CHANGE AGENTS UK

Laura and Rob, Green Impact Assistants at MMU

MMU is leading the way to creating a sustainable planet through our fantastic behaviour change project Green Impact.

An amazing 67 departments have now been recruited, with 413 staff actively involved in taking simple actions to green their work spaces. This is the largest number of Green Impact Teams active in any of the participating Colleges and Universities around the country. In total their work will reach and influence 2128 staff members, approximately half of MMU’s total employees. This is an incredible achievement to attain, particularly in an organisation as large as MMU that provides a place of study for the third largest body of students in the UK.

MMU has been involved in Green Impact for the past three years and has gone from strength to strength in encouraging greater numbers of staff to get involved in the project. Its success comes down to its simplicity and the enjoyment that participating members of staff attain from taking actions that save carbon and cash. Pamela Berry, a committed member of Green Impact Team who won the Environmental Hero Award last year said: ‘Being a child of the 1950′s, brought up with few resources; I’ve always been keen to make the most of what I have.  Not exactly a war baby but definitely one of the make do and mend brigade. The Green Impact Programme has given me a great opportunity to encourage and support my friends and colleagues at work in their green endeavours.    It’s great to share ideas and experiences with like minded people and we’ve not only evaluated and changed many of our working practices (saving money and cutting our carbon footprint), we share our ideas/tips, seedlings and crops grown at home in our gardens.   It’s a uniting and contagious force.  Thanks Green Impact’.

Last year the active members managed to complete an amazing 727 actions. Green Impact Coordinators, Robert Croll and Laura Williams have even higher hopes for this years teams; ‘We are dazed and amazed by the number of teams who’ve decided to get involved this year. Thanks to all of the teams who’ve been working so hard. At this rate we’ll smash the number of actions completed on last year’s total so keep up the hard work’.

A similar experience has been seen at the national level. This year a total of 46 Universities & Colleges have committed to Green Impact, a 32% increase on last years figures. Between them a total of 800 Green Impact Teams have now been recruited and are actively reducing their Universities carbon footprint across the country.

With this kind of success, it’s not surprising that Green Impact was nominated for the 2011 International Green Awards ‘Employee Engagement Award’. It is hoped that this year will bring about even more recognition for this effective vehicle for delivering true carbon savings.

Looking to the future, Green Impact at MMU is now looking to increase the number of students involved in Green Impact. Four different volunteering opportunities are available that will allow students to boost their experience, gain transferable skills and contribute towards creating a sustainable university. Staff and students working together in this way to create a sustainable university is certainly something that should be celebrated and will be in our Awards Ceremony at the end of April. An updates on the event will be available soon.

With behaviour change now acknowledged as crucial for creating a sustainable planet at the local and national level, MMU is somewhat ahead of the game. Continuing to develop programs such as Green Impact is integral to creating low carbon societies. Only this approach will enable sustainable thinking to become embedded in our usual practices and the accepted platform upon which all decisions are made, the direction we should all be heading in.

Our work at Change Agents puts us in touch with many graduates trying to find their way into a career in sustainability or the environment. More often than not the graduates are proactive, enthusiastic and dynamic individuals but haven’t had any guidance on how to make their background and experience work for them.

Fortunately we are here to help! Feedback that we give on telephone and face-to-face interviews have highlighted a big gap in support for graduates going out to find their first full time role in the big wide world. This guide is here to give you tips and advice right from the beginning of your job search through CV building, telephone interviews and face-to-face interviews.  One important thing to remember with job hunting is that there is never one set way of doing things.  We encourage you to share your experiences below for others to best prepare you for any experience and inspire you to get creative in your search and realise that you are not searching alone!

So now for part A…

Building a CV:

First impressions start well before an interview. Your CV summarises you and will be the first chance for an employer to be impressed by your experience, skills and interests. It will also showcases implied skills such as an eye for detail, presentation and professionalism. Make sure you make it count!

Golden rule: Prepare your CV well in advance of an application deadline!

This will reduce your stress and ensure your efforts won’t be in vain. An employer can spot a rushed CV a mile off and spelling mistakes, gaps and unrelated comments do not make a great first impression.

• Employers will be looking through a great many CVs in a day and will be very grateful to anyone who makes their job a bit easier and more interesting! Huge blocks of text and endless bullet points will make the skills you are trying to portray, harder to notice.
• Likewise tables are great for summarising small amounts of text but not an entire CV!
• A job description is there for a reason; it guides you when you are searching for a role but it also guides an employer when they are searching for a candidate. Make sure your CV is always tailored to the role, spelling out how you fit the criteria, including examples.
• Use the selection criteria like you would some marking criteria. The closer you come to matching it, the greater chance of getting the job.
• If you find yourself lacking in direct experience in some areas, show an enthusiasm to learn and think of creative ways to describe the skills that you have, even if your examples are not work related.
• Keep your CV to a maximum of two sides of A4. Whilst you may find it hard to get everything you want to say across, a long CV can have a negative effect on the employer where succinctness and clarity are important. Remember that there will be plenty of chance to expand on the CV in telephone interviews and face-to-face interviews.
• A CV is personal to you, so whilst these tips give you an idea of what not to do, the way you structure it depends on your own preference.
• Often having a breakdown of your key skills at the beginning of a CV helps to bring attention to you but only if those skills are relevant to the role and provide examples of when you have put them into practice.
• Likewise, a profile is only worthwhile if it is made relevant and includes information to back up personality traits. We want to see your personality, not what you think we might want to hear so keep away from clichés and buzzwords. Show your interest and key experience – what do you want to do?
• In the interest of brevity, listing every module and exam ever taken takes up room that can be used to showcase your relevant skills. Where specific technical skills need to be met, state your abilities or certification but there is no need to go into too much detail on the CV. Sometimes listing your GCSE grades is not relevant to the job you are applying for if you have listed further education.
• References are very rarely needed on a CV and take up much needed space. A simple ‘references available on request’ should suffice unless asked for specifically.

Your CV can be a major part of reaching your dream job, therefore spend and effort in getting it right and bringing your experience to life for the employer highlighting skills and being dynamic in the way you present yourself.

Show it to family and friends and work on any advice they give. Often other people are better at identifying your strengths than you are! A good tool for this is the FLiP profiles which allow family and friends to score you on your skills and provides you with a personal profile to highlight your strengths.

Remember if you have any particular advice for jobseekers and fellow graduates please comment below and together we’ll support each other through what needn’t be a painful job-seeking experience!

Written by Anna Hughes, Change Partnerships Coordinator at Change Agents UK