Students 5 Tips To Help You Prepare For Graduate Life

Students 5 Tips To Help You Prepare For Graduate Life So, youve almost completed a term and I bet it only feels like yesterday since you moved back to Uni and crawled into your first lecture of the year. Whether you are in first year, second year or so on, its worth spending some time gaining new skills and experience in order to prepare for life after University.   Internships When job hunting, you will notice that lots of job descriptions ask for previous experience in that role or similar. This is why its important to complete work experience. As we have mentioned before, not only does it look really good on your CV, it gives you an insight to what that role entails. This way, you can decide whether or not this is something youd like to pursue further. Not only will this look good on paper, the dedication that you have to work during your spare time  will really stand out to employers.  Although gaining a degree is very impressive, sometimes it is better to step into the real world and try out some work experience. This way, you arent sat listening to your lecturer, you are trying it out yourself. Quick tip: Dont wait for internship positions to become available, start contacting your favourite brands with impressive cover letters and explain what you love about their company and why youd like to volunteer there. Develop Skills Although Uni can sometimes be pretty hectic, you usually have a fair bit of spare time. Time that you may spend seeing friends, lounging around on the sofa or out partying. Contribute some of this spare time to work on your skills. For example, if you study Creative writing, take sometime to practice some writing, read some books and complete some research. Not only is this going to help you improve your grades, you wont have much time to do these things when you finish, especially if you are looking for work straight away. The work you complete can then be added to a portfolio or published online, which will be very useful to show to employers. Quick tip: Its important to love what you do, Meetups If you have a passion for something or want to network with people who share the same interests as you its useful to join  a Meetup group or a Society. You may think that they are just rowdy bar crawls but some of them can be really useful. For example, if you are into blogging or photography, you can collaborate with other people and work together to develop  skills, perhaps even build a brand. Even if you want to stay solo, they can be useful for discussions and sharing tricks with one an other. You have obviously heard the saying Its not what you know, its who you know these Meetups are great opportunities to meet important people and network.   Quick tip: You may need to develop interpersonal skills such as communicational skills, this is a great opportunity to develop them and practice meeting new people before you finish! Freelance Not having any luck applying for internships? Or simply want to kickstart your freelancing career. Do it! Were lucky to live in a time when Social Media is on the rise and you can literally set up websites for free. Start your brand today, get your name out their and keep your online presence clean and professional. Quick tip: Some Universities even introduce modules that allow you to develop your own brand and pioneer your own solo project, take this opportunity to get professional guidance and start working on your own career. Building A Portfolio Its important to store away all of your good work ready to show to potential employers.  You may have a degree under your sleeve, but lots of employers like to see what you are capable of.   Quick tip: Online portfolio sites usually link to your Social Media sites, its important to clean up your digital footprint and make sure you are active on LinkedIn.   Thank you for reading our career advice and we hope that you enjoy your time off during Christmas. Make sure you are utilising your time well!