When you’re making choices about where to study and what to study as well as internships, work experience and jobs in the holidays, it’s important to keep your future career in mind. If you’re serious about a job in a competitive or specialised field (you need to know how to write a student CV), but also, every choice you make is an opportunity to make yourself more attractive to employers – to stand out so the best jobs are yours for the taking.
Whether you’re building towards a career in the banking sector, psychology jobs, or working in publishing, there are often lots of jobs on offer, but some are obviously more suitable for you than others. Depending on your background, on your connections and your experience you might be in the perfect position to apply for a job in your perfect location, in the company you’ve always dreamed of working for, alongside experts in their field. Nothing you do can guarantee that job is yours but you can certainly give yourself to best preparation. Alternatively, if you’ve not prepared you might find that ideal job is just out of your reach, and as you start on career, you’re a few more rungs down the ladder than you’d want to be.
Today we’re looking at how you can make those choices to the best of your ability, and ensure you’re ready when the time comes.
Clear Ideas
The first thing you need is a clear idea of where you want to be: in ten years, in five years and upon graduation. It’s really important to not just identify the peak you want to be at the summit of, but a few key step back down the journey to help you steer a course.
No one can advise you on what you need to if you want to be the CEO of Bloomsbury Publishing – it’s such a long way in your future, and such a huge ambition, there’s no clear path. But they can advise you the best experience you can try to gather if you want to work as an editor for a fiction publisher, or the qualities and qualifications Bloomsbury look for when they’re hiring.
Identify Opportunities
It’s in human nature to reduce long drawn out tasks to big dramatic steps. In truth, there are many, many steps to take, and lots of important decisions you have the chance to make. Picking a course of a university is not the be all and end all of assuring your future. Think about things like:
- Specific courses you might want to do
- Tutors or lecturers you want to work with
- Talks or workshops you could attend
- Work experience, placements or internships your university could help set up
- Jobs you could take in the holidays
There are plenty of different ways you can make yourself more attractive to employers and get closer to your ideal career throughout your time in education, so you don’t have to feel defeated by any one setback: you can keep trying and build a Creative Professional Resume or a student CV that’s second to none.