About To Graduate? Why Your Education May Need To Continue

After years of education, you may be starting to feel a little institutionalised! You have worked hard to graduate, and the end is finally in sight. But the hard work doesn’t stop here. Once you have graduated, you will be looking for appropriate employment with a good company. The location of the job may even dictate where you live geographically. Alternatively, you may be searching for employment closer to home.

Wherever you hunt for a job, you will probably want to take on some more role specific training first. Some graduate opportunities provide on the job training to get you going, but these positions are very competitive. If you have not been lucky enough to fall into a graduate programme, you can still make yourself a desirable candidate in the job race.

There are many graduate training programmes out there that require a degree. Once you have graduated, you can enrol on other training schemes offering professional qualifications. These qualifications sometimes require work experience. There are many that teach you everything you need to know about highly specialised roles. These roles include Marketing, Business Analysis and Project Management.

Some of this training can be done a little cheaper remotely. For example, you can undertake some Business Analyst training online to qualify you as a Business Analyst. Continuing education and training is highly desirable to employers. If you can afford to take on another course, it would look good on a resume while you are searching for that dream job.

You may already have a good idea about which company you want to work for, or what role you want to fulfil. There will be plenty of opportunities for both, but making yourself highly desirable as you wait for your chance can be challenging. You need to keep yourself current, and you need to make yourself heard above the noise of all the other graduates. Most big firms are looking for graduates that have had a go at the job already. This experience can be gained through volunteering or taking on a temp role. If you can find a chance to simulate the role through your degree work, that too could be highly regarded. Evidence is key. You should also be prepared to talk at length about it.

As a graduate, you will have opportunities within the biggest firms that other candidates are not eligible to apply for. It is highly recommended that you fight your way through to getting one of these roles as they are intended to progress you quickly up the chain of command into management. Starting at the bottom may take you a little longer to reach the top, but you will have opportunities to see the full working insides of the business on your way up. You are more likely to progress higher because of your degree than an unqualified internal candidate.

This photograph is from Flickr.com

There are many ways to maximize your degree, and some graduates find the subject they chose is completely irrelevant to the job they end up with. The point of a graduate placement is to take on a candidate who has excellent written skills and the ability to research and analyse information. Every graduate has that experience.