Looking for Your First Job as a Student

Melissa Burns

Job hunting is always difficult, especially in the current unstable economic situation, and for students and recent graduates it may turn into a real ordeal. If you have been working previously, it is just a new step among all the other steps in your life. If it is your first job there is a psychological barrier to overcome – you make the first move as an independent adult, you don’t know your way around, you have to learn everything as you go along. Add to this the absence of recommendations and any work experience to speak of and you get a really unpleasant situation.

Here are a few tips that will, hopefully, alleviate the strain of finding your way in the labyrinth that is employment.

1. Get a Really Good Resume

One of the first hurdles you are about to encounter is your resume – in what way are you supposed to present yourself in order to attract attention of your potential employers? What should you concentrate on, what should you avoid mentioning, how is it all supposed to be compiled? Even if you find a decent resume writing manual, chances are that you will make a blunder or two that may cost you an interview.

That is why it is worth getting a professionally written resume, at least the first time around – this way you will see a working example for any resume you are going to write on your own in future. However, finding a good resume writing service may turn out to be a problem in and of itself – so surf the Internet, read resume reviews evaluating different websites and choose the most trustworthy one.

2. Learn Everything about Your Desired Job

There is much more to getting a job than having the necessary credentials, and employers may base their decision to hire you on a lot of additional circumstances: your previous experience (not necessarily in this particular job), your skills, your readiness to learn and so on. That is why it is better to know all there is to know about your future job and its requirements. For example, if you are interested in a medical career you should first learn how to become a medical assistant and only then set about to actually finding a job.

3. Don’t Get Excited about Further Education

If a degree is a way to get a good job, then having a second degree is going to land you an even better job, isn’t it?

Actually, it isn’t. The majority of employers are not all that interested in postgraduate courses – they pay much more attention to your practical experience and real job skills, so the earlier you start acquiring them, the better.

4. Keep Abreast of Developments

The world is changing, and nowadays it is changing at breakneck speed. Some industries transform into something unrecognizable, others may disappear completely. It means that the job you’ve chosen for yourself may be all but non-existent in a few years. Of course, it is impossible to predict what will happen in a decade or two, but some industries are certainly on a decline: traditional book-publishing and print journalism, for example. Keep away from the jobs that are dying out.

And last but not the least – the choice of your first job is, of course, an incredibly important step, the one that should be approached with utmost care. It, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that at this moment you choose the way your life is going to develop in its entirety. So don’t waste too much time choosing and thinking – it is better to start acting and correct your course on the way.

Melissa is a student of journalism. She is graduating this year and is working on her own project Studday dedicated to deliver information about educational trends and opportunities to students all over the world.