Career planning:
Self-assessment and
opportunity awareness
Salla Niittymäki
Project Manager / Pajatso Project
HAMK University of Applied Sciences
Salla.niittymaki@hamk.fi
0400 127 815
www.hamk.fi
Content
• Materials and links
1. Career planning
2. Self-assessment
3. Opportunity awareness
www.hamk.fi
Materials
• Advanced Techniques for Work Search (Alberta, CA)
• Valtti workbooks:
– Aikkola, R. (2011). Job hunting skills. Workbook. Vaasa
University of Applied Sciences.
– Aikkola, R. (2011). Recognise your opportunities. Workbook for
students. VaasaUniversity of Applied Sciences.
– http://www.valmistu.net/fi/tuloksia/materiaalit_ja_julkaisut/tyokirja
t_opiskelijoille/
• Toolkit for HEIs: http://www.studentintegration.fi/
• Monster.com Career Advice: http://careeradvice.monster.com/
www.hamk.fi
1. Career planning
www.hamk.fi
www.careerealism.com
www.hamk.fi
“Every student can have
a career in the future,
but not every student is
aware of the possibility
that they can shape
their future careers.”
www.ahlanjobs.com
Mark L. Savickas
www.hamk.fi
What is a career?
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Series of jobs
Progress, vertical movement
Profession, movement between certain kind of tasks
Individual, sequential choices - life career
Self-satisfying progress and professional development
Growth in competence, skills, know-how and expertise
Development process of professional identity (or even
personality)
Source: University of Oulu, Career Services
www.hamk.fi
Introduction to career planning
• Career planning is an ongoing process that started
already when you chose your field of study and
continues throughout your studies and after
graduation as you enter the professional world.
• Many people think that it is not possible to plan your
career in advance, but it helps you to achieve your goals
and make the most of upcoming opportunities if you are
aware of your skills and abilities, and know how to
benefit them when these opportunities arise.
www.hamk.fi
Career planning is…
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Continuous, dynamic process
Recognizing your personal skills, potential and know-how
Estimating and evaluating yourself and your personality
Reviewing your values and interests
Searching for possibilities
Evaluating your choices
Considering your realistic options
Making decisions and taking action
Source: University of Oulu, Career Services
www.hamk.fi
Career planning themes
JOB HUNTING
SKILLS
Documents and
interview skills
DECISION MAKING AND
ACTION PLANNING
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Skills and knowledge,
areas of interests,
goals, values, personality
OPPORTUNITY
AWARENESS
Career life expectations
and requirements, trends,
employment and employability
www.hamk.fi
Happenstance Learning Theory
• Happenstance Learning Theory is an explanation on
how and why individuals follow their different paths
through life and how counselors can facilitate this
process.
• Planned and unplanned situations = learning
experiences
• Every situation can be seen as presenting potential
opportunities, if individuals can recognize them and then
take action to capitalize on them.
www.hamk.fi
HLT continues…
• When you become aware of unplanned events in your life, you can
also become more aware of the opportunities that are out there, but
may not be right by “your door”.
• Every action involves some risk, and it is important to evaluate the
potential benefits in relation to the cost and effort. The idea is simply
based on taking advantage of opportunities to meet new people and
getting involved in something new.
• There are three steps in controlling unplanned events:
1.
2.
3.
Before the unplanned event, you take actions that position you to
experience it
During the event, you remain alert and sensitive in order to recognize
potential opportunities
After the event, you initiate actions that enable you to benefit from it
www.hamk.fi
Four propositions of HLT
in Career Guidance
1.The goal of career counseling is to help students learn to
take actions to achieve a more satisfying career and
personal lives – not to make a single career decision.
2.Assessments are used to stimulate learning, not to match
personal characteristics with occupational characteristics.
3.Students learn to engage in exploratory actions as a way
of generating beneficial unplanned events.
4.The success of counseling is assessed by what the
student accomplishes in the real world outside the
counseling session.
by John D. Krumboltz
www.hamk.fi
Exercise
Discuss in small groups (10 min):
1. Why did you choose your degree
program and this University?
2. What is your situation right now? What is
your next big career-related decision?
3. What are your personal goals for this
course?
www.hamk.fi
2. Self-assessment
www.hamk.fi
Self-assessment
JOB HUNTING
SKILLS
Documents and
interview skills
DECISION MAKING AND
ACTION PLANNING
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Skills and knowledge,
areas of interests,
goals, values, personality
OPPORTUNITY
AWARENESS
Career life expectations
and requirements, trends,
employment and employability
www.hamk.fi
Self-assessment
• Self-assessment makes the foundation for planning your
career.
• Self-assessment helps you identify and recognize the
abilities, skills and special expertise that you have to
offer for the right employers.
– All the applicants have a lot of skills and knowledge – those who can
the best market themselves, will be noted.
www.hamk.fi
Skills and know-how
• Starting point for job seeking process
– Identifying your skills and know-how
– Ability to describe them with examples,
achievements and things learned
• Know and believe in your personal
competence, but also recognize the areas
you need to develop
Source: University of Oulu, Career Services
www.hamk.fi
Experience and competence
• What kind of competences and skills do you have?
