News & Articles Category

By Noelle Capobianco

Today, linked in is one of the most important sources to find a job or an internship as well as networking with other members in your chosen industry.

As a resume is a marketing strategy to deliver your own brand, LinkedIn allows you to deliver your marketing message efficiently on a virtual platform. LinkedIn is one of the most powerful and largest active professional network available, with more than 225 million members.

Recruiters, entrepreneurs and companies now look through multiple of LinkedIn profiles based on a one-word keyword search.  Approximately 93% of recruiters are using social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to drive their employment brand and 94% used LinkedIn for recruitment purposes. This keyword search relates to the skills, knowledge and interests they are looking for to find the right person to fit the job.   Read the rest of this entry »

By Noelle Capobianco
 

You have heard the clichés surrounding love, dating and relationships from friends and family.  They may not always be true or relevant to the situation but you would be surprised at how relevant they can be to the sphere within PR. What may not apply to love can be applied to the PR world. Here is how the most overused clichés can radiate to PR.

Nobody will love you until you love yourself

It goes around saying that you have to be in tune with yourself in order to find happiness within a relationship to be fulfilled. In PR this refers to brand advocates. In order to allow the audience to fall in love with the products or services, you and your own company must be in love with those products with all the passion, fire and admiration that can transcend to the audience. This is what truly will make your audience fall in love with the brand or product, by being involved with it yourself wholeheartedly. Read the rest of this entry »

By Noelle Capobianco
 

Finding the perfect partner is already a struggle. Why bring work related stress into your relationship? Give your relationship a break and land the dream job. LinkedIn suggests that work related stress is the major problem in majority of relationships. Therefore by wooing the recruiter it could relieve the stress off you relationship to make room to woo your partner.

These are the top tips from recruiters that can help you impress and score the job published by LinkedIn.
 

Get relationship ready

You need to establish and maintain your digital profile at all times. You have to maintain the relationship between yourself and digital media at all times as many recruiters look for high performers continuously via LinkedIn. Eric Foutch, digital media manager at Red Branch Media suggests that to be high performer you need to connect with people within your industry. Share your knowledge and open up dialogue between people to as a mechanism to show your abilities and skills. Read the rest of this entry »

By Noelle Capobianco and Sophia Demetriades

The cover letter always accompanies the resume when applying for a job and it is just or even more important than the resume. It allows the company or employer to understand the attributes you can deliver to the job as it provides more information than the resume. The cover letter needs to cover all bases and here’s how to do it.

To start off

Be specific regarding the job you are applying for. Mention the job title and the day the job was posted as well as medium it was posted through such as the internet, seek, the newspaper etc. The cover letter should be specific to the job that you are applying for, therefore the job title, posted date and medium will change for each cover letter when applying for jobs. Within the first paragraph mention why you are applying for this job, whether it is for work experience or employment, part time, casual or full time. Also mention how it can benefit your career aspirations by being involved in this role. Read the rest of this entry »

By Noelle Capobianco and Sophia Demetriades

The resume is the key ingredient to get an employer to notice you in hopes for landing that dream job or internship. It therefore has to be done to perfection to stand out from the crowd. The purpose of a résumé is to get you an interview and to communicate your message as clear and as fast as possible.

Here are 12 of the most useful and important tips that will allow you to gain the attention of a potential employer.

1. Highlight your features and benefits

It is great to put your greatest strengths and characteristics within the profile of the resume to let the employer know your attributes. Yet, for the employer to engage with these qualities you need to highlight these features or qualities and connect them to real world situations so the employer can understand how these qualities can benefit them or the company which will make you seem more credible. List them up top, and make an effort to discover what your key strengths and benefits are through personality testing and asking people around you. Read the rest of this entry »

By Noelle Capobianco and Sophia Demetriades

Everyone seems to think that the plan to get where you want to be, career wise is linear. It has to be a straight line to success, doing everything the textbook way in organizing and planning your career. Unfortunately there is no straight and narrow line when it comes to finding the right path to take for you and your career. No signs saying go this way and no lit up path. As there are so many options and so many situations that are beyond your control that determine job opportunities and possibilities, the best one can do is take the opportunities that present itself without being overly committed and dependent on one path.

