Unforgetable
The Final Year
Oh Hi There, You
You made it, do you remember the first day at Uni, how nervous you were, not knowing where to go, what to do. Now you know almost every tree, secrete hideaways in your Uni, and you are home when you enter the Uni grounds.
Your final year of Uni has just started or going to be starting soon. Next year by this time, you could be free, no more studies, lectures or late-night hangouts with friends and smashing the assignments just the day before.
So here are the Top Three Dos for your final year
I am not going to give you a list of 10 – 20 things that you would struggle to achieve with the amount of study load you might have during the final year. But, I am going to give you the top three things that you should be doing throughout the final year, and yes that’s more doable and easy to remember.
“The future depends on what you do today.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Take a Day Off
The best possible thing you could do to yourself during the final year is to get to know as many people as possible from your industry well.
Don’t let the whole year pass by and towards the end of the year that you regret not attending career events, networking functions, and work experience.
Take a day off from your casual job for important events that may help you to shape your future.
You may not have to take the whole day off, maybe half a day, but tell your boss that you need this, get their support, they will be happy to support you, well most of them will be, they know that you are a student.
Networking events are so intimidating sometimes, I know, it could be boring, but believe me, you could meet your life-changing executive in one of those events, and they will notice your attendance, they will see you are someone who’s thinking about the future, they will want you so bad, that they will hunt you down to offer you a job.
You will gladly say goodbye to your casual job in no time. Most of these events are full of like-minded people, who are so friendly, easy-going and always willing to help a student to get their foot in the door.
Graduates love to travel, I get it, after all the years of hard work who wouldn’t want a break. You are our future, and we want you beautiful creative, intelligent creatures in the front line when we retire, I felt writing this because nothing has changed since I graduated.
Believe me, if you show your initiative and that you are committed, the right employer will give you a chance to take a break before you start your career.
So take a day off, say hello to those people in career fairs, meetups, networking events and think this is as important as your graduation. You would take a day off for your graduation, wouldn’t you?
Work Experience
If you can add this to your resume when you are applying for jobs, you are well ahead of the game, and you will be a front runner for the job that you are applying.
So how do you find Work Experience, well that’s why you need to take a day off and say hello to as many people as possible in your chosen industry.
Work experience gives you so much more than your textbooks.
It will show you how tedious your future job might be or how amazing it would be, and then there’s more time to change your path while still in the final year or stick with it and score an honours degree, even better to get that top job.
How do you find work experience? Well, this is where you could use your family and friends, neighbours, your school friends, their parents, lecturers, yeah the list goes on.
Let your tribes know that you are looking for work experience. Keep in touch with them, and they might even help you land your first job. This is the year to be the most outgoing and caring person, and get to know some top-ranking people in your hub.
Send some flowers or chocolates to a Recruiter who might introduce you to their top clients or a Talent Acquisition Manager in a company that you would like to join, with that send your resume and thank them for their time for reading it. Can’t believe I said that it just came to my mind, everyone around the office will know you even before you step into their office.
Sit in a cafe, near a company that you would like to join, get to know the cafe staff and the people visiting them, start a convo with anyone who you think friendly and who might help you in the future.
So even if you have a week’s worth of work experience, that’s more than enough than not having work experience when you are applying for graduate roles.
My point is – think outside the box, you can’t just limit yourself to a resume, a job won’t magically appear at your doorstep, you have to do some crazy things here, like saying hello to strangers and following them to the train station ( no that’s a no-no, just kidding). Spread your wings and show your awesomeness to some strangers.
“Everything you can imagine is real”
Pablo Picasso
Be Awesome
Life is too short, Uni years will end soon, and you are here to have some fun and enjoy it as well.So do something you love, and spread love and kindness like confetti.
If you like supporting a charity, do that, good deeds will pay off later.
If you like organising a party, why not get all your buddies together and make it bigger and better for the whole class, make it a charitable event, so you will be proud of all the money you spend on alcohol, not going down the drain when it’s actually used for a good cause.
Walk around the Uni, be a good Samaritan this year, because the more things you do, the more things you can add to your resume.
Not only that but these will add communication skills, organisation skills, dealing with difficult people, how to resolve conflicts, creative thinking and how to achieve your goals, none you will find in your textbooks.
Hence above are the top life skills the new employers are going to search for, so be prepared and give them your best.
They will have those mind-numbing games, crossword puzzles or just some not so easy tactics to filter the best ones out and you will be the one to win because you will have enough experience to tackle any questions during the interviews.
what goes around comes back
