I want experience, but I can't give up my holidays for voluntary work.

For whatever reason you can't give up your holiday time for voluntary work or a summer placement, The answer may be closer to home (well, uni).

Summer placements nowadays are becoming just as competitive as internships and let's not get started on work placements. Some are just about as competitive as graduate schemes! But there will be many out there who can't afford to work for free or travel half way across the country for a few weeks - if you don't have friends or family that are close that will let you stay, a massive fortune will have to be spent on B&B's. Many will want to do summer work closer to home to afford that holiday they rightly deserve, or many have great plans for a summer full of partying (we can never do enough at the ripe old age of 20yrs old and by god do we deserve it!).

So, what's the answer? Well, the good news is it's at uni and it's not so competitive. The answer is to join a society/group that is relevant to your ideal career.

So if you are interested in PR, why not join the union newspaper society? If you are interested in Marketing or Accounting, join a society and become the secretary/ event's secretary or treasurer. These don't sound as prestigious as a summer placements with Ernst and Young or a top PR firm down in London, but it shows interest from an earlier starting point and at least you'll have something down. If there isn't a society that fit's your ideal career, why not create one?

Prospective Lawyers look into debating teams or human/animal rights society

Events Management: join a society (or sporting society) and try for the events secretary - if they don't have one, say they should and try run for it! (I did!)

Radio or TV? A good number of Universities have a TV or radio station within the union. If they don't have one - well, make a start in getting one!

Prospective teachers could look into a society that offers voluntary teaching within the local community.

Future politicians could also look into the debating team and go into the society that represents their chosen party and be as active as possible within the university and local community.

Anymore you can think of? Feel free to comment below.

Hope this post will be hopeful for those looking for a chance to gain experience within their chosen field.

H

"You've got the job, so when do you want to start?"

Some good news! I had an interview last week and I got the job. Hip hip hooray!

Three months of unemployment. Three months of continuously writing, improving my CV, writing covering letters, researching jobs, interviews, rejections, feedback, mock interviews.... and I dare say..the list goes on.

So I now have a foot in the door. I'm hoping that things will be easier for future employment and I hope that the job market will be more stable the next time I look for work.

My plan is to share with you my processes in finding work and help current and future graduates get their foot in the door in a graduate job in their chosen field(not call centres, retail or bar work).

My next few posts:
- Searching for work: How versatile do you have to be to find your future job?
- Get yourself noticed by recruiters and have things to put on your CV to look better
- Adapt your skills to match your dream career path

I hope to have these out in the next few weeks.

I am also still working on my piece about work experience, which I hope to have up for you all by early October.

H