Week 2: Presenting yourself

Introduction

One of the most important aspects of getting back to work is thinking about how you will present yourself to potential employers – or customers and clients if you plan to be self-employed.

Last week, you had an opportunity to look back at your career and working life, and to reflect on what you have done so far. In this week’s activities, you will work on re-emerging into the world of work and presenting yourself to potential employers or collaborators. This will involve reflecting on who you are and how you want others to see you.

Watch Sue in the following video as she talks about your ‘back to work toolkit’:

Download this video clip.Video player: 38058_stem_week2_512x256.mp4

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Transcript

SUE BLACK

Hello again. Welcome back to Returning to STEM. This week, you’re going to be looking at identity and how you can develop and market your own personal brand to potential employers.

A CV is one of the most important items in your back-to-work toolkit. These days, you need to have an online presence as well. So you'll be looking at how you can make the most of online networking to enhance your chance of getting employment. You'll be looking at one of the most frequently used and powerful networking tools for job seeking, LinkedIn and exploring how to set up your online profile.

You'll also be finding out what employers are looking for, how to manage your privacy and security settings, and your digital footprint. I love LinkedIn. It's such an easy way to keep your CV up-to-date and connect with professional contacts. Over the years, I've built up a network of more than 2000 connections. I use LinkedIn practically every day for something or another. It's a great place to see what everyone's up to and to find people you know that you might want to ask about a shared interest or to get some work-related advice.

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During this week, you will create a profile on the online professional networking site LinkedIn, and do some of the identity work needed as a first step back into employment. Please note that you can also develop your profile via My OpenLearn (this can be found in the menu running across the top of the screen) and that the Open University badge from this Returning to STEM course (and any other OpenLearn badges) can be exported to LinkedIn.

By the end of this week you should:

• have created a working LinkedIn profile
• know how to use online networks effectively to make yourself visible
• be able to find opportunities and potential employers.