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Wednesday, 22 March 2017

The head hunter and book author James Fairbairn visited University Hall (UniHall) to give the first career seminar in this year’s SPARK Series. “I want to make sure you can look back on your career and say ‘I lived up to my potential’”, James began his talk.

With over 5,000 interviews under his belt and 23 years in the recruiting industry, James spent the next 90 minutes sharing tips on what it takes to stand out from the crowd when job hunting.

During the application process, he stressed that the job portal ‘SEEK’ was not the be all and end all of a well-planned job hunt. James noted that “50% of jobs are obtained through personal networks”, highlighting that graduates need to leverage personal networks built up during study. A welcome reminder that being social pays off for those of us who neglect their friends to study all too often.

In one of the many anecdotes James told during his talk, he related how an acquaintance was suddenly sacked in the wake of the mining crash. Finding a new job fast was a matter of trawling through phone contacts and making the right coffee dates, not browsing online ads.

The seminar covered further topics: from the do’s and don’ts of resume writing to how to shake hands at an interview – dry and firm – and how to make effective use of the career networking site LinkedIn. All the topics covered were drawn from James’ book “Career Karma – Maximising your career potential”.

After the talk, a barrage of questions from residents awaited James and he spent almost half an hour answering even more after the seminar had concluded. Inviting all seminar participants to add him on LinkedIn, James spent his final minutes at UniHall signing copies of his book.

My inscription reads “May you be blessed with great Career Karma henceforth”. Hopefully, all of us at UniHall lucky enough to take part in the seminar will be similarly blessed. Just not those applying for the same job as me!

Story written by University Hall Academic Team Leader Armin Scheben

Media references

Kelly Sheppard, Marketing and Communications Officer University Hall, [email protected]

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