“My favourite experience was listening to my classmate's elevator pitch, interview questions, and learning from them.”
As COVID-19 swept the world, we all faced hardships, Melbourne in lockdown, isolated from family and friends, gloomy job prospects…
Many of us were feeling more than a little down, including Master of Biotechnology student, Lekha. However, Lekha decided to be proactive and signed up to a short employability course to find out about Australian job requirements and improve her skills to fit Australian standards, particularly with job interviews which she was quite nervous about. Lekha also hoped the Job Ready employability course would be an opportunity to make friends and connect with new people at a time when COVID made it pretty hard to meet anyone new.
“Covid-19 and lockdown had me in low spirits but attending this class online and meeting enthusiastic people with a positive approach helped me.”
During Job Ready, Lekha really enjoyed meeting new people and hearing different perspectives on interview questions.
“My favourite experience was listening to my classmate's elevator pitch, interview questions, and learning from them. Everyone is unique and it is always enriching to find new perspectives to interview questions.”
Lekha also leant new skills and techniques, such as the STAR interview response method for answering interview questions.
“I find the STAR technique is something that will come in handy everywhere. I have learnt to use it in my everyday activity so it will be more natural for me during networking or in an interview.”
Job Ready helped Lekha make new connections during the difficult Melbourne lockdown, improved her interview skills and gave her the confidence to do well in her academic studies. Hopefully her new connections and skills will help Lekha land her dream job: working in a sustainable and integrated environment where she hopes to unravel the wonders of bioluminescence.
Lekha encourages other students who are interested in Job Ready to take the course with “an open mind and learn with keen observation. I would encourage them to be proactive and to seek advice without any hesitancy.” And of course to mingle as much as possible with fellow students!
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