NEXT STEPS: Using Career Conversation to Develop Your Professional Self-Presentation Skills

The best way to develop your professional self-presentation is to have conversations with professionals in your preferred industry sector. It gives you practice in describing your previous experience relevantly and helps you develop the right professional tone and terminology which will help you in writing application documents and speaking fluently at interviews. You will find more ideas on how to capitalise conversations in our resource on Informational Interviewing. 

Useful career conversations can take place in a number of ways: 

• The Queen Mary Careers and Enterprise team offer careers guidance appointments, CV and application advice appointments, and practice interviews - visit the Careers website for more information and to book an appointment. 
  
• Informal networking with family of friends and friends of family. If you know anyone socially who works in your preferred professional sector, take the opportunity to ask them about recruitment conventions and skills and experience that you would be wise to emphasise in your applications and profiles. If they have actual recruitment experience, they may give you useful comment on your CV or Linked In profile.
• Contacts that you meet through events at professional associations or through your Department/University. Attending careers events is a great way to network and build your professional network - Queen Mary runs a range of different events all year round. You might get the opportunity to ask questions at speaker events or over networking drinks. Be prepared with questions such as "What do you look for when you are recruiting a graduate?" and "What are your CV pet hates?" Their answers may give you invaluable insights into the recruiters' mindset.

Remember that to complete this module, you will need to complete AT LEAST 1 HOUR OF CAREER CONVERSATIONS - WHO WILL YOU TALK TO?