CREATING YOUR CAREER GAME PLAN
Polish your resume and cover letter This is something we’ve all heard before: make your resume and cover letter look professional. Matching your skills to job descriptions in order to impress recruiters is also especially crucial right now, so make sure you send the best version of your resume to the employer you’re applying to.
Prepare for video interviews There’s no better time to get familiar with video interviews than the present, what with social distancing. Practise by dressing like you are going for a faceto-face interview to get yourself in the mindset, and keep your tone cheery to get your enthusiasm across.
Try temp-ing
Get creative Take stock of all your skills and then look for opportunities wherever they may be, even outside your industry of choice. While this may not be ideal for you, when the job market has recovered more and you can move into your preferred sector, employers will be impressed by your experience, resilience and ability to leverage on your top skills in a different environment. Keeping your mind open to all the possibilities may even lead to great job satisfaction as well! Don’t disregard graduate internship opportunities either; work hard and see if you can approach your manager to convert you to a full-time employee when things begin to look up again. If you have a hobby you can turn into a short-term business, you can turn to that too. Do you like to painting? Sell your art on the internet or offer commissions. Have a good grasp of English? Tutor children online or create online English papers.
Stay commercially aware Above all, tough times are exactly when you should keep abreast of the latest news with regards to the economy, and especially the industry you’re intending to enter. This will not only help you better plan out your job hunt, but could also be the critical differentiating point to push recruiters to hire you instead of another equally qualified candidate.
Last but not least, trust that this pandemic won’t go on forever, and that the economy will make a full recovery. There’s light at the end of the tunnel; we just have to stay on course to get to it!
If you’re looking to earn a little more while gaining some work experience, apply for temp or part-time positions at companies you’re hoping to join. Alternatively, you can also apply for relevant jobs that’ll give you some insight to your profession of choice – for example, a part-time role as an accounts executive. Don’t sweat it if your part-time gig has little to no links to your chosen field of study; you’ll still be able to elaborate on all the invaluable soft skills you have gained in future interviews.
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