For most, university is about gaining the necessary skills and knowledge to enter a certain field or industry. It is this reason why a lot of people quite easily fall down the rabbit hole and assume they must have their whole university time planned, with placement along the way before concluding in the perfect graduate role.
Especially for those who are just starting, the untapped potential you have at your fingertips over the next few years can be really overwhelming and you can’t help but try to plan everything as soon as possible (I know I did). This isn’t sustainable and will likely lead to early burnout.
To hopefully help you with the process, the following article lays out a method of breaking down how you can improve your employability over the course of your university career. This is just a rough guide; some stuff will work for others that doesn’t work for you. And that’s okay.
If there is one thing you do learn though, it is that you do not need to do everything straight away and even the smallest step is important.
This is the first article of three, focusing on what stage one students could be doing to get their employability journey underway. If you are interested in any other stage, Stage 2 or Stage 3 please click the respective link.
Semester 1
Settling in
For many, this is your first time away from home, living in a brand-new city, and sometimes even a brand-new country. It can be a lot to process, which is why thinking too far into the future so soon will not be beneficial.
Just take the first semester to get the lay of the land, settle into a routine with your degree and try and make some friends. Joining a few societies at the start is a terrific way to get integrated with university life and looks great on your CV later down the road.
Semester 2
Setting up
Now that you’ve had the chance to settle into your degree and university, now might be a good time to start looking a little bit into the future. I should emphasise that you do not have to get started now if you don’t think you’re ready to.
If you are feeling up to it, try and spend 30 minutes every week working on your employability. This could be by improving your CV, practicing writing cover letters, online courses or attending sessions hosted by the careers service. But at this stage, spending more than 30 minutes a week might not be necessary so be sure not to spend all your time doing this. Doing something as simple as setting up a LinkedIn account is a great way to get started.
Semester 3
Looking back and looking forward
In the final part of first year, chances are you will be swamped with deadlines galore so don’t worry if you can’t spend much time working on your employability. But after the deadline season is finished and you have a nice long summer break ahead of you, there are a few things you could be getting up to.
You’ve just finished your first year of university, congratulations! Now is a great time to reflect on what you have done in the past year. What modules did you enjoy more than others? What topics did you find harder to grasp? Asking yourself questions like this might already give you an indication of what field you might want to go into as well as what topics to work on outside of university to gain more confidence for next year.
If you already have an idea of what field you want to go into (you absolutely do not have to know this yet though), this could be a prime opportunity to start looking into companies in that field that could take you on for placements after your second year. There is no point applying quite yet but getting an idea of what companies are out there will be a huge help down the line.
Where you can, try to work on your portfolio. By working on projects in your own time, that aren’t related to university, it not only shows your work ethic but also your initiative. There is also the advantage of keeping the skills you’ve learned up to now sharp and ready for stage 2.
While there are many things you can get up to in the summer, be sure to take time for yourself and have a break. Try not to burn yourself out and rest so that by the time stage 2 comes around, you can come in swinging.