DCU

Mature Students

This web page covers topics of interest to mature students (in addition to the general information under 'Students and Graduates'). There are nearly 600 mature students currently studying in DCU. The term mature student means a student who is at least 23 years of age on 1st January of the year of entry or re-entry to an undergraduate course.

Many employers know a good thing when they see it! Mature graduates often demonstrate valuable characteristics such as:
-    Flexibility
-    Stability
-    Good at managing many things at once (e.g, you may have juggled life, study, work and family)
-    Balanced
-    Determined
-    Committed
-    Able to cope with pressure
-    Valuable transferable skills
-    Possessing useful work and life experiences
-    Track record of employment (having responsibility; project managing; leading etc)
-    More business awareness from previous work experience - paid or voluntary
-    Work readiness, for example, fitting in with new colleagues and new environments

Entering the Employment Market
Making a successful transition into employment requires greater self awareness and job knowledge.

Self-Awareness
This means thinking about things that are important to you (values); things you like to do (interests); things that suit you (personality); and things you can do (skills). To help increase your self-awareness:

• Gradireland Careers Report
• Prospects Planner - What Jobs would suit me
• Windmills Programme
• SHL Type Dynamic Indicator (DCU username and password required)

Job Knowledge
Research areas where a degree in your discipline is

• Essential
• Useful
• Transferable as a result of the many skills and attributes developed during your programme of study

Resources include

• http://gradireland.com/career-sectors
• www.prospects.ac.uk (go to Careers Advice -> Options with Degree and to Jobs & Work Experience ->Types of Jobs)
• www.careersportal.ie/work_employment/labourmarket.php

What Employers Want

Academic study by itself cannot guarantee success in the job market. While companies look for many different things in graduates, your grades are very important.  In addition, relevant work experience, skills and personal qualities are attributes highly valued by employers who recruit graduates.

Employers comment that mature applicants have valuable skills to offer but sometimes are not very good at marketing themselves. This is where a careful analysis of what you have to offer can help set you apart.  Draw parallels between your skills and the role; and link your past experiences to the role.

Make a list of the skills you have developed at university, work, home, in sports and leisure activities, community involvement, travelling, i.e., from all of your past experiences. For each, list some best examples of where you practised and developed that skill.

Examples include:
-    Communication - written, spoken, listening, e.g. talking to colleagues at work and university, academic writing;

-    Time management - juggling and prioritising commitments, e.g. with family, work and study;

-    Flexibility - handling change and mixed-age environments, e.g. previous job changes, studying or working with younger/older people;

-    Organisation, e.g. involvement in clubs or societies;

-    Teamwork, e.g. taking responsibility for the direction & actions of a team project;

-    Leadership: via previous employment, class rep or chair of group projects;

-    Presentation: written and oral presentations as a result of studies or previous experience;

-    Analytical Skills: evaluating problems

-    Problem Solving: putting together an argument for an assignment; debugging a computer;

-    Research: as a result of your thesis or final year projects;

-    IT: various packages including Word, PowerPoint, Excel or statistical packages such as SPSS.


Produce a Concise CV
-    This should clearly outline your relevant experience and skills as well as highlighting your current interest in a specific area of work, while still including all the facts about your qualifications.

-    Employers generally draw up a job description based on their knowledge of the task required for the role. From this, they develop a person specification which outlines the desired skills and experiences they are seeking in candidates.  Therefore, when preparing your CV, identify your skills and make the connection between what you have done before and the skills you’ve gained that are relevant to the job.

-    If you are considering several different types of work, be prepared to produce a different CV and cover letter for each.

-    Age – you do not need to include age on your CV

-    Use your experience of community involvement or for example, help with a family business to match an employer’s requirements.

-    If you have travelled, include it but demonstrate the skills you acquired during this time rather than the travelling itself, e.g., learning new language skills, organisation and planning etc.

-    Use a CV format that best reflects your experience, skills, qualifications and it suits the job you are applying for.

-    Consider including a profile. This is three to four powerful sentences to highlight interest and skills for a particular career on your CV. It needs to be motivational, focused and specific to the role.

-    Be succinct in your wording (less is more in terms of impact!) and start each phrase with a positive active verb e.g. assisting, completing, managing etc.

For more advice on CVs and cover letters, click here.

Develop Your Confidence
Confidence relates to positive outlook / attitude and the ability to present yourself well. Practise using positive language about your experiences, skills and future hopes. By thinking differently about yourself, you could appear more confident and thus seen as more effective. Examples include ‘I led’; ‘I have several examples’…

Learn to describe everything you’ve been involved with in terms of what you learned from it and how it helped you to move on. Demonstrate enthusiasm and commitment to the career or company in question. Focus on the positives – what you can do and how you can support the organisation achieve its goals.


Tips in Finding Work after Graduation
The Equality Acts 2011 state that employers cannot discriminate based on age.

