Achievements at school = higher employment opportunities later in life? (1 Viewer)

[~ ReNcH ~]

Do you think extra-curricular activities at school assist you to get a job after graduating from uni? Or do employers generally look at your more recent participation in activities i.e. primarily what you've done throughout your 3-5 years at uni?

Personally, I haven't involved myself heavily in extra-curricular activites at school (albeit, I do play sport and participate in a few minor activites) but I hope to get involved in guilds/clubs, societies, SRC at uni. I'm just slightly worried about the fact that my current resume isn't exactly filled to the brim with outstanding participation in extra-curricular activites. I know this has probably jeopardised my chances of getting a non-academic scholarship, but I hope it hasn't jeopardised my chances of geeting a job in the future.

 

[milk&honey]

I see that you’ve set yourself a target UAI of 99.9- I’d say you should concentrate on that during school and you can worry about the rest later!

In uni you will have a lot more time to do extracurricular activities, and you can take part in activities that relate more to your future line of work. Once you take extracurricular activities at uni anything you may have done in high school would become obsolete anyway. You don’t want your resume to read like an autobiography of your life, you’d just list the most relevant things for the job you are applying for. So you don’t have anything to worry about!

 

[sarevok]

ummmm i wouldn't worry too much, i seriously doubt employers will ask about extra-curricular stuff in high school. but it is common for them to ask about uai, so in that case you'll be better off

 

[Rafy]

in short, Probally not.

It will be more uni.

 

[pLuvia]

i think they do, let's say your a captain of the school or are part of a rotary group etc, they will see that your a team player, willing to help others, improve on things etc, the little things count

 

[iambored]

I think we spend too long worrying about these topics while at school when the truth is they look at more recent things. I start cutting things out of my resume that I did at school and replace them with more recent things, unless of course they are very special things.

 

[sikeveo]

People who do little eca at school, do little at uni.

 

[LeftrightOut]

Chances are unless your prospective employer went to the same school and/or thinks highly of it your participation will not matter unless it was really bad. Same as your HSC results, no one will care at uni except a handful of people who don't quite want to realise it's all over and irrelevant.

After 3 years of uni if I saw your resume with anything school related (other than you finished your HSC at X HS) on it I would think you either didn't get out much at uni, you still live in the past or that you simply have no concept that experiences in a school environment don't really do much to prepare you for real life. Also a 3 year gap between getting 80 in 2U Physics and finishing your BA (or whatever)will not get you a job in Physics so any marks will be next to useless.

The future is what you make it, you don't need to wait until uni to do CV boosting stuff, go join some local groups like SES, Toastmasters, Apex/Lions/Rotary/whatever as not only will you be showing participation and commitment but you will also meet people outside of your normal social set that will give you a good opportunity to network. Perhaps you might even come by some jobs through these community contacts if they believe you are a trustworthy and reliable person. Don't limit yourself to being involved in school or uni only stuff, it is only a small part of the world that you will not be living in for a very long time.

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

I see that you’ve set yourself a target UAI of 99.9- I’d say you should concentrate on that during school and you can worry about the rest later!

In uni you will have a lot more time to do extracurricular activities, and you can take part in activities that relate more to your future line of work. Once you take extracurricular activities at uni anything you may have done in high school would become obsolete anyway. You don’t want your resume to read like an autobiography of your life, you’d just list the most relevant things for the job you are applying for. So you don’t have anything to worry about!

Hmm...a lot of people have said that at uni you'd have less time to do extra-curricular activites given the workload. Although I guess that depends on how efficient a worker you are and how heavy the workload of the course you're doing is...

 

[kow_dude]

i think they do, let's say your a captain of the school or are part of a rotary group etc, they will see that your a team player, willing to help others, improve on things etc, the little things count

Yea but a lot of people change since high school. They can be followers back in high school but learnt to grow out of thier childness during uni and grew up to be great leaders.

 

[pLuvia]

oh okz.. lol fair enough but most employers dont think that

 

[monzi]

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Do all employers ask about your UAI? What if you did crap in the HSC but then pulled your act together at university? If I was an employer I would not even ask about the UAI its irrelevant it does not show how capable you are in performing a job.

 

[~ ReNcH ~]

Do all employers ask about your UAI? What if you did crap in the HSC but then pulled your act together at university? If I was an employer I would not even ask about the UAI its irrelevant it does not show how capable you are in performing a job.

I think your UAI only plays a very minor role after uni. Employers may still ask you for your UAI because it's an indicator of consistency from school to uni to work. Nevertheless, I'm quite sure that your uni transcript would be the document employers would look at most carefully (among other things).

 

[Scanorama]

If you successfully complete your degree, the employers wont give a crap about your UAI. In fact, most uni students dont care about their UAI once they got into uni, the whole HSC-UAI thing is a bit overrated. Many people may stuff up school works, or performed only very average at school, but pass uni in flying colours, the UAI cannot show this.

 

[sarevok]

Do all employers ask about your UAI?

Well, of course not all employers. But big firms - especially financial firms like E+Y, PWC etc - do have a section on their applications in which you have to write your UAI. What importance they place on this, I do not know.

 

[Scanorama]

I distinctly remember that (some) employers hate it when an application writes down every niggly tiggly achievement in high school.

lol they probably think those kids dont have a life, still a little high school kid.

 

[seremify007]

I don't think it really matters what you did in high school... but then if you have nothing else then I guess you should put something down to give yourself some credit.. from what I've heard there are HEAPS of things to do in uni.. but then my tutor said there are a lot of ppl who simply sign up for anything and everything just so they can cram it into their resume... >_>

 

[seremify007]

Well, of course not all employers. But big firms - especially financial firms like E+Y, PWC etc - do have a section on their applications in which you have to write your UAI. What importance they place on this, I do not know.

I thought that's only for cadetship applications? I guess it could just be a discriminant or tie-breaker between two equally suitable candidates as an indicator of future academic performance... but of course one could argue there are never two exactly equal candidates.

On a side note, the PwC cadetship application, the interview invitation phone call, and the interview itself, all asked what UAI we'd be expecting. I thought they'd have remembered from the first time I told 'em >_>

 

[sarevok]

I thought that's only for cadetship applications?

No mate, go to the big four's sites and look at graduate application forms, a lot of them ask you for your uai. Extremely unlikely this plays a huge role in the application process however

 

[seremify007]

No mate, go to the big four's sites and look at graduate application forms, a lot of them ask you for your uai. Extremely unlikely this plays a huge role in the application process however

Fair enough. You planning to apply for Big4 I'm guessing? One of my mates got into PwC as a grad from USYD~

Btw nice sig you have there. I like it =]