In this day and age, the job market is very competitive. It pays to hit the ground running as soon as your graduation party is finished.
Which means that you have to start preparing for the job market as soon as you get to university. Waiting until your last year, or, even worse, when you’ve already graduated is not a recipe for success.
Think of it like building a foundation. You can’t construct a solid house without first making the foundation. You can create a foundation by doing certain things early on in your academic career. This gives you time to become the ideal candidate that employers are looking for.
In this article, I will go over several ways that you can set out on a good foot and land that job quickly after university.
Take advantage of career services
Whether you are a student at Winchester University or another, your university has an office dedicated to helping students prepare themselves for the next phase of their life. Namely, getting a good job.
They have loads of resources there to take advantage of that will help you to stay focused and understand the moves you need to make to get hired.
From working with you on your CV to helping you pick the right classes, they can steer you in the right direction. It should be a place where you go regularly to make sure you are on the right path.
Start volunteering
Volunteering is a great way to help your own cause while you lift others up at the same time. It gives you many skills that will be necessary in the workplace and potential employers will take notice when they see your volunteering efforts on a CV.
You may want to relax and have fun on your break, but you should be thinking about a volunteer program instead. In fact, you can turn this into an opportunity to travel and volunteer at the same time. Pick a destination that has a volunteer position in your preferred cause.
Attend workshops and career fairs
To understand exactly what an employer is looking for in a candidate, it pays to talk directly with them. This is why you should be attending job fairs. You will have face to face time with the people that will be looking to hire people and talk about what they need and what you can be doing in the meantime to become the person they need.
Workshops are another way to craft yourself to the position you are looking to win when you finish your studies.
These workshops are like a training camp for companies and set the expectations they have for future recruits.
Network
You’ll need to be surrounded by peers in the same field as well as people already working in those positions you are looking towards filling.
When you are finished with school, it may very well be one of your classmates that helps you land that dream job.
