Uesd session 21.10.19

Lecturer : Caron Gangoo
Session 5
Date: 21st of October 2019

level 4 ABE EMPLOYABILITY &
SELF -DEVELOPMENT

What is a LINKEDIN.COM?
Students, have you EVER heard about LINKEDIN?
But actually, is it REALLY important ? And if so, why?
Because it hosts more than 500 million professional profiles, which means
nearly an unlimited supply of network connections and job opportunities. From
seeking a new job to maintaining your personal brand, LinkedIn is an important
part of being a full-fledged professional in any industry these days.

The POWER of LINKEDIN!
LinkedIn is still the most popular and largest professional
network/business-oriented social networking with 240
million active users right now out of more than
300 million registered members. More than 3 million
companies from all around the world have
official LinkedIn Company Pages.
Working professionals, employees, entrepreneurs, CEO’s
and job-seekers alike need to have an active presence on
the website.
LinkedIn is excellent for connecting with professionals
Like like-minded individuals, thought-leaders and people
in your industry or whom you share interests with.
Ask questions, share knowledge, get important
insights, know about upcoming events, gain
important information, know about job openings

It is very important to be in touch with people in your industry
or niche and build strong, long-lasting connections with them,
thanks to LinkedIn lets you do just that.
LinkedIn remains the best platform to promote yourself as
a professional
Your LinkedIn page is like your very own
personal online portal/page where you can list all
your achievements and accomplishments, details
about your job experience and skills, as well as

This information is shared with everyone who
you’re connected with, as well as other
professionals, head-hunters, CEO’s and
recruiters who might be looking for someone like
you and stumble upon your profile.
Use LinkedIn as a platform to advertise your
skills and build credibility as a professional
with a detailed, up-to-date and complete profile,
so that is impresses anyone who looks at it!
LinkedIn is the best place to get hired

LinkedIn can recommend job that match the details given in
your profile, as well as show job listings that are relevant to
you.
You can also visit company pages, track companies for any job
openings, individuals that may be leaving an organization
(which of course means that there might soon have openings
in said organization
LinkedIn allows you to remain on top of what’s happening
in the industry
At the end of the day, LinkedIn is just another social
networking website – which means people share stuff on it.
When you connect with your peers and colleagues, you
gain knowledge, information and insights about what’s
happening in your industry.
You remain updated and in touch with everything that’s
happening in your niche.

LinkedIn is a great way of being found on Google
LinkedIn has a lot of authority on Google.LinkedIn individual
(and company) pages tend to rank really well on Google.
So if you have a LinkedIn page for yourself, chances are
that if you were to Google your name, your LinkedIn page
will be one of the first results on the results page.
LinkedIn is an excellent way for recruiters or people you may
have met at a conference to look you up and know more about
you. This can be immense in terms of networking and staying
in touch with them, as well as expanding your network.

Why create a PROFILE on LINKEDIN?
Here are 7 important reasons :
1. You can tap into its powerful job board
Why is LinkedIn important for job seekers?
Let's start by THE VERY FIRST ONE : One can search its extremely versatile
robust job board — and even apply to jobs — through the networking platform.
Search jobs by keywords and location. Even if you're not actively seeking new
employment, you can set job alerts based on your career interests to regularly
receive email updates and stay ON ALERT.
Even If you're connected with co-workers and managers, you have the option to
turn on your “I'm interested” button : recruiters know you're open to hearing
about new opportunities. LinkedIn will hide this open invitation from folks at
our current company.

2. You can build your brand
Just like companies build their brands, it's important for you to build your
professional brand online. How do you stand out from
others in your industry? What makes you marketable?
Why should someone pay you six figures?
Personal websites are great for this, but they often come with extra costs — in
terms of MONEY but also on TIME, and hours and hours of building and
finessing, MAINTENANCE, SECURITY etc….
LinkedIn is a simple way to put your name on the professional map.

2. You can build your brand (cont)
Upload a professional profile picture and write a
powerful summary that emphasizes your strengths and
showcases your personality.
When recruiters, employers, co-workers, and managers
, they should be able to
gain a strong understanding of who you are and what
skills and VALUE you ARE LIKELY to put on the table.
In brief, WHAT makes you DESIRABLE PROFESSIONALLY ?

