Fancy a good start for your career?

Fancy a good start for your career?

By Vasilis Efthymiou



Here is one of my favorite career websites where you can find useful information about various companies' job postings worldwide: https://www.indeed.co.uk/




Having previous work experience is a determinant factor for the success of your application. It is the most important part of your CV and it makes you to stand out from the rest. Develop your skills and acquire new ones through various internships, placements and graduate schemes. You can search for career opportunities by using the above link.

There are some other career sites that I frequently look for job vacancies and internship opportunities such as: Milkround or Target Jobs and Prospects. My advice is to set your personalized 'job agents' so you can receive information on various vacancies that you are interested in as soon as they go online by a customized email. In those sites you can find many networking events organized by the advertised companies in those career websites, which is a really good opportunity for expanding your existing network and connecting with your prospect employers.

Another good way of learning about new career opportunities is LinkedIn, where many companies choose to exclusively post their vacancies that you wouldn't see if you didn't have a LinkedIn account. Therefore, create one now and start building it, as this is how your prospect employers will find out about you when applying for a job.

Don't forget that your university has already established some strong relations with many businesses of various sizes out there and you should take advantage of it. Visit your university career office and ask for advice or say that you are currently looking for a job. Either your university department or the career service will find a way to help you out.

Remember you cannot find a job if you don't talk to people! The majority of the job vacancies never go public, as they belong to the so called ''Hidden Market''. People support and trust people that they know or have recommendations for. Believe in yourself! Having a successful career depends on you and your choices...

I know that applying for internships and job vacancies is a time consuming process so having an updated and well-designed CV and a Cover letter in place is a good start. When applying is better to have a strategy. Think of what you want to achieve by that, what you like doing, for how long, in which city, in which company, in what position, what do you want to learn from it, paid or unpaid work, etc. This is how you can set goals and have a clear career plan, instead of the 'whatever works' strategy.

Some people though think that working for others isn't what they want to do in their lives, and thus, they start  their own company. This is another issue that I will talk about in another blog: 'Entrepreneurship. A way out?'

I want to see your thoughts on that, before expressing mine.

Stay stunned for my next blog, where I will be giving useful tips on how to build and preserve your network...