- R: Do your research: It’s important to get information online on the type of jobs or industries you want to get into. Also, take advantage of your University’s careers and events like careers job fair.
- A: Start applying early: Most graduate schemes in the UK start their recruitment process a year before the intake, so don’t wait until you finish your Masters before you apply.
- C: CV revamp: Almost all your applications will require your CV, so there’s a lot to be done on this document that serves as a marketing tool for you to sell yourself to recruiters. Make use of your university’s careers services, online resources, professional CV writing services (if you have the money) or ask a friend or classmate with experience on this to help out. More often than not, the CV you come with from your home country might not fit into the UK job market, so there’s a lot of revamp to be done.
- P: Preparation: The UK recruitment process is in stages and will most likely follow – online application, online test, video interviews and assessment centres/face-face interview. You will need a lot of preparation and practice to ace these stages. There are also online platforms that offer paid or free services to prepare you for these stages. In preparation for the interview stages, make sure you do a lot of research on the company’s website, study it as if you are going to write an exam on it.
- Network: During your time here, build healthy relationships with people. LinkedIn is a great platform to make good connections and also has a lot of jobs advertised daily. Also attend events, speak to people and build your network.
- Personal development: Success is what you attract to yourself by the reason of who you are becoming. Build and develop your skills, learn that software, register for that online course. As you upgrade to a higher version of yourself, the possibilities in your life starts to change to reflect that level. You attract to your life, the possibilities that reflect the growing version of you. Check the required skills in your career field and begin to build them or develop yourself more on them. Seek to be productive and valuable. When you’re really valuable, recruiters will call you and demand for your skills.
- Balance: As an international student, it is easy to lose focus on the fact that your primary aim of being here is your degree. Job applications can be time consuming especially when you have your coursework deadlines and also a couple of essays to write for a job or an online test to practice for. Therefore, there’s a need to create a balance.
- Perseverance: You will get so many rejection emails, even for jobs you probably thought that you will be called for an interview, but don’t give up. I had a particular experience where I was rejected in the 4th stage of a 5-stage application process. To be honest, I was down for a while, but I shook it off and kept on pushing. So, make up your mind to keep pushing no matter how hard it might seem to be.
All the best, Shola.
Any further questions? We’re happy to answer in the comment section below 🙂
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