Grinding through submitting applications, curating rejection replies, and attending interviews can be rough. Here are ideas to do a little bit more while you are working on securing a job. 

Life for new graduates just coming out to join the workforce can be rough. Not everybody has the good luck to immediately land a job. Instead, most deal with anxiety thanks to the nagging feeling (or sometimes real life person telling you) that you should be doing more to secure your first job.

By now, you would have a daily routine of checking job listings, submitting applications, following up emails, and attending interviews if you have any scheduled. In the meantime, what else can you do in your downtime to improve your chances?

In this article we will explore some wholesome options you can wisely pursue that can develop yourself and improve your chances at landing a good job.

#1: Consult Working Professionals to Fine-Tune Your Resume and CV

There is saying which goes, “You get a better view of yourself from the outside looking in”. What does this mean for you? Here are two options.

Firstly, you can consult your older friends or relatives who are working to give you an honest assessment of your resume and CV. They can probably spend more time and effort to look at it and suggest some improvements. Bear in mind that if they are in a different industry or line or work, not all their advise may be necessarily be relevant to your situation. Do graciously thank them for their feedback, consider the details carefully, then decide what to implement.

Secondly, contact the companies that you applied to previously either through email or more directly, by phone, and ask for their feedback on why there have been no replies or the reasons for their rejection. Just be a bit more daring, and take that step forward. The worst is that they will not reply to you. If that’s the case, move on.

#2: Attend Public Speaking Groups

Interviews are terrifying, and that is true for everyone. However, like everything else, practice makes perfect, or rather it makes it less scary. A good way to do this is actually to attend some of the public speaking groups. Do you know why? Public speaking is even scarier, and going through it makes interviews seem like a walk in the park.

You can find these groups in public organisations such as Toastmasters International, or informal groups online. There are many resources for this. What’s even better, there are online Zoom calls that do this. If you are having difficulties finding them, just record yourself and send them to your friends or families.

#3: Sign Up for Free, Additional Training or Technical Courses

While you are working on #1 and #2 to improve your chances of securing a first job, there are other things that you can do to advance your career. Signing up for free training and technical courses, whether online or in-person, goes a long way to improving your career prospects.

Firstly, it shows your future employers that you are serious about learning and that is more important. There are many channels to this which include EdX, Khan Academy, Coursera, and many others.

If you are wondering what courses are good for you, you can’t go wrong with these:

  1. Communication: This is probably the key one that everyone should have. In the workplace, communication enables you to convey your ideas effectively and promote teamwork.
  2. Common software tools: Software applications such as Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint are still widely used and are a minimum requirement for many jobs.
  3. Basic statistics: This is not the statistics course that you have learned in university, but rather the practical ones that working professionals use daily.

#4: Engage in Freelance / Side Gig Work

Times are tough. The cost of living is high. Many of the graduates come out to the workforce, saddled with PTPTN and other education loans. To make your life easier in the meantime, you can engage in freelance work or side gigs to at least pay for rent and food.

If you are inclined to do copywriting, coding or graphic design, platforms such as Upwork, freelancer.com, and Fiverr provide most of these jobs. If you are interested in side gigs such as selling, and food deliveries, the various E-commerce platforms such as Lazada, Shopee, and even TikTok could provide that avenue.

Not only would you be earning some wages, you would also be gaining experience to boost your maturity and have better examples to elaborate on during your incoming job interviews.

#5: Volunteer for Charity to Gain Experience

Charity is often perceived as something that you do for free and in your leisure time. If anything, the charity provides a clearer point of view and perspective on what you can do for your career and life in general.

It cultivates a sense of community and purpose as you might have heard from older professionals that working sometimes feels dull and meaningless. From there, you can determine for yourself, what kind of value you want to provide to society in general, and also the type of companies you want to apply to.

This will make the interview process easier if you relate your experiences in charity to justify what kind of cause you want to work towards and how it aligns with the company.

#6: Consider Whether to Start a Business

Instead of thinking of starting a career in a company, why not consider starting your own business? It is unconventional to do this as most businessmen get working experience first before embarking on their journey.

However, in this digital age, it is much easier to start a business with close to zero cost. Selling something is much easier and accessible through online channels such as E-commerce, Instagram and TikTok. You can broadcast and market your business through social media with just a smartphone.

#7: Help Out Parents or Relatives

In China, there is a new phenomenon called “Full-Time Child” happening. This is when new graduates return to their parent’s home and helps out their parents full-time as they apply for jobs in the meantime. The job market is so bad in China that the unemployment rate among youths is at an all-time high of 21%.

Hear us out here. This has some important implications. In the world right now, people are living longer, with the proportion of people aged over 60 years old projected to double from 12% in 2015 to 22% in 2050. And people are having fewer children.

More old people are spending more of their retirement money on old-age care, and this could be a good financial decision to take care of your parents or older relatives in the meantime.

Conclusion

The job market is increasingly getting more competitive, with AI and robots potentially taking away jobs from graduates. Use these methods to improve your job prospects, and long-term career and even help out your family and relatives.

You never know, a small little thing that you are doing now could lead to a breakthrough in life later on!

 

Let us know in the comments below what you are planning to do to get your first job!

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