With the right mind- set to change, it can increase your chances of success to the continuous progression of career planning. At each stage of this progression the question you should ask is what can I do to maximize my success for the future that is meaningful to you in small stepping-stones that bring you closer to where you want to be. Read the rest of this entry »

By Noelle Capobianco and Sophia Demetriades

Being Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. You can read about this in Stephen Covey’s book ‘the 7 habits of highly effective people’.  He stresses the importance of the choices that you make, in which every moment provides a choice that can produce positive results. In his book, Stephen outlines 7 healthy habits to guide you through life, starting with being proactive. These are the habits are:

1.     Be Proactive

2.     Begin with the End in Mind

3.     Put first things first

4.     Think win-win

5.     Seek first to understand, then to be understood

6.     Synergize

7.     Sharpen the saw

Be Proactive

To first habit to be proactive is an integral habit in highly effective people as it allows them to take unconditional responsibility within all endeavors from personal life to the business sphere as they choose their own choice and own that choice that they make for their own behavior. The greatest power for an individual is the freedom to choose your response. Read the rest of this entry »

By Noelle Capobianco & Sophia Demetriades

Preparing for the interview 

Landing an interview is a great accomplishment after working so hard on your resume and cover letter. The interview is the opportunity to secure the job which is the ultimate aim. Therefore, you need to prepare for the interview wisely.

What to prepare for

It is extremely important that you prepare effectively for your interview that way you are not blindsided by any questions that come your way. The last thing you want to feel is uncertainty or awkward within an interview. So preparing wisely can prevent this.

Write a list of your strengths, talents and abilities that you can bring to the position. Read over the job posted and what they require. Tailor your skills and abilities to meet these requirements as a mechanism to secure the job. Write these down as a strategy to remember it for an interview for an effective response.

  Read the rest of this entry »

By Noelle Capobianco and Sophia Demetriades

Some people believe that you can broaden your options and build your mind with positive thinking, which makes you successful, which in return makes you happy.

Open your mind

More of life’s possibilities occur when you allow yourself to see a broad selection of opportunities rather than limiting yourself to a few options.  
 
Opening your mind to possibilities are enacted through positive thoughts which allows you to build upon your skills. This can create real value and growth within academic and work life, which allows you to broaden your options and build further upon your skill set.

When your mind is closed you may experience negative feelings of fear, anguish and stress and when the conscious mind is more open to options you experience positivity, which makes you happier. Read the rest of this entry »

Courtesy of: Internships.com

I just read the below article posted in the Higher Education journal in the UK, and I can’t help but wonder, do international students know the business they are to Australia? and, how do they feel about Australia’s customer service initiatives? Finally, do most Australians know the fiscal benefits of international students to their own economy and country? Read the rest of this entry »

By Sophia Demetriades Toftdahl

A current emerging trend is the shift in western education where we are slowly moving away from the university (which is likely to collapse unless they collaborate more with industry) and towards personalised, customised education which increases engagement in candidates or students. And it’s being replaced my mentors and coaches.

Library is free, internet is almost free, courses are easily available online. What is not so available in the current university are good teachers, and I say that with the utmost respect for those few of my teachers that were excellent, good teachers are a scarcity in the university today because all they do is to sit inside the uni and read and write, and they no longer have industry experience, and so we are not closing the gap between education and industry, we are in fact widening it. Read the rest of this entry »

Vol 4. Iss 3. No 5_WHAT am I supposed to do?

By Sophia Demetriades

In a world full of options, it can be challenging to discover your passion. There’s a lot of talk about passion these days. All of sudden we don’t get out of bed to go to work, we don’t even go to work to work, all is supposed to be guided by what we feel passionate about. But how we feel, only matters to ourselves, it is what we do that help us discover our passion.

 
Although I often spend my time reading about peoples passions and motivations, I also come across young people who have no idea what they are supposed to do or who they are meant to be. They are completely confused. They have accounting degrees but passionate about marketing, they have law degrees passionate about journalism, they have arts degrees passionate about engineering. Listening further to these kids I hear the all too familiar story about shattered dreams, lack of belief or confidence, or endless pressure to do what we think parents or society want us to do.
 

Read the rest of this entry »

By Sophia Demetriades

Sometimes I wonder what I’m supposed to do and who I am meant to be. 
 

I spend my time helping others find their path and purpose, and even though that’s an awesome journey, I only just realised what I actually do for people through a series of in depth interviews and the feedback was pleasing:  ‘you listened to me, and then spent your time helping me get what was important to me.’
 
Whilst I was wondering if I was doing something meaningful, people around me found meaning in me listening to their stories, and that’s awesome because I love stories and I love working with people. Thank you to everyone who shared this with me, it’s made me feel important.
 

Year of Growth
Last year was Dream Internship’s third year in business and thus our year of growth. My agents, staff and I spent the year growing our relationships and focussing on the people around us. For three years my focus has been to build healthy relationships and eliminate toxic ones. Last January, I published my promise to spend 2012 helping others be awesome, and the result is that I feel more awesome now than ever before.
 
I have also been working as a Business Consultant (Relationship Manager) whilst re-writing my thesis on SMB & Corporate Management & Communication into a book (Publish mid 2013). With one foot in academia and the other in industry, hard work and nurture has really paid off, because now we can continue to help other’s build their relationships, be it between businesses, business to customers, between professionals or personally.
 
