careers arkistot - Various Variables

Looking for a job can feel like an overwhelming task. Some may describe it as a full-time job. You spend hours searching for job opportunities, participating in recruitment fairs, optimizing your LinkedIn profile, tailoring and fine-tuning your CV and cover letter, and then filling in all the same information into a company’s specific job application software. Sometimes you get to the interview round. Have a good feeling about how it went. Get super excited and hopeful, and then receive THE email: “Unfortunately this time you were not selected”. The job-searching process can be quite a frustrating, time-consuming, and lonely journey. But what if there was a way to make it more efficient? What if you could have yourself a tireless sparring partner, a virtual career coach to walk the job-searching journey with you and help you every step of the way? ChatGTP, an AI-powered language model has turned out to be a surprisingly handy helper for job seekers. In a relatively short time, job seekers around the world have found the advantages of using ChatGPT and other AI tools and the number is steadily growing. In Finland, according to National Recruitment Survey 2023, Job Search in Finland (1), 8 % of respondents (N =3600) used AI in their job search and 36% said they might explore it in the future. The respondents used AI mostly for writing the application documents, but AI can be helpful in many steps of the job searching journey. It can, for example, help you find job opportunities, recognize your skills and competencies, write tailored job applications, help you to practice for job interviews and give advice on how to advance your career. With the help of the following hands-on tips, you can partner with ChatGPT to make your job search journey more efficient. Basics of ChatGPT ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer. (2) The basic idea of how ChatGPT works is that you chat with it. You ask questions and the AI gets to work. AI searches information from the material it has been trained with or material you provide for it and combines it into comprehensive unique answers in seconds. You may chat with the ChatGPT both in Finnish and in English. However, the English version works better as most of its training material has been in English. (3) It's important to keep in mind that the answers you receive from ChatGPT are AI’s predictions of the right answer, not knowledge of the right answer. Sometimes AI can also hallucinate, meaning it produces answers that are not based on facts or the right context. When using ChatGTP, the content should be treated with a healthy dose of source criticism and evaluation of whether the answers are accurate or not. (3). Be aware of privacy issues Before you get started with ChatGPT it’s good to acknowledge some privacy issues. Keep in mind that the material you provide for the ChatGPT might be used later as AI’s training material. As a general rule, don’t submit anything you would not publish on the internet. I recommend that you remove any of your personal data before providing material for the AI, for example when working on your CV and cover letter with the help of ChatGPT. Ready to get started? Follow these easy steps: 1. Create a ChatGPT account If you don’t have one yet, start by creating a ChatGPT account. The account can be created for free: https://chat.openai.com/auth/login. Once you have created a user account, you can start a conversation with the AI and ask various questions. 2. Recognise your core skills and competencies Sometimes it’s hard to define your core skills and competencies. AI can help you with this. Copy your CV or LinkedIn profile content to ChatGPT and based on the information provided, ask it to analyze the person's five most important competencies. Before doing this, remove all confidential or too personal information from the material due to privacy issues. Remember that the answers you receive are always based on the text you provide. Does the list of the five most important competencies align with your perception of yourself? If you feel that the results don’t accurately represent you, it’s time to make some adjustments to your CV and/or LinkedIn profile. Pro tip: The easiest way to copy your LinkedIn profile content to ChatGPT is to use the “More” button at the beginning of your LinkedIn profile and select “Save to PDF”. 