When you graduate alongside hundreds of others, how do you make yourself stand out from the crowd? And when you’ve landed that ideal job, what can you do to impress your employer? GenerationYOU, held on the 18th September 2015, involved 14 speakers sharing their advice and wisdom on their experiences as employers, employees, and recruiters.
The speakers spoke from personal experiences about their successes and challenges in managing their career paths. A few themes emerged throughout the day. By and large, what will help YOU succeed as an emerging career professional is:
- be self-aware - know your strengths and weaknesses and adapt to different contexts
- your attitude is important - it is a key component of your personal brand and how you react to changes in your industry and profession
- figure out what your passion is - show it, demonstrate it, make a difference to it
- network, network, network! Do it in a way that works for you - all the the preceding tips will make networking a natural and easy thing to do.
We've created an infographic for you collating some of the best tips for approaching the job application process, from the written component (resume writing) to marketing yourself. Keep it on your radar as you re-focus on your career.
- Stand out: The baseline expectation is that you have the skills or are prepared to work hard. What else can you offer?
- Understand: A good resume won't get you the job. A good resume will get you an interview.
- Be visible: If you are not on LinkedIn, you are one foot behind everyone else.
- Be relevant: Use terminology from the position description in your resume and cover letter to get past first-stage application filters.
- Make an Impact: You have 6 seconds to make a good impression on the reader, or risk being disregarded!
- It can be personal: The final decision for hiring will be on who will complement the existing team best.
- Be dynamic: Pivot, pivot, pivot - change your strategy and approach until you find what works for your target market.
