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

The AUT Edge Award challenges and encourages you to develop skills at AUT through volunteering, leadership and employability activities. You may be surprised at how much you're already doing that meets the requirements of the AUT Edge Award – check out the four parts of the award to find out more.

What on earth do you do as a 3D Animator in game design? It sounds exciting, being a 3D animator for a game design company – and it is, says Māori creative Reuben Shortland (Ngāti Hine) who works for Metia Interactive. It is also a world we you keep learning and learning.

Students often ask whether they should bother with writing a cover letter. When I surveyed 15 employers recently about CVs and cover letters, I found six of them read a candidate’s cover letter before they read their CV – yep before! Only two employers considered a cover letter optional. So short answer - yes, it is worthwhile. Here’s are some of those employers' thoughts on cover letters.

Clambering out of boats and crossing muddy water to bring supplies and support to the Rohingya people in Myanmar camps is just one part of the job for Su Myat Kyaw, medical activity manager for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). It’s exciting, worthwhile and humbling, says Su who undertook the AUT Edge Award and Beyond AUT Award as well as studying disaster and risk management at AUT.

Five AUT graduates talk about how their paths changed as they progressed through their tertiary study. They have found productive and stimulating careers that are quite different from their initial dreams and expectations.

When Mallik Gadipudi completed his MBA in Human Resources at AUT and took on a 2degrees customer care specialist role, his Dad back in India was perplexed and angry. Why was he going to work in a call centre after doing a postgraduate qualification?Mallik didn’t see it that way. For him it was a strategic step needed to overcome a lack of experience in the New Zealand workplace. And it worked. Mallik is now national sales manager for KPL Distribution and has founded a music production company.

If you don't want to be like the guy in the image, then read our tips on how to set up and perform in a virtual job interview. It's not difficult if you are prepared.

Do you look at your CV and feel it is a bit thin on activities and experience? How do you show an employer you’re good at being organised or team work, when you don’t have any proof? Have you ever considered the benefits of volunteering.

Construction engineering graduate April Faitua was delighted to get into the Kāinga Ora 18-month graduate programme working on construction that brought about social change. April has now taken up the role of consultant information manager for Auercon in their digital engineering team. She talks about her Kāinga Ora graduate programme experience.

You are very unlikely to go into your dream job immediately after you graduate. No, don’t sigh and bin this blog. All I’m saying is that often the best entry level graduate roles do not sound like dream jobs, but they will lead to them if you’re good at what you do.