What To Do When You Finish Your University Course

So, your university course has finished, what now?

Whilst studying at university, one of the strangest times for me was the limbo period after my course finished each year. I was technically still ‘in’ university as term time hadn’t finished, but my course had no exams (it was assessed entirely by coursework). So, whilst other students were nervously prepping for their exams, I had some free time. But what is there to do during this time that can enhance your job prospects?

If you’re a first-year student…

Try to gain work experience.

An obvious suggestion, but there are many ways to get the experience you need:

●     Reach out to local companies in your area.

●     If any of your family members own or work for small businesses, get in touch with them.

●     Research if your university has courses/societies with a social media presence.

And ask if they need any support with their social media. You’re best to approach them with a pitch, briefly explain what you plan to post and to what platform (and include a couple of examples if possible!) But also explain the benefits that they can expect to see. Business owners always consider the return of their investment so it’s persuasive to include this.

If they agree - great! Get that experience as it is gold dust for your digital portfolio. And if they don’t, not to worry! It can STILL be included in your digital portfolio. If a prospective employer sees that you spent your free time being proactive and pitching to companies, they are going to be impressed. Additionally, having multiple examples that show you have been proactive and pitched to multiple companies will be admirable.

If you’re a second-year student…

Hopefully, you have some experience under your belt, if not, you certainly will have applied your marketing knowledge to many situations during your university course. So now is the time to start building your digital portfolio.

There really is no bad time to start making one but the earlier, the better! Your digital portfolio is a working document, it will evolve as you do and as your skills grow and develop, your portfolio should too.

To get started, there are plenty of free website hosting services (Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress… to name a few!) Give it a go and showcase your experience, your university projects and give an insight into who you are and what your goals are.

When incorporating projects and experience into your digital portfolio, it can be confusing knowing where to start. But to make it easier, follow our handy checklist on what to include within a digital portfolio.

If you’re a third-year student…

Assuming that your course is a 3 year one, this is crunch time. If you haven’t had a chance to make your digital portfolio yet, go go go!

But if you have…

Now is the time to be networking. Work towards refining your LinkedIn profile. Look at your header, if it is currently ‘graduated from Harvard university’ perhaps tweak it to show what you’re capable of and what you can do. For example:

“Ready to help small businesses engage their customers through eye-catching content creation”

Also, pop an ‘open to work’ banner on your profile picture, it’s a quick sure-fire way to let potential employers know that you’re looking for a position. And it works excellently with our next suggestion…

Post.

Simple as that.

Post to LinkedIn, share brief snippets of your university projects and include a link to your digital portfolio. Share updates about the work experience you have and what you learnt from the experience.

And whilst you’re posting, make sure to be commenting, connecting and engaging with people in the industry, you never know whose LinkedIn feed you’ll appear in! Then who knows what opportunities that will bring.

Looking for support?

If you have graduated in the last 4 years and you are inspired to try and gain work experience, now is the time to get in touch with us. As part of our Digital Career Development Program, we help YOU get the experience you need to kickstart your career in marketing.

Alternatively, if you're not quite graduated yet and you are working on your digital portfolio, have a watch of James’ Rate My Portfolio videos. Whether you haven’t yet started making your digital portfolio yet or if you’re currently building one, you’ll be inspired by things to include and be inundated with top tips.