TAKE A BREAK
Depending on your goals or dreams, my first tip won’t apply to everyone. Only you know what the best option is for you. But I recommend not worrying about it all from the moment you hand your final piece of work in at Uni. I was fortunate to have had my uni house through the whole summer, we had a heatwave, and I enjoyed the last summer of Uni properly after graduation. Once you start your career, you will never get time off like that again. The six weeks off you get all through school and up to three months of during college and university will be a distant memory, so ENJOY YOUR SUMMER.
SET OUT YOUR GOALS
So you are feeling refreshed after your well-deserved summer, it’s time to look at the kind of steps you want to take next. Get a notebook and considering everything, do you want to stay in education – a research masters, a PGCE etc., look up the requirements, the hows and where’s. Then think about jobs and don’t limit yourself. Dream big, write down the companies you dream of working at. Look at your dream location find companies where you may not have heard of yet but are worth looking into if you are feeling lost with what to do. I know university courses can kill a bit of your passion and make you unsure if that’s what you want to do now. List your skills, passions, and what you enjoy doing as well as your experience. Now is the perfect time to take risks or jumps with your careers. YOU WON’T LOSE ANYTHING BY APPLYING FOR A JOB, so it doesn’t matter if how unsure you are about what you want to do. Just make sure you understand enough about the sector and what is required for those roles.
UPDATE YOUR CV
This tip goes without saying it is essential to always take a fresh look at your CV after any new job or qualification. However depending on what sector or industry you are going into its essential to approach your CV differently. In any creative industry, it is a good idea to make your CV visual. This is partly so you can demonstrate a relevant skill, such as Photoshop or InDesign. This can be beneficial in general, though. Most jobs the competition will be so high the person reading from a pile of CV’s has around 8 seconds to be impressed, so you want to do everything you can to make sure your CV stands out and is memorable. Therefore try to keep in all on one page, add some colour or personality. Be careful, only if it’s relevant to the industry, this would work well for a graphic design role but maybe not so much for a position in law. If you want to apply for a variety of different job roles, you must have multiple CV’s. Have one just for retail jobs and write mostly about previous related job roles. Coming from a degree like mine that was both creative and business sided create one creative cv, more visual with the copy directed at job roles in design. Then another more professional CV aimed more at business roles, then tailor the experience you have and the skills you gained from those experiences to each separate job role. It is best to be as specific as possible. Each possible employer only wants to read about what you can offer them and not the general job market.
What I found useful once you are happy with your CV’s is to proofread, get a friend or a parent to proofread. You can even take the further step of getting a professional to proofread. When I started this process, I worked with Graduate goals* who are affordable professional career guidance. Prices are from £20, and they offer CV proofreading, one to one direction and more. It was a necessary process getting professionals advice, especially with the copy on my CV and cover letters.
PERSONALITY
Not to scare you but think how many graduates there will be from every university in the country offering a course in the industry. Every CV will have the same A levels, the same degree, maybe a retail job or an internship in a local magazine and a Duke of Edinburgh’s award. So you have one thing to make you stand out, and that is YOU. Your passion, your creativity, your ideas, those extra things you have taught yourself don’t wait until a possible interview to show them this.
UTILISE LINKEDIN
Linkedin can be ignored a lot as a social media platform, but I, for one, love it. It is excellent to learn from people doing roles you want to do, talk to those people. More often than not, people will be happy to help or answer your questions. Don’t use it to add anyone and message people for a job. But to keep up to date with industry news or talk to like-minded people it can be so useful. You can find my LinkedIn here if you need somewhere to start.
USE TOTALJOBS.COM
There are so many websites now with job listings the main one being indeed.com probably but one I just discovered when applying for jobs after Uni is Totaljobs.com. It is the easiest to navigate and most helpful. You can search specifically one area and job role, which is excellent. It seems to make things a lot clearer on the job description and application process involved. The jobs I heard back from were jobs I’d found through Totaljobs, which I know is a coincidence, but at least you know the company will receive the application.
USE RECRUITMENT AGENCIES
Recruitment agencies may not work for everyone, and it wasn’t something I consciously did. Before this process, I didn’t know much about recruitment agencies. Or how they could help me, but recruitment agencies posted a lot of the jobs I found on Totaljobs.com, so I ended applying for jobs via them. However, it was so helpful. I had a phone call meeting with agencies who would talk me through the job descriptions. Then give a few pointers on some keywords to add to my CV, for example, before they would then send it off to the possible employer. When I got offered interviews, it was a godsend. My contact at the recruitment agency talked me through the best way to find the venue and informed me about the company, how smart would be the appropriate dress for the company etc. which helped my confidence for interviews too. So from my experience, I highly recommend it.