To help you better understand who I am and what I do, please read on here

Read the rest of this entry »

By Bob Chen

www.nowandtomorrow.com.au

If your New Year resolution was to get a better handle on your finances, our tips might be just what you need.  Read on for Bob’s 8 step checklist for healthy finances…

Getting fit, starting healthy eating habits and getting your personal finances on track are among the New Year resolutions for many Australians. But, often, as the months pass by these resolutions are forgotten. However, if you made a resolution to improve your finances this year, our simple and practical tips may be just what you need.

1. Start with a budget
Get into the habit of maintaining a household budget. Spending more than you earn can quickly land you on the rollercoaster of debt, so make a promise to start living within your means. There is a budget planner calculator at amp.com.au/calculators which can help or we can provide a more personalised service for you.

2. Separate your ‘wants’ from your ‘needs’
Do you really need the $100 per month pay TV package? Or the latest model car? Knowing what suits your needs is key to managing your money better. Remember, it’s a trade-off between what you have today and your long-term wealth.

3. Use credit cards wisely 

Interest rates on credit cards are sometimes as high as 20 per cent or more, so it’s important to pay off credit card debt quickly and within the interest-free period. To do this you will need to make more than the minimum repayments each month. Also consider rolling different credit card debts into one low-interest bearing loan facility.

4.  Have an emergency fund
As a contingency for life’s unexpected expenses, it’s vital to have an emergency fund or access to cash through a mortgage redraw facility or offset account. Try to have at least three months’ salary in savings.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Sophia Demetriades

After sending out a dozen resumes and filling out countless applications, you will finally land your first interview. Keep in mind that your resume is there to get you the interview and your interview is there to get the job. If the aim of the interview is to get the job, you need to keep this in mind when you go and prepare for total success.

DIA host a workshop where we train and prepare interns for job interviews. We do a practice interview, go through typical interview questions and answers, and have fun working on impressive and interesting techniques to land the job. DIA love being the first to congratulate a successful candidate! Call us when you land the job and receive a free gift.

What to prepare

It is exciting to both perform and prepare for your interview, and it is also very important to focus and prepare properly beforehand so that you do your best.

Most interviews are pretty similar, so you can do well by remembering to bring the following:

A professional and presentable folder containing:

Your most recent and perfectly edited RESUME

A COVER LETTER adjusted to the position in question

A Copy of your TRANSCRIPTS

A copy of any other course certificates

A copy of any REFERENCES and AWARDS

Prepared ANSWERS and QUESTIONS to typical interview questions

Read the rest of this entry »

By Sophia Demetriades

People do internships for various reasons. The first thing you have to do is to establish why YOU want to do an internship and what you aim to get out of it.

If you want the Host Company and DIA to meet your expectations, you need to be clear about what you want and why, and what effort you yourself have to do in order to reach those goals. If you are unsure why you are doing an internship, then let DIA know ad we can help you set goals to reach. An internship is different from a full-time job, however the Host Company aims to treat you as a fellow employee at the same time as teaching you about industry specific practices work with you and help you make the most of it. It is however your own responsibility to make sure you get as much as possible out of the internship and also to get the most value to meet your set goals.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Sophia Demetriades
 

An internship can be many things depending on the intern. It can be a leap year to take a break for studies, it can be the pathway to a new career, it can be language training, it can be to expand on industry specific studies, it can be a working holiday or it can be a an easy way to convince your parents to let you go overseas.
 

In order to make the most of your internship, and to justify the time you spend interning, you must realize that the entire process is essentially an extended interview for a full-time position be it in the interning company or somewhere else. You never know who your supervisor or coordinator may know and what they say about you t others, so make sure you are polite, enthusiastic and interested. But most importantly, you should have fun while you learn and meet new people.
 
DIA and all supervisors provide all interns with references of the internship and a Certificate of Achievement.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Sophia Demetriades

It is a competitive job market but there are plenty of jobs out there, so all you have to do is give it your best!

Your resume only has 15 seconds to make an impression, so make them count.

Recruiters sift through thousands of resumes swiftly and have no time to dwell on each resume indetail. You must craft a resume that grabs attention and creates a lasting impression. Your resume should present concrete reasons why you should be hired and it needs to be clear, easy to read, and consistent.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Maria Cucci

It can also be a powerful companion to the talents you’ve worked so hard to develop. All the more reason to create an image that can help you succeed in your professional and personal life.

That means the right wardrobe, mannerisms and communications skills.

Here are some business etiquette tips for you.

Navigating E-Etiquette: Don’t text or take a mobile call in a meeting, no matter how important. Keep PDAs on vibrate. E-mails are traditional memos gone digital — so do not use anger (e-mail lives forever in cyberspace and anger is bad for business, regardless). Keep your email short and factual.  Don’t be a social spammer by always leading with your ‘sales pitch’ – social media is for building relationships and engaging with your community.  Read the rest of this entry »