It may seem like a never-ending uphill battle to find a job (particularly in tech) as a graduate, but with a few helpful pointers, it doesn't have to be that way.
This article is for graduates, if you have more experience click here.
Your CV/resume
Your CV/resume is the perfect opportunity to showcase your professional and educational accolades. It is vital that your CV is super easy to extract important information from. Did you know the average hiring manager will look at a CV for 6-7 seconds? So you have to make it count! Let's examine some of the things that could be stealing your precious seconds...
- Long, wordy sentences
- Meaningless graphs, charts, and rankings
- Oversharing personal hobbies and information at the top of the CV
- Grammatical errors
- Poor formatting
- Too lengthy of a CV (2 pages max)
- Irrelevant information for the role you're applying for
So, now that you know what to steer clear of, what should you be putting on your CV? Luckily you’re in the right place! Here are some key fundamentals to consider when building a powerful CV:
- Keep it clear concise and relevant without waffling on too much
- Include a professional email, number and LinkedIn profile link
- Use positive powerful wording throughout, such as 'passionate', 'increased' or successfully…etc
- Keep consistent formatting throughout. The same font, bolded sub/titles. Make sure the document is easy to read
- A 2-3 sentence introduction, one sentence for your background, one to explain yourself/skills, and a final one to portray what you’re looking for
- 6-10 bullet points of your relevant key skills for the role you’re applying for
- Add your relevant roles, internships and placements with highlights/achievements of each. Show this by providing tangible results, stats, positive outcomes and the value added etc
- Include times where you have excelled expectations and added value
- Showcase your ability and desire to learn at a fast pace
- Links to relevant publications and projects/portfolio
- Any courses/certifications you have taken (it is also a great idea to get some new ones under your belt, as this verifies your skills to the potential employer. If you sign up to hackajob you can try our coding challenges for free.)
- If you are considering various career paths, for example Data Analysis and Backend Development, it is a good idea to have an amended CV for each role, heavily tailored to each career path
The goal is to allow the reader to extract as much key information as possible in as short a time as possible, to really ‘pull’ them in from that initial interaction. Keeping it in a familiar, trusted format will help this. That’s why when it comes to CVs there is beauty in simplicity. For a visual example of what a clean structure might look like, click here.
Try to imagine yourself in the position of a hiring manager, browsing through CVs... how can you make yours stand out? Why should you get the chance? Express it through your CV, it’s more than words on a page - it’s your ticket to a career.
If you’re still feeling a little unsure, two really useful websites that can help with creating a CV (layout & content) are Resume.io and MyPerfectCV.
Creating A Portfolio
A great addition to your applications is adding a link to your projects/portfolio, which is usually hosted on a website or GitHub pages. This is a great way to demonstrate your skill set, whilst also showing you can successfully complete projects from start to finish. Many jobs don’t explicitly ask for a portfolio - so including one could give you the edge over other candidates. Besides it always looks better to come prepared with a ‘full’ application.
Here’s some examples of what you should include/create (depending on your desired roles);
- Clearly have your name displayed
- Your Github profile/repositories for code
- Any web pages/sites you’ve created
- Some dashboards and/or data projects
- Google collabs of your previous projects and also include screenshots of data visualisation you produced from your code
- Projects you completed during your course
The great thing about a portfolio is that there are no boundaries, so use this chance to really impress the recruiter and leave a good impression. Don’t be afraid to add in examples of what you did in placements and internships (with permission of course) and anything else that you believe adds value. Here is a short youtube video explaining how you can get a quick portfolio up and running - Youtube video.
Should You Include A Cover Letter?
Absolutely. As a graduate (or any level for that matter…) cover letters are an incredibly effective tool once you understand how to utilize them.
Take the opportunity to impress on a personal level, whilst showing your genuine interest in the role and brand. When writing a cover letter it is vital to spend some time researching the company and include the information.
Some great points to research are: recent news, company values/mission and the person you're making the application too.
Using all of this information it’s time to create an effective cover letter. Make sure to include the following pointers:
- Addressing the hiring manager by their name (where possible)
- Show praise towards the company by highlighting something that impressed you during your research, and explain why this struck your interest.
- Mention the role you were interested in and address your relevant skills, as well as why you think you can add value to the business long term
- Give a short story of the high level highlights of your journey to date
- Share some small insight into your personal life achievements/hobbies
- Reinforce your interest and desire to work towards the companies mission and thank them for the consideration
In-Person Events
On top of applying and searching for roles online, it is also a great idea to get yourself to some real-life tech & recruitment events. Not only are they a great place to learn but you can make some great additions to your network, which is extremely valuable in itself!
Getting face to face with recruiters, peers and hiring managers, and asking questions directly, is where you’re much more likely to get value out of a real-life interaction. In-person events often offer workshops such as ‘CV clinics’ and much more where you can further sharpen your skills.
If you’re unsure about how to approach these career fairs/events, here are 5 key steps on how you can ace them whilst building some great relationships:
- Research the companies that will be attending
- Formulate a list of attending companies that have open vacancies that interest you
- Have an agenda in mind for what you want to achieve out of the day and pre-prepare some questions
- Attend a workshops and company talks
- Follow up with everyone you talk to. A great way to do this is to add them on LinkedIn with a nice message along the lines of ‘it was great meeting you at the career fair on X day, I am really interested in the X role(s) and will be applying.’ or ‘it was a pleasure to chat with at x, I would love to join your network’
At times, it may feel a little outside of your comfort zone, but you will soon become accustomed to it. You will see great personal development along with a considerable value increase for your personal network. Just remember - it is absolutely worth it! You can check out some events here!
Now You’re Ready!
By putting all of these tips into action, you are sending a message to the hiring manager, that you are a candidate that goes that extra mile, the one that takes pride in their work and would relish the opportunity to work with the business.