It’s summer, you’ve got your results, and now you need to find a graduate job! This can be a really exciting time for anyone who is looking to kickstart their career and fully-immerse into their industry pretty much asap. After a month of job searching, I was so happy to land a grad job at a great company, and I’ll be starting on Monday, thanks to a few crucial steps in the job search process. I was also spoilt for choice as I received all three job offers from the three different interviews I went to – there’s no better feeling! Here are a few things you can do to improve your employability and visibility during your search for the perfect role.

Firstly, I highly recommend checking on LinkedIn’s Premium package which you can trial for free for a month. If you’re not even on LinkedIn, that’s your first mistake. Create an account and treat it like an online CV; with care and detail, where thousands of employers can access your profile with a few clicks. LinkedIn Premium automatically boosts your visibility and attractiveness to employers, showing a gold badge next to your name and proving your dedication to finding a career – you’ll also appear at the top of their recruitment searches, above standard members. Activate it at the right time, and you’re winning! Check out the features that are included, such as Learning for crash courses that endorse your skills and insight into other candidates that are applying for the same jobs as you via LinkedIn.

Secondly, create a portfolio to showcase your work and passion in one document. Employers were so impressed with this additional feature of my applications, and it always received such positive feedback. Whether your creative or could do with brushing up on your design skills, Canva is a brilliant website to make your own graphic designs for portfolios with the simple click and drag options and templates. This portfolio can work as a showcase for the examples in your CV and makes it easier to talk through what you’ve achieved and your competencies during an interview. Check out my marketing portfolio here for some ideas.  

Lastly, make sure you’re spending a lot of your time searching for jobs. It’s so right that the more you put in, the more you’ll get out of applications. It can be pretty time consuming; however there’s no point spending a little time on a half-hearted application as you probably won’t hear back. I’ve also been told that you should treat the job search as a full-time job, spending  30-40 hours a week on searching through advertised roles, seeking non-advertised roles, researching companies, applying, attending interviews and replying to all emails. A little trick to saving time would be to sign up to local recruitment agencies and seeing if they can sift out the perfect roles for you. That’s one application and constant support and morale to help you get the role.

I hope these three steps really help with your job search. I’ve tried to be unique in my approach, and it seems to have paid off so 100% success rate so far. I’d love to hear if this worked for you and if anyone has any other detailed recommendations? Good luck!