Having a degree can certainly broaden your career opportunities. However, a degree alone is not enough to secure a job – particularly your perfect job, for which there’s likely to be a lot of competition. If you want to land that ultimate job, you’re going to need to put some extra work into your job hunt beyond replying to ads on job boards. Here are just a few ways to increase your chances of landing the perfect job after graduating.
Attend a job fair
Some people find it hard to make an impression with a written application. A job fair allows you to meet recruiters in person and convey your enthusiasm face-to-face. If you’re lucky, you could get hired there on the day!
Job fairs are held throughout the year across the country – you can find upcoming events via sites like Eventbrite. When attending a job fair, make sure to print off a few CVs to bring along and dress presentably (a suit isn’t likely to be necessary, but you should probably avoid dressing too casual).
Get help from recruitment companies
Recruitment companies can help you to find vacancies suited to your desires and needs. If you’re picky about the type of career you want to get into, it can be beneficial to use a recruitment company. There are specialist recruitment agencies out there such as Cornerstone Medical that cater to specific niches such as medicine. Some recruitment agencies may even have access to vacancies that aren’t advertised elsewhere.
Polish up your LinkedIn profile
LinkedIn is becoming a more popular tool for finding jobs. It’s essentially a public CV that anyone can look at. The beauty of LinkedIn is that you don’t have to do much legwork – the recruiters come to you. Obviously, having a detailed and attractive profile will help you to attract recruiters so you should spend time writing it out and fine-tuning (getting friends and acquaintances to endorse skills can also be valuable).
Look out for job ads on Facebook and Twitter
Many recruiters are now advertising through Facebook and Twitter alongside traditional job boards. Company may post job ads on their company Facebook and Twitter pages (on Twitter you can more easily search for hashtags and keywords to find job vacancies). There may also be community pages on Facebook that you can join dedicated to job opportunities in a specific field. These pages are worth hunting down and becoming a member of.
Try volunteering
Offering to volunteer at a company can be a great way of getting your foot in the door. Even if they’re not looking for any recruits at that current time, many companies are likely to still take one volunteers – there’s no financial risk involved and they get the benefit of an extra pair of helping hands. Simply email companies that you want to work for and see if they respond. If you manage to secure voluntary work, use this opportunity to show that you’re a valuable asset by taking on every task you can and doing it to the best of your ability. They may just decide to hire you full-time if you make a good enough impression. Even if they don’t hire you, you’ll have proof of experience to mention on your CV – which could encourage other companies to give you a shot who may otherwise have never considered you.