When seeking work:
-    Plan well in advance
-    Try to gain some relevant work experience and maximise internship opportunities during your studies, for example, Intra Work Placement / Internships
-    Be familiar with the various graduate schemes
-    Look at what skills you have to offer
-    Consider voluntary work
-    Research employers

Some ways to find work include:
-    Apply for Graduate Recruitment Programmes
-    Search for jobs via the DCU Careers Vacancy System and Going Global Online Resource via your portal page
-    Attend career fairs and employer presentations
-    Review job sections in the local and national newspapers and online job sites
-    Review the careers section on company web sites
-    Review Professional Body web sites as they may also have job sections
-    Register with the Gradireland web site for job alerts. Download copies of their directories.
-    Keep watch on the Enterprise Ireland trade missions and the IDA web site.

Tapping into the Hidden Job Market (Creative Job Search)
Not all jobs may be advertised. Therefore, it is imperative to tap into the hidden job market. What does this mean?

The hidden job market consists of finding jobs before they are advertised. You need to tap into your existing contacts and make new ones. In other words network.

Use Your Network
-    Mature students may have built up a bigger network of contacts. You may be very surprised, when you start to put together a list of people you know, by how many individuals have crossed your path in recent years.
-    Make a list, or mind map, of the people you know and add some of the people they know. Include close family, relatives, your friends and their friends, past and present work colleagues, academic staff, and other students.
-    Some of these people may be able to:
-     give you an insight into the career / organisation you hope to enter;
-     help you talk to someone in the sector / organisation of interest;
-    help organise some work shadowing or work experience
-    All of this can help you decide if that career is right for you and provide you with some practical ideas on how to get a job in that field.
-    Develop your LinkedIn profile at www.linkedIn.com. LinkedIn is increasingly been used by employers to recruit.
-    Join local groups that allow you to network, for example, Toastmasters
-    To gain experience and to make contacts in a new field consider volunteering. Volunteering enables you to develop your skill set and to try out different roles. Check out www.volunteer.ie or www.dcu.ie/volunteer/index.shtml
-    Develop a system to record the contacts you make.


Applying Speculatively
This involves sending your CV and cover letter to an employer that you would like to work for, even if they are not advertising jobs.

Pick your top 10 organisations or top three sectors. Think about why you like them. Look at their web site. Ask yourself: what do you know about them? What skills and qualities do you need?

Any speculative CV and cover letter must be of a very high standard and appear professional in order to ensure that you grab the employer’s attention.

If using the speculative approach, the following resources may be useful to find information on prospective employers.
Gradireland (www.gradireland.com)
Kompass (www.kompass.ie)
Vault – accessed via your portal page
You can even use search engines such as Google to locate employers


Top Tips
-    If you haven’t had the chance to build a portfolio of experience yet, look at ways to enhance your skills and knowledge by undertaking part-time or voluntary work; relevant work experience; or by expanding the range of extracurricular activities in which you get involved;
-    Research jobs where your degree is essential, useful or can be transferred to a variety of roles
-    Talk to people in jobs that interest you
-    Undertake some work shadowing / internships.
-    Produce a cover letter and concise CV that clearly outlines your relevant experience and skills
-    Use positive language in CV and interviews
-    Use creative job hunting techniques (e.g, networking)
-    Identify skills developed from your life


What Careers Services are available to you:

Careers Education
DCU Careers Service delivers tailored careers education into your programme of study.  This takes a variety of options including integrated into modules; integrated and assessed; or standalone. We collaborate with the programme chairs to organise these sessions.

Advice / Guidance
If you would like some professional advice to help you explore your career options, individual appointments are available. DCU Careers Advisers review all appointment requests to determine the best method to work with you. All students are requested to make an appointment via the Careers Box on your student portal page.

Events
We organise a number of events to provide you with information on career options, job-search techniques, employment opportunities and postgraduate study. See our events page which is updated regularly. Some of the events include:

• Careers Bootcamp- Find out more on sectors of interest.
• DCU Careers Day -The Careers Day provides a unique opportunity to meet with potential employers on-campus.
• Gradlreland Graduate Careers Fair - An opportunity to meet with graduate recruiters and professional bodies from Ireland and the UK. This event is hosted in conjunction with DCU Careers Service, held in the RDS.
• Mature Student Sessions- We liaise with the Mature Student Society to organise tailored sessions for mature students.
• CV Clinics- CV Clinics provide you with professional advice on CV preparation.
• Skills Sessions-One hour sessions on topics such as CV preparation, application forms, interviews, assessment centres, networking, personal statements etc.
• Postgraduate Study Fair- The Gradireland Postgraduate Study Fair takes place in February in the RDS. It’s an opportunity to meet with postgraduate course providers. We also hold discipline specific events such as Nursing Fair and the Accountancy & Financial Fair. For the exact dates and locations of these and other Careers events, check out the Calendar of Events.
• Employer Visits- Many employers visit the campus throughout the year with information on their graduate recruitment plans. Check our Calendar of Events for employer presentations.

Resources / Information
Check out the resources on the right hand side of our homepage:
Destinations – An A-Z career planning Resource
Goinglobal.com - career and employment resources. There are 28 country careers guides, 44 USA City Guides and 6 Canadian City Guides;
Psychometric Tests – practice ability tests; take a learning style questionnaire;
Vault – online career library;
Videos – Insight into industry guides and application process.