Jake PopistLet’s face it: while the joy of learning is important, studying at university is something that most people do to enhance their career prospects once they graduate. Having a degree from a particular institution may go some way towards developing your prospects, but it’s also about the more intangible things, too.
Employers find themselves asking questions like: “Will this candidate be able to persuade people to buy from my company?”, or “Has this person got a demonstrable record of solid, hard work?” University is the perfect time to be ensuring that when employers see your resume in a few years, the answer to all these sorts of questions will be you. Here are some practical tips on how to make the most of your college career and achieve this goal.
Work hard
The first way in which to enhance your potential career outcomes while you’re at university is to demonstrate that working hard is something you’re perfectly capable of doing. You will have to work hard every day once you’re in full-time employment, of course, so even just the benefits of the routine can go far. Working hard can also improve your final degree classification and can potentially mark you out from other people with good grades and strong extracurricular activities. If it comes down to the final two applicants competing for one job it could be the decider.
Another reason to work hard, however, is for skill development. Say you’re studying history: the kings and queens of years gone by might not be directly useful to know about if you go into a role as an investment banker, say, but the ability to argue a case – which is learned in history – is a great skill to have. And if you’re a science student, meanwhile, knowing how to manage large amounts of data is useful in sectors from education to medicine. Working hard, then, can be an excellent way to get ahead and reach the top once you graduate.
Do some extracurricular activities
But college shouldn’t be about just working all the time. It’s also about enjoying yourself, and about developing skills which are useful both inside and outside of the classroom. If you’re interested in a career in journalism, for example, why not enroll as a reporter on your college’s student newspaper team? The best-case scenario is that you’ll find out you love journalism and that you’re desperate to enter that field. Even if that doesn’t happen, though, you will still have an experience for your resume which shows just how dedicated and organized you are – and you’ll have better writing skills, too. Whatever the outcome of an extracurricular decision, then, it can’t hurt.
Go to networking events
While networking may seem to most freshmen students like something only boring adults do, it’s a very important way to get the contacts you need to secure that all-important internship or job further down the line. Networking events are often hosted on-site at colleges, and the employer will usually come to you as part of a roadshow, so there’s really no reason not to go – and even if there are no roadshows, there will be staff on hand who can help you get your resume looking great and prepare for interviews. The Bryant and Stratton official channel shows some of the ways that Bryant and Stratton College, in particular, help their students get jobs, and working with employers in this way is one of them.
When at these events, you’ll be able to talk to people who have been through the process of applying for jobs when just out of college themselves. They might also be able to advise you on how to polish your resume even further, and from an experienced and seasoned professional that is advice worth its weight in gold. Remember to ask lots of interesting questions at these events, as it will mark you out as someone willing to make the effort – although don’t try too hard, as that may come across as pushy. Just be yourself and reveal your passion for the industry, and it will all flow from there.
College is a time for big decisions – and enhancing that all-important resume is one of them. Luckily, there are lots of ways to do this. From working as hard as possible to get a degree of the highest classification to ensuring that you pick up skills transferable to the workplace both in and outside of the classroom, there are plenty of ways to make yourself stand out ahead of the job application season.
Jake Popist
