by Jeremy | 29 Mar 2019
Did you know that there are 173,457 fresh grads with a bachelor degree and only 98,514 highly-skilled jobs available? Like it or not, what you do now in university is extremely important. You should treat this phase of your life seriously if you want to set yourself apart from all the other university graduates. Furthermore, you only have a 5% chance of securing an interview. To really stand out from the crowd, you need to start doing these five things:
1. Join volunteering activities
Volunteering experience goes far beyond helping out in a pet shelter for a day or visiting an orphanage for a short period of time. Go above and beyond by providing your skills and expertise to help the organisation. You’ll be able to improve your skills and it teaches you how to deal with different types of people. Furthermore, employers value volunteering experience as it shows empathy and dedication.
2. Gain more experience through internships and apprenticeship
As you enter university, you should start looking for opportunities to gain professional experience relevant to your course of study. However, you can also use internships to explore different industries as well. Internships provide the opportunity to be trained by professionals, which accelerates your learning of specific skills that help you in your career.
3. Take up leadership experiences
At some point in your career, you would have to manage a team and handle and variety of people. By taking up leadership positions in clubs or global student organisations, you will be able to gain experience working together in teams to achieve a common goal together.
4. Create an online presence
Your digital footprint is everything in this day and age. It becomes even more important when you apply for a job as your social media profiles will be checked by recruiters. Having an unprofessional profile could affect your chances of landing an interview with the company you applied for.
5. Find a mentor
It is crucial to have some guidance in your career and life. The most successful people have mentors from all walks of life. Your mentor will guide you, inspire you, and essentially, advise you to avoid the mistakes they made. You could easily find a mentor through your university alumni network or use FutureLab to find mentors from many different industries.
Your career and future is entirely your responsibility, and it is never too early to start preparing for them. University is the best time for you to learn about anything, it’s all down to how proactive you are.
Get connected with FutureLab
FutureLab is an online mentorship platform that connects students, working professionals, jobseekers and entrepreneurs with expert industry mentors across the region to help them gain new skills and insights to enhance their employability and career growth. We also provide our mentoring software for corporations, organizations and learning institutions to upskill and engage their workforce and graduates that increases their efficiency and productivity. Sign up as a mentee or join us as mentors today!
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