As promised yesterday, here are a few top tips of things you could do to help yourself, students and alumni, with personal and professional development with some great tools you can access online for free.

1. Go and checkout the Careers and Enterprise Online Hub. (There’s also a button on your Blackboard homepage). When you first enter, you’ll be asked 10 self-assessment questions on career confidence – exactly as the students are. All you have to do is slide the slider at the bottom from 1-10, then click next for the next question.
2. Once you’re in the Hub, under the ‘Popular Resources’ tab, I want to encourage you towards two main features (but I recommend you have a look at all of them)
   1. CV360 – you can upload your current CV, and it will give you 58 checks in a matter of seconds, and return it to you with comprehensive feedback. Again, if you do this, not only is it useful for your personal development, but you can encourage students to do the same! (Don’t worry, we can’t see your CVs). You really have to try this one out for yourself… our team definitely had fun comparing CV scores, and then watching them improve with easy edits!
   2. Interview Simulator – you can type, voice or video record yourself through the system, as it asks you 8 randomly generated questions each time, and gives you a minute to answer each one. You can also go through a catalogue of questions, and look at the tips on how to (and not to) answer interview questions. (Again, don’t worry – we can’t see your attempts. So if you’re in PJs or the cat crawls across the keyboard, don’t worry!)
3. One-to-one careers appointments continue to be available to students in a virtual capacity – students can book these under the Appointments tab in the Online Hub.
4. GradForce is a project born out of the Careers and Enterprise team, and is available for students in 3^rd year (or Alumni within 1 year of graduating) who are interested in staying in the Kent and Medway area after University, and are looking to work for a SME (small to medium sized enterprise). For more information, do look on the GradForce tab on the Careers and Enterprise Hub.

Don’t forget, all our Careers and Enterprise offer is available to all current students, and alumni within 3 years of graduation. We know this time now and ahead is tough, and we’re committed to supporting as many as we can through this uncertain time.

Any questions? Email us and we’ll be glad to help.

Susannah Taylor, Employability and Skills Officer