Employability and Careers Blog: Info and Advice for AUT Students and Graduates

Behavioural interviewing is used in a job interview to discover how you are most likely to act in a specific employment related situation. It focuses on experiences, behaviours, knowledge, skills and abilities. This approach is very popular in New Zealand and is based on the belief that how you responded to situations in the past will predict how you will behave in the future.

Hansani Senadeera landed a great part time job after attending a workshop for job interview practice at the Employability Lab at AUT. She encourages other students to take advantage of these workshops - see what she learned that helped her get a job.

It can be rather daunting to be told you have to complete a psychometric assessment when you apply for a job, particularly if you’ve never done one before. Student Employability and Careers Specialist Emma Spires demystifies the process.

Elab Online? NZ Unitalent? Employability Lab? Who does what and how do they link up? Here’s my attempt to explain what they are and what they offer – and while I may be biased, I want to say they are brilliant services that offer plenty of career and employability help.

Make the most of career and networking events and presentations, says Brittany Fitzpatrick, business advisory accountant (chartered accountant) at Findex.

How do you get a part time job as an international student? That was the question on Arsad Barlaskar’s lips when he first visited AUT Employability and Careers services. He quickly learned how to go about job search in New Zealand and build up successful job searching skills.

Learning how to approach a stranger and strike up a conversation, especially about your career goals and journey, takes a bit of practice. But it is possible.

Initially shy and unsure of herself, Jennifer Susanto flourished at AUT, presenting work at two exhibitions in Sweden, becoming an industrial design peer mentor, creating start-up Foodscrapz, landing two design roles and gaining overall achievement for the AUT Edge Award.

Throughout the semester employers are invited onto campus for presentations, panels, networking and expos. With around 30 events planned over the semester, we urge students to come and make the most of these opportunities to access employers.

The experience of working with others while volunteering for the AUT Edge Award helped Ghokkul Muhunthan land the role of IT support technician in a social services organisation where he is delighted to be using his IT skills to help others.