Postgraduate scholarships

Postgraduate scholarships by Michael Cheary Knowing what funding you’re entitled to is a key part of the postgraduate process…And it isn’t limited to student loans. There are a wide range of grants, bursaries and scholarships which you might be entitled to or are able to earn â€" depending on your current circumstances and what you’re studying.We’ve already covered postgraduate student loans, but here’s everything you need to know about postgraduate scholarships:What is a postgraduate scholarship?A postgraduate scholarship is a grant provided to help support a student continuing their education.It could come from a number of different sources, including the institution itself, a particular business or local charities.However, there will be certain criteria students will need to meet in order to qualify.Who is eligible for a scholarship? Scholarships are usually awarded based on exceptional academic performance.However, every university will have different rules on eligibility, so it’s al ways important to check requirements before you apply to your chosen course.Which universities offer postgraduate scholarships? All UK universities offer some form of additional funding for postgraduate students â€" although specific amounts will vary depending on the institution, the course you study, and your own situation.If you’re studying at the same university you attended for your undergraduate degree, you may also be eligible for a tuition fee discount.To find out exactly what’s on offer, Scholarship Search is a good place to start.What other funding is on offer?Aside from scholarships, there are a number of grants and bursaries postgraduate students may be eligible for, including:Research Council grants â€" money provided to research students by Research Council UK.Charity grants â€" money provided by trusts and charitable foundations (usually for those with certain economic or social disadvantages).Hardship funds â€" money provided by universities to students undergoin g financial difficulties.However, there may be a number of other grants and bursaries available. For more specific information, contact the universities you’re interested in before you apply.When do I need to apply?Generally, the earlier you apply, the better.Again, specific requirements will vary. However, somewhere between 12 months and 8 months before you start the course would be a good time to start looking for extra funding.Can I use scholarships and grants for tuition fees? Yes â€" depending on the type of funding you’ve secured.Generally, scholarships provided by your university will allow you to cover the cost of your tuition fees. However, certain grants, such as hardship funds, aren’t allowed to be used towards tuition.What are graduate assistantships? Although not technically seen as scholarships, some universities offer teaching positions to help students supplement their income.These are known as ‘assistantships’, and are especially suited towards research or PhD students, who may need to complete some teaching experience as part of their degree. And, as well as providing a wage, some of these positions come with subsidised university fees as a benefit.Graduate assistantships will be listed directly on university websites.  Tips for securing a postgraduate scholarshipWhilst there’s no way of guaranteeing your eligibility for a postgraduate scholarship, there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of being considered.Here are some tips to help secure a postgraduate scholarship:Start searching early The earlier you apply, the better your chances.Talk to your university They may be able to offer you the best options.Search your local area â€" Local and district councils may already have measures in place to help postgraduates in the area.Get your name out there Contact charities and institutions you’re passionate about, and which may relate to your degree, to see if they can help.Get your records sorted Some grants wi ll be dependent on your financial situation, so make sure you have records (such as bank statements) sorted before you apply. The more prepared you are, the easier the process will be.Keep applying â€" Universities can’t transfer funds from year-to-year. So if you aren’t successful after your first application, always try again when you return to eligibility.Ready to find your course?  View all available university qualifications now.Find a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the terms and conditions applicable to our service and acknowledge that your personal data will be used in accordance with our privacy policy and you will receive emails and communications about jobs and career related topics. Postgraduate advice

Keep Me Honest - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Keep Me Honest - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career When I make a commitment to you I will do everything in my power to make it happen. However, Please, Please, Please … feel free to remind me. Send me a note with a reminder of the things I committed to do. Does this mean Im lazy? I hope thats not what you take from this. To me it means Im busy. Busy-ness can lead to forgetful-ness. Everyone is busy. Everyone forgets. Or just misinterprets the ask. The remedy to this is to take notes AND send follow ups reminding everyone of the tasks and asks. Some Will Be Insulted There will always be people that will take offense to this type of effort. Im not one of them. Reconnect, Re-Convene, Re-Engage I look at it as a way to let me know you remember our conversation and that you value it enough that you are sending me a note to remind me. Is this passive aggressive? To me… No. Its just a way to stay connected while memorializing the commitments we made to each other. Please… Help Keep Me Honest Send me notes after we meet. Send me a follow up too. I for one will appreciate it. PS Dont be surprised if I do the same for you. The end result is Better Communications, Getting More Done, and Keeping Each other Honest.

