Graduate career readiness: Prepare

Position yourself for success

Even if you have a clear idea about your career interests, it's still important to ensure you have the right package of skills and experience that employers are looking for so that you can secure relevant opportunities. The following can help you position yourself for success in the graduate labour market:

• Use sites like Adzuna, Prospects Luminate and LinkedIn to build your knowledge of what is happening with different industries in the jobs market.
• Get a better understanding of the different types of job opportunities available to graduates, including graduate schemes.
• Check our Prospects Job Profiles which will tell you what skills, work experience and qualifications employers generally look for.
• Reflect on the skills you have already developed to date through your degree, previous job roles or extracurricular activities via our Huddersfield Graduate Attributes Audit.

Other useful resources include these self-help guides:

• Informational Interviewing – how to contact people for inside advice on careers.
• LinkedIn Guide – how to use LinkedIn to position yourself for success, find out information and opportunities.
• Scaled-Up Plans – like SMART goals but better!

Looking for ways to gain more experience?

• Plan ahead effectively by using our timelines to see what you need to do and when to be ready for graduate application deadlines.
• Find out more about the different types of work experience, including internships, work shadowing, volunteering and gap year opportunities.
• Use sites like Bright Network, Target Jobs and our JobShop to explore graduate internship opportunities.
• Consider whether volunteering could help you develop skills and experience by checking out the opportunities available in Kirklees, nationally and via the Propects website.
• Use LinkedIn Learning, which is free while you're a student, to learn new skills.
• Are there other virtual internships related to your career plan you can find on the web?

The Prepare stage is about setting development goals, developing a plan and implementing it. The following self-help guide is designed to help you reach your goals and realise your ambitions:

• Rule of Three - simple but effective way to chip away at a challenge and make progress.
• Scaled-Up Plans - like SMART goals but better!
• Eyes on the Prize - how to focus your efforts to achieve your goals.
• Helpful Habits - how to use routines and habits to make it easy to achieve your goals.