READ TIME – 5 MINUTES
The time of year has come again when thousands of students will be blossoming into graduates… 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 800,000 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵.
Whilst this may feel like a daunting time in your life, there are a handful of steps you can be taking to bridge the gap between student and working life and help put you in the best position before you graduate!
So let’s delve into it…
1. Increase your commercial awareness
Commercial awareness can simply be defined as the art of staying up-to-date with daily happenings and developments in the business world.
It’s crucial for everyone to stay ‘𝘪𝘯-𝘵𝘩𝘦-𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸’ but especially Graduates.
Showing your future employees that you’re knowledgable and fascinated by the industry you’re hoping to work in, illustrates your passion, even if you have limited work experience.
A recent study published that Commercial Awareness is the number one skill that graduates lack! So this is an easy way to stand yourself out from the crowd and impress those you’re hoping to leave a lasting impression on.
It doesn’t have to be boring.
Some of our favourite ways of staying informed with the sales world are TikTok accounts such as ‘Closing with Coffin’, The Entrepreneur Magazine or a social group similar to Sales Best Practices on LinkedIn.
2. Develop your personal branding
As social media user ship is ever increasing, the platforms we use become more and more saturated with content.
But it’s happening for a reason.
Since the evolution of social media, organisations jumped on to showcase their products and services to increase their brand awareness with the public.
So why shouldn’t we as businesspeople, be marketing ourselves?
Unfortunately, these days a degree alone isn’t enough to impress most employers. But as a graduate who has just spent X number of years in education, no one is expecting you to have years of work experience under your belt. Personal branding is therefore a great solution that can demonstrate your personality, work ethic and passion for the industry.
It isn’t uncommon for recruiters to search candidate’s names on the internet, so you want to be using this to your advantage.
So be savvy on social media, 𝘸𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰, and engage and create content that will help you stand out from the crowd and steer you in the right direction to a multitude of opportunities.
3. Engage with the organisations you want to work with
Leading on from personal branding, a great way to put yourself in the best position before you graduate is by considering the type of organisations you want to work with and engaging with them on social media.
You can do this by simply commenting and sharing their posts – leaving your own insights to demonstrate your understanding of the sector they’re working with.
Or even better, start networking with employers on the recruitment team of these organisations and introduce yourself.
These recruiters may just click on your profile and if you’ve already developed your personal brand, will be impressed and potentially consider you for an upcoming opportunity.
4. Update your CV
As you’ve been at University for a while now, you may have not needed to update your CV.
A great way of putting yourself in the best position before you graduate would be to create a fresh CV, tailored to the industry that you’re hoping to work within.
Your degree will have provided you with invaluable transferable skills which you should be dedicating its own section to. For instance, detail any group work or presentations you carried out, or stand out projects!
The CV you create now will be a draft template for when you actually come round to sending one-off. This is because each CV needs to be tailored specifically to the role and organisation you are applying for.
5. Do some interview prep
Another proactive way of putting yourself in the best position before you graduate is prepping for the numerous interviews you will have lined up.
Interview prep can often be time-consuming and just like busses – 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦.
Being ahead of the game will ensure you’re feeling confident and in the best position possible if any opportunities are thrown your way.
A great way to prep is by researching common interview questions and practising how you would answer them, catering them to your own experience and knowledge!
Check out our socials where we post ongoing graduate and interview tips or there are countless YouTube and TikTok accounts that you can watch in your spare time!
Prepare Yourself For Graduating With AvA-V
One of the most important things you can do is reflect on how much progress you’ve made so far and giving yourself some credit!
Being a student comes with a lot of hard work and 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘳, 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 !
So before you put the work in to ensure you’re in the best position before you graduate, give yourself a pat on the back, reflect on all that you’ve achieved and then develop a plan of attack!
When you’re ready to start job hunting, we have a team of graduate recruiters prepared to partner you up with your graduate job of dreams.
These specialist individuals will be there for you every step of the way and ensure that you are in the best position before you graduate.
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦… AvA-V is looking for motivated and friendly Graduates ourselves to join our Sales and Recruitment teams.
𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱?