Joondalup Campus Career Hub for students.
Students participating in a Careers event on campus.
At ECU, we have a team of people who help students to prepare for a future career in a specific field. They even help you work out what career might be the best fit.
A really important part of getting you prepared for a future career is building your 'personal brand'.
To be competitive and to attract the attention of recruiters or business managers, you'll need to understand more about yourself. What do you stand for? What are your short and medium-term goals? What have you already done in the workforce? Who else knows about your abilities?
This is more than putting a great résumé together.
Building a personal brand involves things like networking and the skills needed to do this effectively. It's also about joining groups to build your profile – either on a social network like LinkedIn or an actual professional association.
It even involves creating your unique 'elevator pitch' where you have 30 seconds to tell someone about you, and why they should employ you.
Your personal brand is a 3-year project
The good news is you don't have to do all of this in a hurry! You have the length of your degree – typically 3 years – to work on your personal career project.
It's why ECU's Get Career Ready program has been designed to work with you from your first year until the end of your final year.
The program is broken into 3 parts – First Year, Middle Year/s and Final Year. Over time, it builds up your skills in areas like interviewing, leadership, application writing and job search.
The program is also about exposing you to new experiences that help to build your personal brand. So we'll help you find volunteering opportunities and other work experience, like casual or vacation employment.
You'll also meet potential employers through ECU-run events like Career Fairs and 'Meet the Employer' workshops.
Career building as part of your course
Another good thing about studying at ECU is that many of our courses include the chance to participate in what we call Work Integrated Learning, or WIL. It's where you're placed in an organisation that employs people with your background and training.
It also gives you a 'taste' of whether you're heading in the right direction.
Our WIL program is understandably popular, and many graduates have been offered jobs with those same employers.
Courses also offer you study tours and even study abroad options where you'll study for a semester at a university in another country.
So don't stress about being career or job ready just yet. We'll make sure it's part of your university education.