3. Find job opportunities After you have crystallized your key skills and competencies it’s time to explore different opportunities where you could use your skillset. You may ask ChatGPT to recommend the kind of jobs where you could utilize your competencies based on the information provided. You may even ask for a list of a few companies operating in Finland that might have a use for an expert like you. Pro tip: Have you considered entrepreneurship as one of your career options? Ask ChatGPT what kind of consultancy business you could establish based on your skill set. 4. Write tailored job applications Something that ChatGPT is good at is role-playing. Ask ChatGPT to be a career coach with excellent copywriting skills. Let it know that you would like to apply for a specific job and, as background material, submit the job description and maybe some additional information about the company. Next, let ChatGPT read your current CV and draft version of a cover letter. Ask it to check for possible grammatical errors and give recommendations for improvements. Also, based on the job ad, ask ChatGPT to analyse what keywords you should use in your application and what relevant competencies you should highlight for this position. With the help of AI, you may have more clarity and impact on your application documents. Pro tip: In Finland, recruiters appreciate quite concise job applications. If your CV is several pages long, ask ChatGPT to help you edit the text shorter. 5. Practice for a job interview Job interviews can be nerve-wracking. Training for it is a smart move especially if you are nervous about it or if it has been a while since your last one. Ask ChatGPT to take the role of a hiring manager of the target company and organise an interview simulation for you. Provide background information e.g., your application documents, the job description and some additional material about the company. Based on the information provided, ask ChatGPT to interview you for the open position. If you write your answers, you can ask ChatGPT for feedback and tips on how to improve your answers further. Pro tip: You may also try switching the roles. Take the role of the hiring manager and interview ChatGPT for the job. Ask it to take the role of a job applicant and answer the interview questions based on your application documents. Maybe you’ll get new ideas on how to highlight your skills and competencies at the interview. 6. Get advice on how to advance your career For career changers and those who feel stuck in their career, AI provides personalized recommendations for upskilling and reskilling based on industry trends and your individual career goals. Ask ChatGPT to take the role of a career coach. Provide some background information about your current position, educational background, work experience and career aspirations, and let your virtual career coach recommend the next steps to achieve your goals. Own your own words and let your personality shine through the text While AI is a great help for crafting application documents, don’t outsource yourself from the process. Experienced recruiters can spot pretty easily when a candidate uses AI to write their application documents. This is ok, as long as your authentic voice and your own words can be identified from the application. After all, humans still want to hire humans. If the recruiter gets the feeling that the application is completely written by AI, it might raise concerns about your abilities to produce well-structured text of your own which often is expected from candidates applying for expert positions. ChatGPT is just a tool Leveraging ChatGPT as your virtual career coach can save you time and effort. The best way to learn how to use it is just starting to test how it could support your job searching journey. Just remember to evaluate the insights and make your own informed decisions critically. After all, ChatGPT is just a tool, not a substitute for your own judgment and ethical responsibility. Sources: 1. Duunitori (2024). Kansallinen rekrytointitutkimus 2023, Työnhaku suomessa. URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x0xD9_qVzllV1kbu8gxwHOcNuBrqSBHG/view. Read: 23.04.2024. Unadkat. A. 2023. What the heck is a Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, and why should I care? URL: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-heck-chat-generative-pre-trained-transformer-why-amit-unadkat/. Read: 23.04.2024. OpenAI (2024). What is ChatGPT? URL: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6783457-what-is-chatgpt. Read: 24.04.2024. Author: Anu Luoma works as a Specialist at Metropolia’s International Relations office. She works in a national Talent Boost project which aims to support international talents’ integration and opportunities to build their future in Finland. She has wide experience as a Career Coach and is teaching courses: Boost Your Job Search and Discover Your Career Path in Finland.