• Do you have some special skills that you could emphasis?
• In what kind of assignments have you succeeded best in your
previous jobs? Why?
• What kind of assignments have been the most challenging / difficult
for you? Why?
• What kind of skills and competences do you need to develop / gain
more?
• What is your best achievement so far?
• What have you learned from your previous employments?
Source: University of Oulu, Career Services
www.hamk.fi
Self-assessment
• Skills can be divided into two categories:
1) work-specific/technical skills (such as knowing how to use specific
computer program or repair a broken engine)
2) employability/transferable skills (fundamental, personal and
teamwork skills you need to succeed in every work situations)
• Remember that besides of studying and working you
probably have hobbies or other leisure activities that
also have developed your skills and remember to
mention them if they are relevant considering the job
you are applying for.
www.hamk.fi
Competence categories
Source:
www.hamk.fi
www.hamk.fi
Questions
• What do you think these numbers mean in
connection with work and career:
– 50
–8
–6
–3
• Name three aspects of career fulfilment?
www.hamk.fi
Questions - answers
• What do you think these numbers mean in
connection with work and career:
– 50 years of work
– 8 hours of work per day
– 6 career changes
– 3 new professions in the future that do not
exist today
• Name three aspects of career fulfilment
– The salary is not all?
www.hamk.fi
Excercise
• Draw a timeline of your career uptil now
– Summer jobs
– Part-time jobs
– Full-time jobs
– Volunteer jobs
– Hobbies
– Events
www.hamk.fi
www.careerealism.com
Excercise
• Draw your network mind map – who are
your contacts abroad and in Finland, e.g.:
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Family, friends, acquintances
Hobbies, volunteering
Schools, teachers, lecturers, classmates, alumni
Workplaces, colleagues
Projects and project teams
Social networks including social media
Professional networks
Associations, organisations, companies
www.hamk.fi
Self-assessment in connection
with career planning:
Values
Interests
Personality
Skills
• Things that are important
• Things I like to do
• Things that suit me
• Things I can do
www.hamk.fi
www.upstarta.com.au
www.hamk.fi
Company requirements
Can you do the job?
Will you do the job?
Personality - Attitude
Will you fit in the industry/company culture?
www.hamk.fi
19 transferable skills that will be the
most valuable in the future:
http://www.businessinsider.com/valuabletransferrable-skills-of-the-future-2013-8
www.hamk.fi
Excercise
• Identifying skills (Job Hunting Skills Workbook,
excercise 2.2., page 6) -> choose 2 skills from
the list to do the following table:
Skill / quality
Description
Skills
E.g.
Organising skills
E.g.
I organised a student event at
university
E.g.
Negotiation, coordination,
presentation, coming up with
ideas
• Conversation: What do you think, what kinds of
skills are especially important in Finnish
workplaces?
www.hamk.fi
Exercise: TAITO-URA
• Use TAITO-URA self-assessment tool to
explore your personality traits, knowledge
and skills. TAITO-URA provides you with a
report of the self-assessment results. You
can save the report and print it out for later
use, such as job seeking.
• TAITO-URA in English:
http://www.uraohjaus.net/DefaultUK.aspx
www.hamk.fi
3. Opportunity awareness
www.hamk.fi
Opportunity awareness
JOB HUNTING
SKILLS
Documents and
interview skills
DECISION MAKING AND
ACTION PLANNING
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Skills and knowledge,
areas of interests,
goals, values, personality
OPPORTUNITY
AWARENESS
Career life expectations
and requirements, trends,
employment and employability
www.hamk.fi
Opportunity awareness
• Self-assessment provides a framework for opportunity
awareness.
• Opportunity awareness is about gathering information
and looking around, getting to know the opportunities
that are out there.
• After self-assessing you have a better understanding
who you are and what can you do, what kind of values
are important to you, and what your possible dreams
and aims for the future are, you can evaluate these
ideas in terms of potential opportunities that professional
life has to offer for you in Finland and abroad.
www.hamk.fi
Opportunity awareness
• Often students do not have a lot of work experience or connections
to companies, so use your studying time to gather these. Excellent
ways to connect with professionals of your own field of expertise:
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Thesis
Work placement
Project works
Company visits
Events with guest speakers etc.
• Make use of all your connections – people you meet in your hobbies
and other leisure activities can be useful also when it comes to job
seeking.
• Network with different people (e.g. LinkedIn) and keep your eyes
open everywhere you go. Let people know you are looking for a job
– somebody might know somebody, who could offer you a job.
www.hamk.fi
What are the companies?
Where to find them?
