruit Japanese speakers . They are delivering a company presentation to students/graduates at The University of York on 19th November, and University of Manchester students are very welcome to attend.

All the details are cunningly disguised (in Japanese) in the attachment below, but from what I can tell it will take place from 2pm – 5pm and there will be an opportunity for group interviews on the day, so well worth considering. I can also re-assure you that York is not too far away by train and it is a great historical city to visit whilst in the UK.  You can also do all your journey planning online on the National Rail site.

All the details are included in Asahi Presentation : York including more about Asahi, their opportunities and how to register to attend.

… 2) USA recruiter event for Japanese/English bilinguals.

Another exciting opportunity for Japanese students or fluent Japanese / English speakers. The annual Boston Career Forum will be taking place on 20th – 22nd November, 2009 in Boston USA and is the largest career fair in the world for Japanese/English bilinguals. Last year there were an impressive 172 companies and 5,484 jobseekers attending, including  137 English-Japanese speaking students from the UK and also 7 students from the University of Manchester.  This year 10 students from The University of Manchester have already registered to attend. You can find out all the details on the Career Forum’s website and there are also opportunities to win scholarships towards the travel costs.

Here is some further information from the organisers to tempt you further:

“Global companies based in Japan, the US and Europe will be attending the event in Boston with a view to hiring candidates who are bilingual in English and Japanese with the following backgrounds:

 * New graduates * Postgraduates i.e. MBAs, MA, PhD * Job seekers with work experience * Students seeking internships

 If you are bilingual in Japanese and English, then we strongly recommend this opportunity to meet some of the most sought after global employers. If you are interested in registering for this event, please register on the Career Forum site.  (There is no fee to register or attend the job fair.)

If you have any questions, please contact us at info@discointer.co.uk  We look forward to seeing you at the Boston Career Forum 2009!

Sometimes it’s hard to know where is the best place to get help with your queries.. and one area of confusion is often aroudn work visa/immigration queries. Is it the Careers Service, is it the International Advice Team.. is it somewhere else?

As a general rule of thumb, if its a general question relating to employers / the world of work and visas then the Careers Service can be a good starting point. If it is anything to do with your own visas, questions unique to your situation or applying for a particular visa… it is best to contact the International Advice Team in the Student Service Centre. They are the only ones who can give personalised visa advice…. and the only team best placed to do this too.

However, on Monday, the two services are coming together.  The Careers Service will be hosting a webchat online for international students about work visas. However, representatives from the International Advice Team will be guests on the chat and will be able to answer your queries online. If you have any questions about immigration regulations, work visas or your own personalised situation, do join the chat.

If you want to take part in the chat – either just watch the conversations unfold, or ask your own questions – sign up online now. There is no limit to numbers and everyone is welcome, you just need a “nickname” to chat.

Full details are online. See you Monday.

Well, for this post I am going to contradict myself heavily.. and promote something that I don’t necessarily believe in.. but hey, what’s wrong with a bit of controversy on a Wednesday morning? Today’s post is about University rankings.

There are mixed views in the world of higher education about the use of University rankings and much controversy within institutions about whether they are a fair reflection of an institution, its comparative position, and what that means for a student studying there.

Personally, having seen where Manchester has come over the years in different surveys.. the huge inconsistency of measures and tools for employability measures and the distorted view that they can give, I am not a huge fan of rankings. Granted, they do give an “quick and easy” tool for making comparisons … yes that it true… but should a your choice of institution be based on “quick and easy”… I’ll let you decide.  Similarly, just being at an institution does not confer academic prowess, or employability. It’s how you make the most of the opportunities whilst you are there that counts.

Anyway, some people love them, and if you are a fan of rankings… you may be interested to see this.

“The University of Manchester has climbed up three places and is now ranked number 26 in the table of the world’s top 200 universities (Times Higher Education 2009). In particular, the ranking includes the results of an employer survey of 3,281 major graduate employers, making up 10 per cent of the overall result.  In this category, we were one of only six universities in the UK to score a perfect 100.  This evidence confirmed how highly rated The University of Manchester is amongst graduate recruiters”. 

The full table is also online: www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/Rankings2009-Top200.html

 The other world ranking is the Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Again, this is also not without its share of controversy, but if you like rankings…