Effective Ways to Grow Your Presence Online

Effective Ways to Grow Your Presence Online Setting up online doesn’t automatically guarantee you success. Despite it being essential now that you have some form of online presence, the problem you’re faced with is so does everyone else, and now the market is becoming increasingly saturated with people and businesses just like you, offering similar services and it’s down to you to ensure that you can offer something that they can’t.   Doing this might sound easy on paper “well I’m not like everyone else” you might say, or you get the very common “we use only natural materials” in some industries; but it’s difficult to find that unique selling point that helps you to grow and expand not only your business, but also your presence and reputation.   One way in which you can attempt to offer something game-changing is a relatively simple one, and that is through your blog. Many sites have a news or blog section on their websites, but they aren’t using it to their advantage. Instead of creating a new article based on something new from the industry or a new product added to the range, they’re simply rewording content that can be found somewhere else. Creating something brand new can show that you’re a thought-leader in the industry, that you’re up-to-date with all of the latest news, events, products and systems like these from www.sysaid.com for those working in the technology industry, or these computer-aided systems for those in manufacturing.   The blogs are also a good way of boosting your search engine optimisation. In the past few years Google and other search engines have put extra emphasis on the importance of not only new, but unique content when it comes to rankings in the results. While there is no checklist to ensure that you rank, providing users with content that is relevant to your niche, unique and informative is likely to help you to rank above your competitors (along with a number of other SEO-related factors, of which there are too many to list in one article!)   Another option is to utilise your social media accounts to the fullest. Many businesses use social media to share funny pictures or update people on what they’re doing, but a business needs to use them in a slightly different way. Sharing ‘human’ things like photos and updates is great as it shows that you’re just like your audience and not just a robot, but you also need to ensure that you remain professional and provide news updates on the industry and products, share your blogs and most importantly, talking to your audience and not at them to provide the information they need as soon as possible.   If you can start to show people and the Internet that your business knows it’s stuff, whether you’re running a blog or a whole company, then the chances of your online presence increasing is much higher. You need to show that you’re a reliable, trustworthy source who people can go to for purchases, queries and information and if you can get this right and build up a following on your blog and social profiles then you’re much more likely to improve your reputation and presence without having to spend that much money on marketing.