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Industry and trade association websites, for example:
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http://teknologiateollisuus.fi/en/member-register/
http://www.rakennusteollisuus.fi/en/
Company registers of regional business associations, for example:
– http://yritykset.kehittamiskeskus.com/index.asp?lang=eng
– http://yritykset.fskk.fi/
– http://yritykset.yritysvoimala.fi/
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Company web pages, especially career pages, for example:
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General search engines, for example:
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http://www.vahanen.com/In-English/Work-at-Vahanen
http://www.kauppalehti.fi/5/i/yritykset/yrityshaku/
http://www.finder.fi/yrityshaku
LinkedIn
Job advertisements and job portals - you might not be able to apply for the
position they have open, but from advertisements you can get information
about jobs and companies, and also contact information
www.hamk.fi
Engineering jobs
• See descriptions of engineering jobs and
examples at monster.com:
http://career-advice.monster.com/jobsearch/company-industryresearch/Engineering-StimulusJobs/article.aspx
www.hamk.fi
Excercise
• Towards a career (Job hunting skills
workbook, excercise 4.)
• My expectations regarding work (Job
hunting skills workbook, excercise 4.1.,
pages 22-24)
• Employer’s expectations (Job hunting
skills workbook, excercise 4.2., pages 2528)
www.hamk.fi
Decision making and action planning
JOB HUNTING
SKILLS
Documents and
interview skills
DECISION MAKING AND
ACTION PLANNING
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Skills and knowledge,
areas of interests,
goals, values, personality
OPPORTUNITY
AWARENESS
Career life expectations
and requirements, trends,
employment and employability
www.hamk.fi
Decision making and
action planning
• Think carefully what is it that you really want and what are
the places to find it
• Apply only to jobs that you really are interested in and
have the competences needed (ground rule of 70 %) –
don’t waste your and the employer’s time
• Contact companies and get to know your own field of
business/technology in Finland (or in other target country)
– Search company websites and reports, Fonecta Finder etc.
www.hamk.fi
Where to find jobs
• LinkedIn
– Company pages and different kind of professional groups
– Job groups, for example: eJobs, Uratärpit
• Facebook
– Company pages
– Job groups, for example: Työpaikat opiskelijoille - Student Jobs Tampere, Lahti
and other cities
– Some recruiters use Facebook to target job advertisements to potential
candidates
• Twitter
– Search hashtags, for example: #jobs, #career, #hiring, #työpaikat, #rekry
• 80 % of jobs are hidden - to find these, use people and networks
you know: teachers, project work contacts, guest lecturers, friends,
family, people form your hobbies etc…
www.hamk.fi
Job portals
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Monster
Uratie
Oikotie
Aarresaari
ejobs
Jobstep.net
Kuntarekry
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www.hamk.fi
JustRecruitMe
TalentMatch
Jobsafari
Uranus
TE-palvelut (ent. MOL)
Työpaikat.com
MyTech
Recruiting companies
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www.studentwork.fi
http://www.academicwork.com/
https://www.barona.fi/for-employees?sc_lang=en
http://www.raukola.fi/pages/etusivu.php
http://www.adecco.fi/en-GB/default.aspx
https://www.staffpoint.fi/
http://vmp.fi/Suomi/fi/Etusivu/
www.eilakaisla.fi
www.opteam.fi
www.hamk.fi
Job advertisements
• The majority of job advertisements are published online
in different job portals
• Many companies have careers websites where open
vacancies are published, but not all vacancies are
publicly open
• Note that you can also send open applications to
companies or call and ask about employment
possibilities
• Read the job advertisement carefully and analyze the
requirements for the position available. Get to know the
company and its’ products, get to know the position you
are applying for
www.hamk.fi
Exercise
• How to be prepared for a phone call?
• Prepare for a phone call you would make to
potential work shadowing place
• Rehearse in pairs: make imaginary phone calls
to each other
• Think about the benefits for the company –
why should they take you for a day to
”shadow” them doing their job?
www.hamk.fi
Information Interview
Why Information Interviews?
1. To get valuable information for your job hunting and career
planning. It is a good reality check!
2. To learn about particular organization, how you might fit in, and
what needs the employer has
3. It may lead to an Internship or further employment
Who Might I Contact?
• An information interview is an appointment that you schedule with a
particular individual for the purpose of gaining current, regional and
specialized information from an ”insider” point of view.
• A person who has a same academic major, interest, enthusiasm or
involvement in some activity or lifestyle, work in a setting you like or
in a career area you are interested in.
www.hamk.fi
Exercise: Information interview
• Phase 1: Think of organizations that work with things that you would
like to work with in the future.
• Phase 2: Find a person from who is doing work that you are
interested in. If possible, try to find a person who has graduated from
the Uni. Helsinki and studied the same field you are studying. (or
something similar).
• Phase 3: Arrange an information interview (some 30-60 minutes),
preferably at the workplace of the person who is interviewed. Ask
questions that are relevant to you.
• Phase 4: Write a report of the interview. Have the person you
interviewed read it. Ask permission to publish the report in the Moodle
course page. The interwee can be anonymous in the report, if they
want to. (Research Scientist X, University Y)
www.hamk.fi