3. It can help rank your name on Google
Chances are, if you apply to a job, one of the first things an employer will
do is Google your name.
Here's why LinkedIn is important: Ranking on Google's first page can
be difficult, but LinkedIn is a well-known and powerful network — and
Google's into it. Because of that, it's typically easier to get your
LinkedIn page to rank on Google versus your homemade website or
online portfolio.
If your LinkedIn profile is the first thing a prospective employer will
see, then maybe it's time to get one ... or edit your existing one to
stand out among the crowd.

4. It improves contacts management and accessibility
It is merely impossible to remember every professional you met at all the
business forums, workshops, seminars, conferences. Instead of filling your desk
drawer with their business cards or adding their email addresses to your
outdated address book, add these to LinkedIn to reconnect at the right time's
5. Know BETTER companies and its employees
More and more companies maintain their own LinkedIn pages where they'll
update company information, share company news and insight, and showcase
current employees. If the company knows what it's doing, you should get a
good, solid feel for its culture and its people to make sure it's a fit for you before
diving into the interview process or accepting a job.

6. It can help you tap into industry news
Like other social networks, LinkedIn aggregates a timeline when you log in.
There, you'll find news updates from your connections, your groups, and your
company to keep tabs on industry trends and reports.
7. Network, network, network!
LinkedIn is such an important networking tool. Even if you're an introvert and
hate networking events, you can still build a very effective business network .
Through LinkedIn, you can build a relationship with mutual connections,
resources persons and professionals in your specific business activity
With it, you can build and maintain your network, search for jobs, and build
your professional reputation.Plus it's free, and it only takes about 30 minutes to

Some types of INTERVIEWS?
There’s no right or wrong way to run an interview.
Each method, style and technique has it’s own pros and cons, considerations
and preparations depending hugely on your industry, business, the advertised
position and so on.
1. The Telephone Interview.
Telephone interviews are hugely valuable because they speed up the interview
process and minimise time-wasting, while sorting your weaker candidates .
A face-to-face interview will take up your time as well as your candidate’s, so
having a quick chat to find out whether they’re suitable, before meeting up, will
benefit both of you.
Hearing the candidate’s tone of voice and assessing their direct answers will
provide a much more detailed insight into their personality.

1. The Telephone Interview (cont).
is perfect interview for you if…
• You don’t have a lot of time on your hands.
• The job that’s on offer requires great telephone communication.
• You want to make your interview process as efficient as possible.
How Long Should It Take?
In general, a telephone interview should take about 30 minutes.
Advantages:
• It’s quicker than a face-to-face interview.
• It’s cheaper than a face-to-face interview.
• It’s less effort for you and the interviewer.

1. The Telephone Interview (cont).
Advantages (cont):
• You can reach long-distance companies without loosing time or
incurring much travel expenses
• As from start of the process, you know if you will or not be
selected
• Disadvantages:
• The call could be interrupted (bad signal, background noise).
• You cannot express confidence through a positive body
language.
• It’s difficult to build as much rapport via the telephone.

2.The Panel Interview.
Panel interviews are the same as individual, face-to-face interviews,
but with two or more interviewers in the room.
The main advantage of panel interviewing is that it precludes any
personal biases that might creep into the assessment process.
Each interviewer will pick up on different characteristics, strengths
and weaknesses and together (hopefully) make a much fairer
judgement.
This is an opportunity to
• Feel confident as You’ve reached a fairly late stage of the process.
• You’re being interviewing for a senior role involving multiple
decision makers.
• The panel interview is usually conducted as the sole or final step
in the interviewing process to take place instead of an individual
interview and following any telephone and/or group interviews.
Panel interviews should last 45 Minutes,

2.The Panel Interview.
A really great interview will last longer than an hour; your
candidate must be doing something right if they’ve managed to
engage you in conversation for such a prolonged amount of time.
Advantages:
No personal biases.
The chance to compare different opinions.
More chance to get notes (while others talk).
All relevant people meet at the same time.
Weak interviewers might need back-up.
The candidate gets a chance to meet everyone.
Disadvantages:
Some interviewers could get complacent.
It could be overwhelming for the candidate (scary!)
Interviewers could interrupt each other, striving for dominance.
There’s a risk of disagreement.

