With the Easter break looming, ‘finalist fever’ is kicking in – exams loom and many final year students are also feeling the pressure of having to secure a job. According to research by Kloodle, the social networking site for graduate recruitment:
- Over half of students (56%) say they lack advice at university on how to be savvy with their job hunt so it doesn’t interfere with exams
- Over 3/10 (32%) say the pressure of finding a job whilst at university gets in the way with studying for exams
Says Phil Hayes, CEO and Co-Founder of Kloodle: ‘There’s a huge amount of pressure on students, especially finalists, at this time of year. Finals are imminent and many face the double whammy of also having to secure a job for September.
Our research shows that 38% of students find searching for their first job challenging and frustrating and 21%, plain frightening. And it’s no wonder when they are combining this with revision and lack advice on how to juggle studying with job hunting.
My best advice is to invest some time upfront in creating an all singing all dancing profile on a platform like Kloodle. You can then sit back and let the site do the hard work for you – a dynamic CV will be visible to thousands of employers who can decipher if you might be a good match. Dedicate some time to getting your profile just right and then you can free yourself up for cracking on with that all important revision.’
Says, Meera Shah, Senior Emerging Talent Recourcing Partner at Balfour Beatty: ‘Many students are feeling demotivated at this time of year. They might not have engaged in the Milkrounds last year, or they might not have been successful in their applications to grad schemes. Perhaps their UCAS points did not stack up to get them on any placements.
However, students should take encouragement from the fact that there really is life beyond UCAS points, Milkrounds and grad schemes. We love looking for fresh talent via sites like Kloodle as candidates’ soft skills are really brought to the forefront and personality shines through. Quite often we can instantly tell if someone will be right for our business. We tend to recruit a lot of students at this time of year, so candidates shouldn’t panic about ‘missing the boat’.’
Below are Kloodle’s top five tips on how to be savvy with your job hunt whilst studying:
- Be dynamic: Spend time creating an engaging online profile with images and video content. Employers want to see your personality as well as your experience
- Short but sweet: Keep it concise. Employers often only spend less than a minute scanning a profile before deciding if you might be a good fit. Break up the text with headers and bullet points where possible to make it easier to digest
- Get a routine: If procrastination is your biggest enemy, defeat it by setting yourself a plan and targets that you have to stick to. Be strict on yourself and don’t spend any more time than your daily allocation on job searching
- Protect your online rep: Ensure all your social media channels, not just your online CV, showcase the best side of you. Employers are likely to check your entire profile so don’t post anything that might compromise you
- Know what you want: It sounds obvious but without establishing this, motivation will be harder to achieve and you’ll waste time looking for the wrong thing. Is this about the first step on the ladder for a long lasting career or would you prefer to get something that pays the bills for a while whilst you take the time to look for your dream job?