This is planned for the new year. The intention is to brief readers of the possibility of holding such a workshop if sufficient interest can be generated. A similar Workshop had been held in WA by that Chapter

Brief details of the proposed workshop are provided below. Those members who are desirous of participating in the workshop are requested to please email the Secretary of the Chapter expressing their interest in principle in attending the Workshop, stating their status from one of the following;

* Migrant Engineer seeking the first job in NSW, or

* Retrenched engineer seeking re-employment, or

* Final Year Engineering students seeking employment

 

Draft Scope of the Workshop

Target Group:

Engineers who have recently migrated to Australia and looking for jobs and Engineers who were recently made redundant looking for their next opportunity and Final year Students of Engineering degree programs.

Purpose:

  •         To assist participants to improve their resumes in order to be free of grammatical errors and to be of a standard and format preferred by employers.
  •         To assist them to improve their interview skills by  conducting mock interviews in respect of relevant positions and providing feedback on their performance

Duration:

The Workshop will likely be a half-day activity from 8.30am to 1.00pm. However, each participant is expected to spend not more than 2 hours.

 

Date: TBA

Venue: TBA

 

The Structure of Workshop

CV Writing

  •         When expressions of interest are called, participants will be requested to send their best CV/Resume and a covering letter written for a particular job together with the job advertisement or selection criteria (if available) at least two weeks prior to the event.
  •         The resume will then be passed on to two CV panel members who will be selected beforehand to review and edit it. The outcome should be a reviewed and revised CV/Resume. A similar review is carried out for the covering letter. These will then be provided to participants at least 3 days before the event.
  •         During the workshop, the participant will bring the revised CV with his/her own comments and changes to discuss it with panel members and finalise the CV/resume. Each participant will be provided with a time slot of maximum one hour duration with two panel members to finalise their resume. A pdf copy and a word file will be e-mailed or given to the candidate at the end of the session.

Interview Skills:

  •         Obtain information regarding positions they are currently applying for at the time of making the expression of interest
  •         Obtain relevant position descriptions and selection criteria of state organizations (available with job advertisements) as well as position descriptions and interview criteria from private sector engineering organizations.
  •         The participant will be informed of  the position for which a mock interview is conducted 3 days before workshop
  •         2 or 3 member interview panels are formed to include at least one interviewer from a relevant field, another senior engineer and a person with some HR background if possible. Attempts should be made to get the services of relevant volunteers with local background knowledge and experience from the engineering industry.
  •         Each participant will have an hour after their CV session for the following:

 

In the first 15 minutes, the panel will go through participant’s CV and prepare for interview while the participant goes through the role description and selection criteria

  •         Then panel will conduct a 30 minutes interview simulating a real job interview.
  •         An 8 minute post interview discussion will be held to prepare for feedback
  •         A 7 minute feedback session to participant concentrating on positives as well as improvement aspects.

Resources:

4 interview panels ( max 12 resource people needed) and 4 CV panels (max 8 people needed)

At least one person from local background per panel. Need to get 4 HR/senior management type persons for interview panel.

There should be at least 1 civil, mining, mech and electrical engineer in the panels to ensure at least one panel member is from a relevant field. There need to be at least 2-3 panel members from government organizations such as Defence, RMS, Sydney Water and Councils. At least 3-4 panel members from private sector engineering organisations.

All interview panel members need to have recent experience in recruiting, interviewing and selecting engineers.

Back to newsletter front page