The warm weather is here. Whether this is your first summer as a graduate or the summer before your last year in university, summer can be a great time to enhance your resumé.
Work and Volunteer
Margot Carmichael Lester, author of The Real Life Guide To Starting Your Career, recommends getting a summer job, internship, or anything that will give you experience. The summer is the best time to intern and get some full-time work in your field, but what if you have to balance a paying job?
“You can still volunteer on a time-limited basis or for a special project,” says Laura Praglin, formerly a university career counsellor and author of Starting Your Career: The Best Resources to Help You Find
The Right Job. “You can also widen your net at your current job. Ask for more responsibilities or a chance to see another aspect of the organization.”
Prepare and Assess
Taking time to assess your accomplishments, creating a portfolio and reflecting on what your skills are will help you express yourself clearly. Lester suggests writing it down.
“Too many college grads have a hard time expressing themselves in writing,” she says.
She suggests reading business magazines to check out the tone and word choice, then incorporate this dialogue into an interview.
Network
During the summer people are more relaxed. This is a great time to get together with coworkers after work, join company clubs or attend events.
Lester suggests reading articles and contacting the sources, attend book talks and introduce yourself to the speaker, or ask your friends, family and professors to introduce you to influential people in the industry. “You don’t want to ask them for a gig. You want to do an informational interview in which you learn more about their career track and responsibilities. Later, you can pump them for … a job.”
Preparation is key. A career takes time to create and by doing the prep work early on, you can stand apart from the competition.