3.The ASSESSMENT CENTRE
In Assessment centres or assessment ,Employers bring
together a group of candidates who complete a series of
exercises, tests and interviews that are designed to
evaluate their suitability for graduate jobs within the
organisation.
This format makes it much easier for you to showcase a
broader range of skills and competencies than if you were
just given an interview.
Assessment centres are used usually for roles which have a
very large number of applicants, as well as for more senior
positions when organisations want to test a range of skills in
person. Assessment centres are typically held over the course
of a day, and consist of a series of exercises designed to bring
out different aspects and attributes from you.
There might be group activities, presentations, in-tray
exercises designed to replicate the work you might do in the

What is ‘the group exercise’?
The group exercise (sometimes called the ‘group discussion’) is a
common assessment centre WHERE A group of candidates work
together to perform an activity while being watched by assessors.
The assessors will make notes and score the candidates based on
their respective contributions to the exercise.
The group exercise can take a variety of forms. You may need to:
• Discuss a general topic or area of current affairs (Eg “Migrants
from Europe are draining the economy of the UK”)
• Debate a work-related problem before finding a solution and
presenting it back to the assessors as a group
• Complete a task (For example, work through a case-study, role-
play scenario, or solve a puzzle.)
The group exercise forces candidates into a social setting where
they have to deal with a mixture of personalities, all of whom are
determined to succeed. Sparks can fly! Be calm and assertive.

assessment-centre-group-exercise Example
SAMPLE GROUP EXERCISE: ‘SURVIVAL’
You and your group have found yourselves in a perilous situation
as described below. There is a long list of items that you can use to
aid your survival, but you can only take a small number of these
items with you.
• Your task is to work out between yourselves which items you will
take, and explain why you have chosen these items.
• The assessors will watch from the sidelines, with each assessor
focusing on a specific candidate. They will play no part in the
exercise and you will normally forget they are there.
• There will be no definite right or wrong answer to the task; the
assessors are interested more in how you work as a team and
the process through which you come to a group consensus.

assessment-centre-group-exercise Example
SAMPLE GROUP EXERCISE: ‘SURVIVAL’-(CONT)
Group members will be scored on their individual input, rather
than the overall result for the group, so someone may still do very
well in a team that has failed to reach a conclusion.
The exercise will usually last around 20 minutes. At the end of the
exercise, a member of the group may be asked to present the list of
chosen items.
Read through the below exercise, and if possible, try it out with
some friends!
Example Group Exercise – Practice Test
“On your way back from a holiday in South America, your shuttle
flight to the airport is forced to make an emergency landing in a
small clearing in the Brazilian rainforest.

Example Group Exercise – Practice Test (cont)
You, the pilot, and your fellow passengers have only sustained
minor injuries but the plane has broken into pieces and the
communication equipment has been destroyed in the impact.
Before the plane crashed the pilot had reported a problem with one
of the engines, so there is a good chance that the authorities will
start looking for you when you fail to arrive at your destination.
However, the forest is very dense and it will take days to reach the
edge of it on foot.
You cannot remain where you are as there is a danger that the
aeroplane fuel will catch fire.

On searching through the wreckage and the remains of your
suitcases you find the following items:
• 1. A guide to South American plant species
• 2. 3 elasticated luggage straps
• 3. 6 frozen airline meals
• 4. 4 blankets from the plane
• 5. A pack of 24 anti-malaria tablets
• 6. A 3 metre square piece of opaque plastic sheeting
• 7. Tourist map of Brazil
• 8. 2 large bottles of factor 12 sunscreen
• 9. Mobile phone with GPS, fully charged

10. 1 litre bottle of the local alcoholic spirit
• 11. 3 boxes of chocolate chip cookies
• 12. 4 current paperback novels
• 13. First aid box
• 14. Compass
• 15. Flare gun with one flare
• 16. A Swiss Army knife
• 17. A book of matches from the hotel
• You are unable to carry more than 7 items from this list. Items
containing more than one object still count as one item.”
• You have 20 minutes to reach your conclusion and present back
to the assessors.

