You’re in your final year of uni. Yes, REALLY. Reality finally sets in after you’ve processed your crazy thoughts of how time has passed by so quickly and the ‘oh god I was only at school two minutes ago’ chats have begun. Unfortunately for you, you really do have to come to terms with it at some point or another. So what should you do? I’m absolutely no expert considering I’m in exactly the same position; so I thought I would write down the thoughts I was feeling down so everyone realises that life is scary, but we’re all in the same situation.
*DISCLAIMER: I’m not an expert nor claim to be.
Where do you even start?
For starters, depending on what you intend to do with your life, you can’t use the ‘I worked in Costa for a year and gained customer service experience’ CV anymore, unfortunately. So maybe start by googling CV’s based around your intended career and take some inspiration without copying and pasting obviously. Shake up your layout from the standard white background, black text with Arial font. If you intend to work in the fashion industry, why not creatively style your CV by adding colour or laying it out differently to make yourself stand out whilst applying for jobs. Think of the hundreds of CV’s your employer will see.
Chill out
Immediately the first thought you have is panic. Just think of the amount of time you have. Let your workflow naturally, don’t pile on the pressure, you’ll probably work better by pacing yourself. In my opinion, there is an underlying pressure that the second you graduate you MUST be in a full-time job doing what you love living in a little flat with three cats, a dog and having absolutely no social life. But why? You are perfectly entitled to gather your thoughts. Move home, travel to your heart’s desire, do absolutely nothing. The world is your oyster and who is there to judge you? Obviously, some people want nothing more than to be applying for graduate jobs which is amazing. Just don’t panic. I’ve been finding myself overly stressed that my life isn’t together and that I haven’t started looking for jobs yet but that is OK and very normal.
Start casually (or not casually) searching for jobs
If you have a minute away from your dissertation, get on to a job website like Indeed to have a peek at the sort of jobs you intend to apply for. Get to know what these employers are looking for. Ask your lecturers for advice on applying for jobs and just essentially prepare yourself for what is to come because you’ll feel more organised than you probably did before.
Email/call companies in your work field for work experience
It takes no time at all to have a quick google of a company and find out their contact number. Some may have a specific work experience number or email but if not, just ring their generic number and hope that someone is kind enough to transfer you to whoever you need to speak to. What better way to sell yourself than to show that you deserve a job than having the knowledge and some experience of working first hand in your chosen career.
Final tips
- DON’T PANIC – you have plenty of time to sort yourself out and everything will fall into place eventually.
- DON’T LISTEN/COMPARE YOUR POSITION WITH OTHER PEOPLE ON SOCIAL MEDIA – I’ve already written a blog post outlining the dangers of social media. Everyone is naturally in a different position throughout your life and everyone has different intentions as to how they intend to spend their time post-uni. Relax.
- Eat some chocolate – if food won’t calm you down, what will???
Beccie Simms 