How Recruiters Can Master Email Marketing

How Recruiters Can Master Email Marketing Emails love them or loathe them, they are very effective for recruitment marketing, for reaching both  clients and candidates. What are the elements of a successful email marketing strategy? We spoke to  Tamsin Fox-Davies,  Senior Development Manager at  Constant Contact  and you could listen to the chat below. Dont forget to  subscribe to the Employer Branding Podcast. Why is  email marketing still important? I think of it as the powerhouse of your digital marketing. So, social media and different social media channels now get more buzz, but at the end of the day, people spend most time, most often, in their email inbox. So, thats where you can hit them. I have an exercise that I often do when Im speaking to small business audiences, and Ill ask people to put their hand up if theyve used Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn that day. Somewhere between a third to two thirds of people might put their hand up. And I say, Okay, right. Now put your hand up if youve used Instagram, YouTube or Pinterest for your business today. And fewer people put their hand up. It depends on how tech-savvy the audience is. And then I say, Okay, who has used email for their business today? And everybody puts their hand up unless theyre those obstinate people that will never put their hands up for anything. Thats really the easiest way to show the prevalence that email still has in our business culture. Its just the fa ct that you can actually get to people when you want to. Theres even some interesting statistics that show the extent to which people will go on to make a purchase from an organisation if theyve received an email from them, but they didnt even open the email. Just that fact of showing up consistently in front of people is a benefit in itself. Are emails more  trusted than social media? I dont know that its a case of more trusted, because we all get spam emails or things that we think might be spam and then we look at them suspiciously and delete them right away unless you are my mother who has ended up with some viruses at odd times, but now she knows to ask me, which is an improvement. I dont think its a case of trust. I think its a case of what you expect that medium to do. So, for example, we are very pro opt-in email. We absolutely do not believe in spam and in fact if youve bought a mailing list, you cannot use it with Constant Contact. So, what I think is a benefit of opted-in email communications is that people have actually put their hand up and said, Yes, I do want to hear from this organisation on these subjects because, you know, a proper email opt-in tells you what youre actually going to get. People then expect it and they accept it as well. If the expectation has been set appropriately and their expectations been met, theyre getting what they want out of it. I think with LinkedIn messages, its not the medium, but its the way people use them. I find that a lot of the LinkedIn messages that I get are out-of-the-blue from people Ive never heard of, Im going to delete that unless its really funny, normally. And Ive only had a couple of those ever, ones that have been really humorous and Ive actually thought, You know what, Im going to look a little bit deeper into this. But yeah, same with Twitter direct messages. I think its great now that you can actually its made easier for you to DM people who arent necessarily following you because there is always that problem where youd get someone saying DM me and youd be like, I cant because youre not following me. But I can see people are already starting to abuse that which is out-of-the-blue sales messages. So, its not the medium, its how you use it. How do you create an email subject line  that gets people clicking? What a lot of people dont realise is that the only purpose of a subject line is to get your email opened, right? So, think about that. Its the only purpose. Its not to necessarily provide education in itself. Its only job is to get that email opened. And most people dont look at them in that way at all. Now, saying that, if I get an email from you and it says, Free Chocolate in the subject line, there sure as hell better be some free chocolate in there or Im coming for you, basically. So, you dont want to be misleading about it. You want to make sure that its giving people a flavour of why they should actually open that newsletter and theres a few key rules. Theres something that we like to call the 2-2-2 principle which is that youve got two seconds to grab peoples attention. The first two words are the most important. And you have to get them to take action today. So, what that means is peoples attention spans are short. Youve got two seconds to grab their attention. So, what you want to do is use relatively short words. You want to keep the whole thing pretty short as well, around five words is probably the maximum that you should have in an email newsletter subject line. It should be very clear- what youre offering by people opening your email. When we say the first two words are the most important, what weve found is that people will read the first two words of the subject line and then decide whether theyre even going to bother reading the rest of the subject line. Not open the email, but even the rest of the subject line. Yeah, I know, its crazy. And you have to give them some reason thats compelling for them to open that email no w because what happens is, when people are sorting through their email inboxes and I do it and you do it and everybody else does it or we do it subconsciously, is that as youre looking down your inbox, youre kind of going through the Now, Later, or Never process. You want to be in the Now pile. How can you combine email marketing with social media? There are a couple of different ways. I would say that the first thing that you want to think about is actually how you can use social media to build your list. In fact, let me just give a bit of context here. Social media tends to create different types of relationships than email, at different rates. What you can do is you can use the power of both of those types of relationships to really help you. So, email will create very relationships of building that feeling of trust and understanding very quickly because youre constantly showing up in their inbox and they see you and they see your face. But your number of people youre contacting tends to be smaller because they have to opt-in to you. If youre doing things right, they have to opt-in to you, which is what I thoroughly recommend. However, on social media, you can much more quickly reach a larger number of people, but the relationships there tend to be a little bit more tenuous. I actually think of social media as more of a broa dcast medium than email, really. For example, I have some very close friends that I met through social channels, but we didnt become friends and we didnt take the relationship to a more personal level than just Twitter or Facebook until we actually moved away from those channels. So, it was when we decided to have a phone call or meet up for coffee or something like that. Heres how you can use the benefit of both of those things because ideally what you want to do is to get everybody who is on our email mailing list, connected with you on all dominant social channels. Also, get the majority of your social followers and fans onto your mailing list. Youre never going to get 100% of that. The numbers will skew more towards one side than the other, but thats what you should aim for. So, there are a number of good things that you can do. First of all, actually linking back to your website from your social profiles and your newsletter and have a landing page on your website that is designed to get them to find out more. I think the first time I saw someone do that really well was a friend of mine. Hes based in the west, Peter Shankman. Hes quite well known in PR circles. He had his Twitter bio linked to a page on his website that was titled So you found me on Twitter. He gave a bit more of a detailed bio, he explained what kind of stuff he posted. Thats a g reat place to also add in a sign-up link for your mailing list because if Ive gone through the bother of actually clicking on your link in your bio, I probably want to know more. So, thats one great way. Connect with Tamsin on Twitter @tamsinfd and be sure to subscribe to the Employer Branding Podcast.

