News stories
Lode opens council doors for Jessica
20-Aug-2009 Third year QUT student Jessica Hyem found that Lode had the key when it came to opening doors at Brisbane City Council
Jessica spent an hour perfecting her profile, and was later rewarded with a job opportunity from Council that could open other doors in future.
"I am working in the Water Distribution Division of the Council. I have been responsible for the creation of internal communication, an external news article for an industry publication, media monitoring, communication and community consultation plans and I am also working on improving the content and functionality of their internal intranet.
"The Water Distribution Division is a commercialised business unit of Council that provides water services (potable drinking water, wastewater and recycled water) to over one million consumers. It employs almost 800 staff and is one of Australia's largest water utilities," Jessica said.
"At the moment I'm working on the Toowong trunk main replacement project and my role has been to help notify the local community about the project.I've updated the communications plan, drafted councillor briefing notes and call centre scripts, drafted and organised the delivery of 500 notification letters to residents and businesses in the Toowong area, attended councillor briefing sessions, and briefed the project team on communications issues related to the project."
"Knowledge of infrastructure projects, such as the Toowong trunk main replacement, and council procedure will bode well for future opportunities. I hope to get a good reference that will open up doors for other work experience opportunities.
"I am very excited that I got this placement based on my affiliation with Lode. It has been a good experience and has opened up exciting opportunities for me to expand the scope of my experience. I've really enjoyed my time with Council. They are a leading employer and it's a great place to work."
Brisbane City Council is the largest local government in the Asia-Pacific region and one of 20 employers who have signed up to the Lode pilot program. Within Council there are more than 4000 different types of jobs offering ongoing learning and development in hundreds of career paths, flexible working arrangements, competitive salaries, work-life balance and supportive family-friendly arrangements.
Brisbane City Council employs a team of over 8000 people dedicated to making a real difference.
Graduate market glows midst global gloom
Commentators within the graduate recruitment market remain cautiously optimistic about the future for graduate job seekers such as QUT student Jessica Hyem.
Manager of Careers and Employment at QUT, Dr Alan McAlpine, said that while a short term slow down was possible for student job seekers, the long term future of the graduate recruitment space remained bright.
"There is no evidence as yet that the financial crisis has hit the graduate market. Nonetheless, it would not be surprising for it to slow down under the current circumstances and the upshot would that it may take slightly longer for a student to find their preferred position.
"However, the issue of Australia's aging workforce won't go away simply because of the financial crisis. Therefore the graduate recruitment market is seen as a long term investment in preparing future leaders and so may not slow as much as it possibly did in the past under similar circumstances," he said.
Pleased to hear about Jessica's success, Dr McAlpine described Lode as a useful tool for candidates to make direct connections with employers.
"Lode is a good opportunity for students to get out there and get experience. What I like about Lode is it uses Web 2.0 technology, which allows for interactions between the two parties involved and that is a great way forward," he said.
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