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I am graduating university this year, probably at the worst time for jobs with the pandemic so I may be freaking out a little bit. However, I am determined to get a job after I finish so I have been trying to find ways to enhance my CV and LinkedIn profiles to try to make me stand out a little more. I thought I'd share ways I try to enhance my CV with you as I know a lot of other students and graduates will probably be in the same boat as me. It's more competitive now for graduate jobs than ever before so we are going to need to find ways to boost our employability and experience (I say we because we are in this together).
So here are some tips on what I have done, plan to do or what I think would help you enhance your CV and make you more employable.
Top tips on enhancing your CV
1. Gain as much experience as you can
I know with the pandemic, this is a lot harder than it normally would be. In my degree, you could either do a 4 week work placement or a year placement. I chose to do the year placement and I worked for a year as a marketing intern. Now, I have a year's worth of marketing experience so when I come to apply to a job that requires a year's experience in marketing, I can apply knowing I have that experience - so if you are able to do a placement year, I say do it! This tip will be more difficult and I'm aware that it's much harder to gain experience which is why I have included the other tips too!
2. Volunteer
Again, it can be hard to be a volunteer but you can volunteer online. I've seen social media volunteering positions where you can post from home and you can still count this as volunteering on your CV and LinkedIn. There are lots of NHS volunteering positions available to.
3. Start a blog
OK I am biased with this one but I really believe it is a great way to gain an online presence. Whatever your are of expertise is or whatever area you want to go into, start a blog with that theme. Yes, it can be a little time consuming but is much easier than finding work experience at the moment and you can put as much time as you like into it. It shows you spend your time dedicated to something else other than just your studies.
Having a blog is also a good point of conversation at interviews and I have linked my blog in my CV and LinkedIn so companies can find out more about me and get more of a sense of my personal brand. I could go on for ages on how I think starting a blog would be beneficial to any career, maybe I will write an entirely separate post on this in the future.
4. Attend Webinars
There are lots of free webinars out there that can help you be more knowledgeable on a subject area. For example, I joined one last year all about Instagram engagement and I found that really helpful for me. I do a media degree so this was helpful for me but there are lots of different ones you can sign up to for a variety of areas.
5. Complete online courses
Again, with it being harder to go out and get some experience, the best thing to do is see what you can do online. When I was doing my marketing internship I completed the Digital Marketing course on Google Digital Garage. This gave me a certificate that I could put on my LinkedIn so if a company see it, it will show I am willing to put time in to learn more about my area. On Google Digital Garage, there are even short courses on being better on public speaking and productivity which can be used for any job.
Related: 3 tips for staying creative
6. Enhance the layout of your CV
The first thing that an employer will notice about your CV is the layout. A smart looking, well designed CV will look far more interesting than a plain word document. Don't be worried about this, there are loads of free templates on Canva that look really good.
7. Use LinkedIn
I know this isn't technically enhancing your CV but it's important to utilise LinkedIn. If you apply for a job, it's likely that they could look you up on there so if you are on there actively showing off all the other things you are doing to be employable like your online courses it will look more impressive than if they don't find you - or if there's nothing on there. It's just another good way to show off in basic terms.
In short, just try and do as many things as you can to set you apart from other people like you who may be applying to similar roles.
Related: What now? A life after graduation
Do you have any career tips? I'd love to hear them.
22 comments
I loved this post, this is so helpful, especially new people to the job market xx
ReplyDeleteThese are great ways to enhance your CV, it's always good to improve your CV, whether you're applying for a job or not! xx
ReplyDeleteLucy | www.lucymary.co.uk
These are great tips for enhancing your CV. I would say doing volunteering is a great way of getting and showcasing experience! I haven't done a CV in years as most NHS jobs are an online application, so these tips will be useful should I need to update my CV!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing and good luck with the job hunting!
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
This is such a useful post - I definitely think it's important to have LinkedIn and do additional courses. Good luck with finding a job!
ReplyDeleteSerena / http://www.ramblingsofanotherunigraduate.com
Great post! I'm meant to be finding a placememnt for this summer though it's now optional luckily because I can't find anything 😩 I would still like to find some kind of course to do though so I will definitely consider these things ❤ I love volunteering, it's a nice bonus that it can be put on a CV too :) xx
ReplyDeleteCaroline | https://envirolineblog.com/
This was such a great post and truly helpful mostly right now! Linkedin as you said can help so much as well as taking free courses, it shows interest. Thank you for sharing and hope you get to find a great job after you graduate x
ReplyDeleteLoved this post! I also graduate this year and am SCARED! It' such an uncertain year to graduate so I've been trying to look into ways to boost my CV so thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteTash x
These are very creative ways someone can enhance their CV. I think many people fail to realize that tasks like blogging can help improve their CVs. Thanks for sharing these tips.
ReplyDeleteSuch a fab post and very on trend atm with graduates coming into the job market and others changing jobs due to the pandemic. Xo
ReplyDeleteAs a recent graduate, this is incredibly helpful. Coming into the job-market right now has been a bit of a nightmare, but I'm hopeful that the right job will come along. I've been applying to so many jobs & I've been taking online courses in the meanwhile to help boost my marketability to future companies.
ReplyDeleteSome great tips! I always forget how important a CV truly is x
ReplyDeleteGreat tips! I think a lot of people right now will be wanting to update their CV, especially post COVID. There's so much important stuff to go on there! x
ReplyDeleteLinkedIn is such a great resource for jobs and linking with people in your field! Also, I love taking Google and Facebook courses (as I work in digital marketing)
ReplyDeleteKatie | katieemmabeauty.com
Great tips! Online courses are such a great way to build your CV, especially as it's so difficult to get experience at the moment x
ReplyDeletehttps://www.femaleoriginal.com
Having graduated last summer, I fully appreciate the struggle of trying to enter the job market (or really do anything) right now! This is really helpful advice, and I especially like the idea of completing online courses to gain more experience
ReplyDeleteThese are great tips for working on your CV. I totally agree about the blog being a useful tool. In fact I am going to be working with the children at the school I work to create a blog, in the hope it will give them a new set of skills for the future x
ReplyDeleteGreat post with terrific suggestions for getting into the work force after school. Wish I had this info twenty years ago!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, much needed atm now im applying for a new job! I've found that my blog actually got me a job in the past because i talked about it in my interview and i felt so content and confident talking about it that i got the job! I'm doing some online courses at the moment but i never think to put them on my CV!
ReplyDeleteEllie // www.thdiaryofellie.com
I also put my blog in my LinkedIn! Thank you so much for writing this post, I always updated my CV every month :D
ReplyDeleteThe Open University also has some great, free, courses so I would recommend you have a look there. My tip to new graduates would be to be bold. It's so easy to be shy and hope from the background that you'll get something but you really need to leet it be known what you want and say yes to as many opportunities as you can.
ReplyDeleteI've recently started using LinkedIn as a secondary platform for promoting my blog and furthering my connections! I have had it since my second year so it's been slowly growing haha, but it's such a great tool for finding like-minded people and I even found myself a voluntary position with a charity by using it :) thank you for sharing x
ReplyDeleteGoing to graduate school was a positive decision for me. I enjoyed the coursework, the presentations, the fellow students, and the professors. And since my company reimbursed 100% of the tuition, the only cost that I had to pay on my own was for books and supplies. Otherwise, I received a free master’s degree. All that I had to invest was my time. https://cvcrafty.com
ReplyDelete