How to Use the New LinkedIn for Executive Personal Branding - Part 2 - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

How to Use the New for Executive Personal Branding - Part 2 In Part 1 of this 3-part series on , personal branding and executive job search  I covered: Why All Executives Need to be on Getting Your Personal Brand Into Your Profile Customizing Your Profile URL for Better SEO In Part 2 here, I discuss: Why You Really Need to Include a Photo Taking Advantage of the Skills Expertise Section Expanding Your Network with Quality Connections Benefitting from ’s Company Follow Updating Your Network Part 3  covers: Getting and Giving Great Recommendations Getting Busy With Groups Tapping into ’s Jobs Pages and Confidential Job Search Why You Really Need to Include a Photo Discussions persist over whether including your photo can lead to discrimination. You may have good reason not to include a photo, but I encourage you to include one. Branding is about creating emotional connections. People believe content more when its accompanied by the authors photo. Many recruiters and hiring professionals will not consider candidates with profiles that do not have a photo. Choose your photo wisely. When people open your profile, this is the first thing that will grab their attention. Choose an appealing photo that strikes the right image and professional tone for your industry and niche. More in my post, Does My Profile Really Need a Photo? Taking Advantage of the Skills Expertise Section You can list up to 50 skills and areas of expertise. Again, these are your relevant keywords and phrases â€" the SEO-friendly terms that reinforce your brand and value, and help people sourcing candidates land on your profile when they search those keywords. Having this list of skills encourages your first-degree connections to click and endorse you for those skills and expertise. Endorsements, a relatively new feature that appears to have legs and may be here to stay, make it easy for people to recognize your areas of expertise, without taking the time to write you a recommendation. Expanding Your Network with Quality Connections Unless it’s really important to you to have a huge number of connections, be selective about who you connect with. Choose quality over quantity. You should have some affinity with these people. The idea is to surround yourself with people you can help, and who will help you reach your career goals. Make inroads positioning yourself in front of and connecting with key decision makers and their circles within your list of target companies. If you’ve done your job search targeting research work, you should have the names of these people. You may be sitting on a lead right now that you haven’t leveraged. Make a list of everyone you know at work and in your personal life. See if they’re on and connect with them. Let them know what kind of job you want and who your target employers are. Benefitting from ’s Company Follow By setting up follows for your target companies, you’ll receive email updates on their new developments, business opportunities, and jobs. It’s possible that people at that company are tracking who is following them. Hiring decision makers may notice you as a follower. Company profile pages also offer a wealth of information, including: A brief company overview Employees who are on , and to what degree you’re connected to them New hires A careers page with recent job listings Company activities on , including recent promotions and changes Company mentions in the news Updating Your Network Get yourself into a regular routine (say, once a week or a few times a month) of posting status updates to your Activity Feed, which is displayed directly underneath the top section of your profile, and is only visible to others when theyre signed in to . Select an option for your Activity Feed by going to Settings, then Select who can see your activity feed. Choose from these four â€" Everyone, Your network, Your connections, or Only you. Most people will want to select either Your Network or Everyone, to extend their messages as far as possible. Remember to add a link to more about the update, if applicable. The Activity Feed represents another opportunity to brand your profile with relevant key words, so keep your brand and ROI value in mind when you post an update. Some ideas for updates: An online article, blog post, or white paper you’ve published An event or seminar you’re presenting A new project you’re working on A promotion, transfer or new assignment A comment you’ve made on a relevant blog that demonstrates your subject matter expertise Professional development, training or new certification A significant accomplishment or contribution to your company Activities with your networks or Groups An important seminar or event you’ll be attending or have attended A community project you’re working on If you’re in a confidential job search, don’t post anything here even hinting that you’re looking for a new job. Related posts: Online Presence and Personal Brand Management: 5 Things to Remember Social Recruiting and Your Executive Job Search ’s Free Executive Job Search Resources 00 0