SIMHE-Metropolia customers have many characteristics in common yet the need for an individual and personal approach for planning their path in Finland is highly demanded. The most frequently discussed topics, that are almost always in the core of the discussions when it comes to career paths and taking the first steps: how to create a coherent image of yourself as a professional, and how to sell and brand your competences to employers? Also, how does a certain field work in Finland, and which competences are appreciated in the field? How to update and supplement those competences if necessary? I will share some thoughts concerning these topics below. What are you made of? Knowing your skills and assets can take you far in today’s working life (1). To create a coherent image of you as an expert in your field, you could start by searching answers e.g. to these questions: What are your interests? Where are you good at? Which are your core skills and competences? What can you do with them? Which are concrete examples of your talents? It is also beneficial to strive to understand how your competences position you in your field in the Finnish context (2), as different skills might be appreciated, different applications used, or different educational level required. Finding out about the educations in your field gives you an image of the skills set that is valued and offered by the Finnish degrees. To perform a detailed comparison between your skills acquired in e.g. a degree in higher education and the Finnish counterpart, have a look at the curricula open for all at the websites of the higher education institutions. Do you know your field of expertise in Finland? It is important to understand the characteristics of the field you aim to, as fields can be different between countries. There are multiple ways to access information, but one could be through the organizations functioning in your field in Finland. You can get information e.g. about the different companies operating in your field. Another good way to get information is to go through the open job vacancies ads, as they give you information of what the employers are looking for. Remember, that you don’t have to tick every box to apply. Different mentoring programmes exist to give you an opportunity to connect with an expert from your own field to add to your field-specific knowledge, but also the opportunity to find out more e.g. about the practices for applying for a job and contacting interesting employers with an open application. Overall, networking is a key skill in today’s working life. Where can you update your skills set? At the moment, the pressure to continuous self-development and learning is strong in Finland, as job descriptions are more and more complex and multidisciplinary (1). This applies to everyone, not only immigrants. After mapping your competences, comparing them with the competences gained through the local degrees, and familiarizing yourself with the competences the working life requires, it might be easier to understand what kind of completing of your skills could benefit you. Options to build up your expertise could be e.g. open university/university of applied sciences studies, different educational opportunities offered by the TE-office or degree studies in an educational institution. Supplementary studies do not only increase your expertise, but also help you build up your networks and knowledge of your own field. (5.) Preparatory educations for immigrants aiming for studies in higher education can give you an intensive Finnish language learning opportunity. How to brand and sell yourself? The ability to brand yourself and to sell your skills is crucial, especially because it might be that the employers do not know what skills your degree completed abroad has given you. Research shows, that the employers find it difficult to comprehend the true skills of the immigrant applicants (3). At the same time, the capacity and potential of immigrants is not in full use (4). Building your cv towards a skill based cv could help. Instead of focusing only on the formal degrees you have completed, in a skill based cv you focus on outlining the key skills the degree and everything else in your life has given you. The emphasis is in describing how you convert all that learned into practice, with the help of practical examples from your personal history. Don't forget to add in the results you have gained during your work history. (6) Sources 1 Hakala, L. (2018) Työelämä muuttuu - mitä työelämävalmiuksia tarvitsemme? https://stm.fi/artikkeli/-/asset_publisher/tyoelama-muuttuu-mita-tyoelamavalmiuksia-tarvitsemme- 2 Autero, M. (2018) Osaamisen kartoitus tukee maahanmuuttajan työelämään ohjaamista. In the title Osaamisella ei ole rajoja – Vastuukorkeakoulutoiminta maahanmuuttajien integraation tukena Suomessa. https://www.metropolia.fi/fileadmin/user_upload/TK/Julkaisut/pdf/2018_stenberg_ym_osaamisella_ei_ole_rajoja_TAITO.pdf 3 Hakala, K. & Pesonen, J. (2018) Työnantajien haasteet korkeasti koulutettujen maahanmuuttajien työllistämisessä. https://unlimited.hamk.fi/ammatillinen-osaaminen-ja-opetus/tyonantajien-haasteet/ 4 Uudenmaan liitto. (2019) Helsingin seudun muuttotutkimus: Koulutettujen maahanmuuttajien osaamista ei hyödynnetä, paitsi huippualoilla. https://www.uudenmaanliitto.fi/uudenmaan_liitto/uutishuone/tiedotteet/helsingin_seudun_muuttotutkimus_koulutettujen_maahanmuuttajien_osaamista_ei_hyodynneta_paitsi_huippualoilla.34372.blog 5 Hiitelä, E. & Kolu, M. (2018) Korkeasti koulutettu maahanmuuttaja matkalla työelämään. https://verkkolehdet.jamk.fi/elo/2018/11/29/korkeasti-koulutettu-maahanmuuttaja-matkalla-tyoelamaan/ 6 Uusivirta, M. (2019) Pelkkä töiden listaus ei enää riitä - Näin laadit osaamista korostavan cv:n, jonka avulla erotut ja saat työpaikan varmemmin. https://www.hs.fi/ura/art-2000006091980.html

Various Variables

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ChatGPT – Your Virtual Career Coach in the Job Search Journey

Finding suitable career paths for the highly educated immigrants