Digitally enhancing your job prospects
Job prospects
As well as tools and content that are useful for your current studies, the Web can provide the means to develop a professional profile and prepare yourself for the world of work. There are some online activities that you can engage in now to help yourself for when you finish your studies and enter the job market.
In these activities you can listen to other students' views about how digital literacy skills influence their employability. You can also consider how to improve your own job prospects through certain online activities.
Activity 1: Student views on digital literacy skills and employability
Is it important to have a range of digital skills on your CV for your future workplace? If so, which skills do you think are important to develop before you finish your studies and which ones do you already have that can help improve your job prospects? In this activity you are going to listen to some other students' views on this topic.
Instruction
Watch the video and listen to the students talking about the kind of digital literacy skills that can affect their employability positively. As you listen, make notes on the points they mention in the text area provided. Then read the feedback.
Activity 2: Developing a professional presence online
People in many professions use the internet to network, research and establish their own professional credentials online. Jobs can be sought and found online and employers frequently carry out online searches on job applicants in addition to seeking the more traditional forms of reference or testimonial. So what can you do online now to enhance your future employability?
Instruction
Think about these activities and how useful they might be for developing a professional presence online. Select the checkbox next to any that you would consider doing in preparation for your own future. Then read the feedback.
Activity 3: Protecting your privacy
Some kinds of online activity might not enhance your job prospects if a future employer were to find them. For this reason, you may not want all content about you on social networking sites to be public. Some may be better kept private. It is not easy to control what others post about you but you can control what you put up on the internet and how visible it is. In this activity you are going to consider steps that you could take to separate content that you wish to be visible online from content that you wish to remain private.
Instruction
Look at these incomplete statements about practical measures that can be taken to protect your privacy online. Select the appropriate option from each dropdown list to complete each of them. Then read the feedback.
When you join a networking service check the
and change any that do not protect your privacy.
If a web service that you regularly use changes its
be sure to read it and consider the implications.
Consider using a
for engaging in professional activity online.
If you no longer use a
, delete the account rather than just leaving it.
© eLanguages, Modern Languages and Linguistics, University of Southampton, 2018. All rights reserved. Image courtesy of Ben_Cannon_1 (Wikimedia Commons).