Beyond Deakin: Supporting you into the future

Building professional networks

Building and maintaining a professional network will be important for the duration of your career. This can be both online and in person. The benefits can include having professional guidance and support, opportunities, and resources.

Professional associations 

Professional associations are groups where people involved in a specific industry can network and share knowledge. They also help to maintain standards and act as an advocate for that industry. Most industries will have professional associations. Some will be open to individuals to join whereas others might only be open to companies or organisations.

Professional organisations often provide resources for their members - some may also have a library accessible to members. If not a member, they may also have useful resources on their websites and are still worth following

Features

Benefits and services differ between associations, but some common features include:

• Accreditation as a professional in your industry

• Access to professional development conferences and training opportunities

• Access to job listings

• Access to industry news or mailing lists

Tip

Sometimes discounted or free memberships are available for students, so see if you can join up while you're still studying.

Examples of professional associations include:

Connecting with potential employers

There are many recruitment and employment websites out there that can be tailored to health and human services focused jobs. However, using a platform such as DeakinTalent is an easy and supported way that you can build your visibility for potential employers, as well as listing prospective job opportunities. 

DeakinTalent is Deakin’s graduate employment portal. A social-business platform designed to connect employers with Deakin students and graduates, open across discipline areas and year levels. It provides an innovative and personalised service that aims to prepare Deakin graduates for the jobs and careers of the future.  

Professional social media tools 

It's easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of choice for social media platforms. You can’t possibly use all of them, and it’s much better to be active on one or two sites than to have neglected profiles all over the internet which haven’t had recent use.

With social media, firstly think about what you want to achieve by using a tool. This will help you to determine which one is the right fit.

Examples of social media used in the workplace:

• LinkedIn 

  A common professional social media tool used in most industries. Through LinkedIn you can create a professional profile, upload your work experience and qualifications, connect with other professionals, join groups and even find a job! Remember that your email address is part of your brand. It should be your name, preferably first name and last name. If it is not available, try variations that include your first and last name. Try not to use numbers.
• Twitter 

  Many professionals use their Twitter profiles as a networking tool and to share industry news. Twitter is great for day to day conversation, following researchers or organisations in your area, to stay on top of interesting projects and research or for keeping up with news in your field or industry as it happens, for keeping in touch with interesting people you met at events but don’t quite feel ready to email yet, for campaigning to try and get support for a particular issue, or to crowdsource questions.
• ResearchGate 

  A social networking site, for scientists and researchers, that connects you with colleagues, where you can ask and answer questions, find collaborators, and make your research visible.
• Academia.edu 

  This is a social networking website for academics, where you can follow research or upload and share your own.
• Google Scholar Author Profile 

  A Google Scholar Author Profile, also called a Citation Profile, will help you maintain an online presence for any scholarly work you generate