5 Mistakes That Can Damage Your Career

5 Mistakes That Can Damage Your Career Someone told me the other day: “I am particularly interested in how to navigate a career slump (and surprised to hear you've been through the same!)” Yes, it wasn't all “smooth sailing” on my way to managing director and then COO of Europe for the company. At times, it felt like I was just stuck in a rut, going sideways, or on a plateau while others zoomed ahead. Other times, I was in a full out slump and feeling pretty dejected. Like when I: Was reorganized out of a job, Didn’t get promoted to Executive Director but others in my class did, Got passed over for promotion to Managing Director when several others junior to me made it, Transferred to a new office and managed to alienate several important colleagues without realizing it until it was almost too late, Inadvertently shot myself in the foot with my biggest sponsor, Wasn’t even considered for the job I wanted and watched as it was given to someone else, and Ended up reporting to someone who was previously a colleague. And that’s just to name a few. I can tell you that it felt devastating. Most of the time, I managed to keep a brave face (at least I’d like to think so). But it was killing me inside, and I’m sure some of that feeling of desperation and dejection must have shown through. Who am I kidding? It was probably seeping out of every pore. No one is immune The fact is, career downturns can happen to anyone. The ‘trick’ is knowing how to get out of one or knowing the signs to look out for so you don’t slip into one and get stuck. Sometimes things just work against you. That’s why it’s important to minimize the mistakes you make that are totally avoidable. And when you do make one of those mistakes, it’s critical to catch it as soon as possible so you can do something about it before it’s too late. That’s why I’m sharing with you the following five mistakes that are easy to make, especially if you’re an achiever, hardworking and really busy. Mistake #1:   Lack of clarity Clarity is fundamental to career progression. For me, I wasn’t clear about three things until much later in my career. Knowing what success means to you, instead of relying on other people’s definitions of success. Understanding how your mindset may be holding you back. For me, it was a kaleidoscope of limiting beliefs, zero sum thinking, fear, imposter syndrome, waiting to be asked, and “if I just work harder…” Figuring out what’s important to work on next â€" the thing that will most move the needle for your career if you focused on it right now. My mistake was trying to work on everything at once, which meant I wasted a lot of energy, often without getting the most important things done well. Lack of clarity was at the root of my career wobbles. It’s easy to fall into because we’re simply too close to the situation to see it clearly. That’s where it’s helpful to have some trusted people in your corner to help you see. Mistake #2:   Not demonstrating your true value It’s so easy to assume others will know what you’ve accomplished and how much value you add. Not true. It’s up to you to know what your value is. It’s a blend of understanding your competitive advantage and identifying your personal brand. Then it’s about conveying your value to the right people, at the right time, and in the right way. You can’t just cling onto the mantra of “I don’t self-promote”. While it’s easy to get lulled into thinking that “if I keep my head down and do a great job, I’ll get recognized and rewarded”, it’s a mistake to let that happen. That may work at the very start of your career, but it limits your career after that. Mistake #3:   Not building the right relationships with the right people This one is more important the more senior you become, and the more successful you aspire to be. Sometimes the mistake is in not knowing who those “right people” are, and other times it’s about knowing how to build your relationship with them. Having made this mistake myself, I’ve now found that there are two main categories of people who are particularly relevant: Stakeholders, who have a say in your business and career, and Supporters, people who are in your corner and help you succeed It’s easy to get engrossed in the day-to-day tasks and keep pushing this down the “to do” list. But don’t make this mistake. Mistake #4:   Doing what you’ve always done “What got you here won’t get you there.” â€" Marshall Goldsmith It’s easy to make this mistake because most of us don’t want to tamper with success. But when you keep doing what has worked for you in the past, it can be one of the biggest mistakes you can make if you want to get ahead. It’s crucial to show you are ready for the next level. This means innovating, being strategic, proposing ideas, sharing insights and asking great questions. The world doesn’t stand still so if you don’t evolve and morph with it, and show you can do more, you’re likely to end up in a dead end career-wise. Mistake #5:   Not having a game plan You have a business plan for your group, a blue print for your project or initiative. You need one for your career too. Otherwise, you’re leaving it to chance. And hope is not a strategy. Another benefit of having a plan that’s written down is you’re more likely to stick with it. Consistency is important, and you’ll want to create habits that keep you on track as well as ways to hold yourself accountable. It’s all too easy to allow yourself to become too busy to be strategic. Do not fall into this trap! How to fix (or avoid) these mistakes and make the next leap forward in your career Many people have asked for my help because they are in a slump, a rut, or watching others get ahead while they fall behind. Or, they simply want to accelerate their career success more quickly and don’t know how. I’ve been there myself and know how awful it feels. So I’m putting together a special free training series called “Accelerate Your Career” to help you get back on track. Over the coming weeks, I will share advice and insights to address each of these 5 career-damaging mistakes, and to make the next leap forward in your career. Specifically, you’ll discover: How I got out of my career slumps, and the lessons I learned How to transform yourself and how others see you How to build the relationships that can propel your career forward How to become indispensible for what you can become Strategic actions to get you where you want to go and more This is for you if your career has gone off track and you want to climb back up and make the next leap forward. If you’re afraid this is likely to happen to you and want to do something proactive to avoid it, this is for you too. I’m looking forward to helping you regain your passion and excitement for your career!

