When you graduate from university and go out there and start looking for your first graduate job, you will most likely come to a stark realisation. The outcome of university wasn’t exactly what you were promised and just because you’ve got a degree in your hands doesn’t mean that you can land that first job quickly. After all, having a degree just makes you an exact carbon copy of all other students who graduated the same year as you. Add Covid on top of that and finish it off with all the negative talk of a ‘tough job market’ from mainstream media and you can certainly be excused for feeling a bit overwhelmed and stressed about how you’re going to land your first job.

Well, worry not. There is a way, and it’s actually not as complicated as you might think. You won’t be taught this at university, but in this blog post I’ll take you through what’s necessary in order to stand out from the crowd, and even outcompete top candidates from top universities.

What Is a Degree (and What It Isn’t)
If you think about it, what really is a degree? I’d say it is a certificate of achievement. A document which proves you were able to do something consistently for a prolonged amount of time (usually three or four years), and that you were able to memorise the information you were taught in lectures and then regurgitated it on a test or exam. So in other words, a degree actually proves two things:

1. You can show up on time consistently
2. You can take in information and then present it in a more succinct manner

Sound familiar? If you’ve been applying for jobs for some time it should. You see, whilst they may be phrased differently, these are the two core skills that every graduate job application states in it’s requirements section. In other words, your degree acts like a qualification process, a hurdle to the working world so to speak. If you can successfully jump over this hurdle, you prove to any future employer that you possess those basic two skills and give them another reason to say yes.

Now that you’ve got your degree, you’ve passed that hurdle. But that isn’t enough. You see, people don’t get hired based on degrees, grades or qualifications. They get hired on merit. And apart from confirming the above two points, your degree tells employers nothing else about you. So if you want to stand out, you’ve got to do more to make yourself look like the ideal candidate in their eyes.

You’ve Got Your Degree, Now Prove It
Well, that’s easier said than done. But it can be done. The point you’re trying to make here is that you not only have a degree in your back pocket, you also have an understanding of what it takes to succeed in the real world.

There are a few ways you can do this. First of all – experience. Nothing will ever beat experience and nothing will ever beat the kind of learning that experience gives you. Lessons you learn in the field are invaluable, and hold far more weight than anything you can learn inside of a classroom or auditorium. Having been on both sides of the stick here (hiring and being hired), my suggestion would be to get yourself a part time or gig job to get things going.

If you’re studying in university, you can still have a part time job before you graduate and fully commit to the working world, and apart from experience it will also give you an additional stream of income to keep yourself afloat.

Now that you’ve got yourself some experience (in any field, not necessarily the one you want to work in), you have to make sure you speak the language of your target employer. Think about what industry you want to go into? Do you want to work in sales or marketing? Do you want to become a photographer or graphic designer? Do you want to go into finance? Great, then start learning about the industry, it’s jargon and usual problems/challenges that are faced by people working in it. Start online, then begin to expand your network by going to conferences/events/meetups. Although many people will have you believe that you can network your way into your first job, I’ll be realistic and say that this is mostly quite hard to do and you definitely shouldn’t be relying on this as your main source of potential employment. Your main goal here will be to know and understand this industry inside-out, so when it comes to being interviewed, you can blow your competition out of the water and impress your employer with industry jargon, while they will be spewing out phrases from textbooks written 20 years ago.

The third thing you’ve got to focus on is your personal brand. By this I don’t mean having followers in the thousands and putting out consistent content. What I’m referring to is primarily LinkedIn. This is the social media network that has become most popular among the professional network over the last 18 months, and for good reason. It is literally a safe haven for recruiters and hiring managers and the ideal place to be if you want to get on their radar. To bring your LinkedIn profile to life make sure you’ve got a good headshot picture, add your relevant work experience and most importantly, make sure you find who your target employers are and engage with them. Comment on their posts. Like their content, share it, do anything that will get you noticed. Don’t ask for anything. Help them out and then they will help you out. For the most comprehensive guide on how to build your LinkedIn and secure job interviews while still at university check out our free eBook here.

Lastly, you’ll need to put a CV together and start reaching out to prospective employers through various job sites like Indeed or Monster. Through email and social media, and just about any other way you can get hold of them.
And remember, start putting in overtime when it comes to looking for your first graduate job. Employers appreciate it. It pays to stand out.

Best of luck!

Tim, DropoutDough