How to succeed in your group exercise – Practice Test
Your big chance to shine in a group setting. Making a good
impression during this exercise can have a powerful impact on the
assessors. Let’s look at some specific ways to succeed in the group
exercise.
If possible, take the lead
Whoever assumes the leadership role automatically gets a head
start on the other competitors. Being prepared to show initiative
and take responsibility in this way is viewed positively by most
assessors.
A good way to position yourself like this is to offer to be the
timekeeper during the exercise. Do this as early as possible in the
activity. None of the other candidates will refuse your kind offer
and it immediately puts you in a positive/responsible light in the
eyes of the group and also the assessors. : you have become an

Be calm & assertive not aggressive
It can be difficult to put your personality across in a well-rounded
way during the group exercise because every candidate wants to
make a good impression and each candidate will have a different
view of how best to achieve that. Some will be be aggressive and
dominating because they want to demonstrate drive, leadership or
passion. Others will be overwhelmed and feel so nervous that they
struggle to get a foothold in the discussion at all.
Make sure you take part, be forceful if needs be, but smile and be
polite and positive at the same time. Think ‘calm and assertive’
rather than ‘aggression’.
• assessment-centre-group-exercise
• Include others

Teamwork, co-operation and the ability to listen to others are
important. Including members of the group who have previously
been quiet is always a winner with the assessors.
Introduce yourself to everyone with genuine warmth
[Note: Ideally, this is something you should do before the group
exercise.] At some point after your arrival the candidates will all
be stood/sat together, most likely feeling nervous and being very
quiet as they wait to begin an assessment activity.
Use this time to introduce yourself to the others. Smile at them
warmly as you shake their hands. Not only does this break the ice
and project a confident image, it also gets them on your side and
this will help you throughout this and other exercises.
Make the effort to remember their names because People love it
when you use their names

Remembering the other candidates’ (and assessors’) names shows
you are well-mannered and attentive but it also demonstrates you
have a good eye for detail and predisposes them to like you.
Try it at natural moments and combine it with a compliment for
maximum points! (“What do you think Tom?”, “Great point Emma” )
Negativity is verboten
Regardless of what happens do NOT criticise anyone during the
exercise. This reflects poorly on you and suggests you might be a
moaner. No-one wants to hire a moaner so you should be Mr/Mrs
Funtime-Positivity Practise, practise, practice
Nothing will improve your performance on the day more than
familiarity with the exercise. It will increase your competence and
also make you feel at ease (and feeling comfortable and relaxed will
help hugely).

Follow the 5 Killer Tips!
Positive & Negative Behaviours – Checklist
Lastly, here are some ideas on both positive and negative
behaviours associated with the common competencies that are
assessed during a group exercise (+ indicates a positive behaviour
and – a negative behaviour). Aim for the plus signs!
Teamwork
+ Who brings other people into the discussion
+ Who encourages other people’s contributions
+ Who builds on and adapts others ideas
+ Who appropriately challenges people’s views
+ Who volunteers to keep track of the time / take notes
– Who talks too much
– Who is insensitive to the feeling of others

Positive & Negative Behaviours – Checklist (cont)
Influence
+ Who helps shape the discussion and takes charge
+ Who keeps the discussion on track
+ Who ensures that everyone understands the objectives & whose
points are accepted
– Whose arguments are ignored / talked over
Communication
+ Who listens before contributing
+ Who contributes consistently throughout the discussion
+ Who is clear and concise throughout the discussion
– Who is very dominant – interrupting others contributions
– Who does NO talking at all

Positive & Negative Behaviours – Checklist (cont)
Problem Solving
+ Who uses the information provided effectively
+ Who provide creative solutions to the problems
– Who wanders from the subject or introduces unnecessary tasks
Commercial awareness
+ Who understands the business and nature of the industry
+ Who ensures that the suggestions and recommendations are
appropriate for the business
+ Who understands the brief and sticks to it

Uesd session 21.10.19

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