How To Write A Resume That You Will Be Happy With

How To Write A Resume That You Will Be Happy WithThere are a lot of people that have trouble writing a resume. They might be trying to find that perfect one that they want, but many of them don't know how to write one that they will actually be happy with. This is a problem that doesn't need to be ignored because there are a few things that you can do to make sure that you get that perfect resume.First of all, it is a good idea to actually take some time to read some resume examples. This way you can see what others have written and how they have done it. You will see a lot of examples that aren't good enough for you. This means that it is going to be a little bit harder to find a nice one for you, but if you take the time to read a lot of examples that are okay, you should be able to find one that is good enough for you.You should also pay attention to the writing style that is used on the resume. A lot of people tend to use very formal writing. If you find that you are having troub le writing a resume that will get you that perfect job, then you might want to hire a professional writer to help you out.You can take this one step further and pay attention to how much of the main points you include on your resume. The more you write about yourself, the more appealing the resume will be. However, it will be harder to find one that is right for you, so it will be best to get a general idea of what kind of job you want before you go looking for a good one.Even though it might seem like the 'wrong' things to focus on when you are trying to find a resume that you will be happy with, it is still a good idea to focus on these points. If you find that the example you are using doesn't contain enough of these important details, then you should look fora different one. Otherwise, you will end up getting the wrong impression.One thing that you should consider doing when you are looking for a great example of a resume is taking a look at what other people have done. You shou ld start by checking online, so that you can see what is being submitted in various resumes. You will find that there are plenty of sample resumes out there, so you should just choose one that you think will be most appealing.Remember that if you are trying to impress a potential employer, then you need to be able to write the best resume possible. That is why it is so important to spend some time to really put some thought into what is on the paper. There is no sense in wasting your time and yours if you don't have that perfect resume.As long as you put some thought into writing resume, you should be able to find one that is perfect for you. Remember, you are trying to impress someone who will be making a decision about you. So, it is very important that you are as successful as possible when you go looking for a good resume.