Things you should be doing during your degree to increase employability
How hard is it to get a full-time job after finishing university? There’s a few things you can do while you study to put you ahead of the pack come graduation.
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It can be really difficult for university graduates to get a full-time job.
While a bachelor’s degree may have been enough to secure your parents a job, increased competition means you need to go above and beyond to get your career on track.
We asked experts from three Melbourne universities how you can improve your chances of landing your dream job after graduation.
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BE PROACTIVE
RMIT Director of Careers and Employability Judie Kay says you should start thinking about what you need to do to increase your employability as soon as you begin university.
“It is too late to leave it to the last semester,” she says.
“From day one you start that journey, and that continues on beyond graduation.”
Monash University Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Zlatko Skrbis encourages a similar approach.
“We want them to be aware of the magnitude of the challenge that employability prospects represent,” he says.
“We need to make them aware just how important it is that they think about employability issues, not towards the end of their degree, but at the very beginning of their university story and journey.”
Swinburne University Manager of Career Development Rob Vague says ideas surrounding employability have changed in the last few years.
“It used to be, ‘well you’ve got these skills, you’re employable’,” he says.
“Now you need a degree and you need skills, but it’s also about developing attitudes and behaviours.”
Ms Kay says while universities are there to help students, you need to be proactive and take charge of your career.
“What we encourage students to do first is to explore the industry or the area or the discipline that they’re wanting to enter,” she says.
She says this can help you understand more about what pursuing a career in that area may look like and what you need to do to get a job.
GET EXPERIENCE
While high marks can go some way towards reflecting your aptitude, Mr Vague says it’s important to gain industry experience.
He says Swinburne offered a range of industry placements, differing in industry type and length.
“Students will graduate with not only not only a degree, but also a significant amount of experience which is really going to help them getting a bit become employable and get into the workforce,” she says.
Ms Kay and Professor Skrbis say RMIT and Monash also recommend undertaking industry placements while you complete your degree.
Ms Kay suggests you can either do it inside or outside the curriculum.
Professor Skrbis says about 15,000 Monash students completed a Work Integrated Learning unit at Monash each year.
“We are trying to make sure that we are not focusing those opportunities simply on areas that obviously lend themselves to Work Integrated Learning opportunities, like education,” he says.
“We do place a lot of emphasis on areas like law, like arts because this is really where traditionally universities have been weakest.”
BUILD TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
Professor Skrbis says Monash is looking at its curricular and co-curricular structures to ensure students were equipped with skills for the future.
“They range from data and analytical skills, to enterprising skills, to intercultural competency skills,” he says.
“No universities should purely focus on the narrow skill set that is associated with a particular profession or particular calling.”
Professor Skrbis says you can build intercultural competency skills, for example, by going on a university exchange or study tour.
Ms Kay says part-time work can help to build transferable skills that will be relevant in most industries.
“Even if you’re flipping hamburgers at McDonald’s, you’re still building those generic skills around teamwork and customer service,” she says.
Ms Kay says other useful skills you might develop through work, volunteering or travel include digital literacy, communication skills, resilience, initiative and the ability negotiate.
“You must start to take an interest in building those skills and reflecting on what skills you need,” she says.
Mr Vague says it’s not only important for you to build these skills, you also need to be able to articulate their relevance.
“It’s one thing to have done a part-time job; it’s another thing to be able to tell an employer how you have the skills and how are they going to help you,” he says.
If you get the opportunity to take on a leadership position, you should
“They’re the sorts of things that, I guess, make people stand out from other people from other candidates,” he says.
NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK
Mr Vague says despite technological advances, many jobs are never formally advertised.
One way to access this hidden job market is through networking.
“We try to encourage students to develop those skills,” he says.
“It’s that whole idea of being able to do that the 30 second elevator pitch and those sorts of things,” he says.
Mr Vague says there are different ways to network.
“Sometimes it’s within your existing network,” he says.
You can also build networks online using platforms such as LinkedIn.
“It’s a really great tool for that one-on-one networking,” he says.
“There’s a thing called the Alumni tool where you can actually use LinkedIn to find people that have done the course you’re doing, and try to find out what they’re up to, what companies they’re working for and possibly even contact them to have a chat.”
Ms Kay suggests joining a professional association can help you build your network.
“All these professional associations give you the opportunity join as a student, and go to networking events, and start to get newsletters and be interested and start to engage into that area,” she says.
Professor Skrbis says while networking can be daunting, it’s important for you to step out of your comfort zones.
“We know that without those networks the future may look grim,” he says.
“We don’t shy away from making students aware of that.”
Mr Vague says if you are intimidated by the idea of meeting lots of new people at a networking event, informational interviews may be the solution.
“Find someone who’s in a role that you might be interested in doing and organise a 20 minute chat with them,” he says.
“Ask them a few questions about what they do, but also get some tips and things like that.”
“You’re talking to people, getting an idea of what’s involved, and at the same time you’re building connections.”
GET A MENTOR
Mr Vague says getting a mentor is a good way for you to get advice from someone in your industry.
You can find a mentor through a formal mentoring program at university or by approaching someone yourself.
Mr Vague says you won’t only benefit from having a mentor during your studies.
“When you’re in a role and you know you’re in the workforce, I think having a mentor’s really good,” he says.
Ms Kay says getting a mentor can build your confidence and reaffirm your career goals.
“If you listen to an accountant talk over a cup of coffee a couple of times and think ‘that sounds deadly dull, I don’t think that’s for me’, you can you can recalibrate your directions,” she says.
She says mentors can give an insight into what it’s like to work in their chosen industry.
“Sometimes a mentor will provide you with tips about how to enter the workforce,” she says.
“Sometimes mentors assist with reviewing your resumé from an industry perspective.”
Ms Kay says RMIT has special mentoring streams for LGBTQI students, women in STEM,
so they can be guided by someone with similar lived experience.
She says there is also a mentoring stream if you are the first member of your family to go to university.
“It provides them with the sort of connections and social capital that other students might have just through their own networks,” she says.
ASK FOR ADVICE
If you are feeling out of your depth when it comes to planning your next steps Ms Kay suggests seeking out help from your university.
She says you can get discipline-specific advice from academic staff.
“Almost all universities have either face-to-face advice of some sort, and we have web chat and various other ways of connecting virtually with help,” she says.
“Go to their careers office, job shop, whatever they have available.”
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