As graduates begin to prepare for entry into the wider jobs market and begin to develop their careers there are perhaps more questions than answers. You may be asking yourself:
What do I want?
Should I look for a career or a job?
How can I get the right career underway?
Am I being realistic? Am I overselling or underselling?
Will I stand out?
These questions are not unique to graduates, and those further on in their careers ask themselves the same questions. It might be worth checking the pages in About you first before you go further.
The biggest mistake to make is to not start your ‘activity’ early enough. Waiting until you graduate is too late. Begin the process of defining who you are and what you want at the start of your final year. Knowing how you can become a more complete package and attractive to employers will prompt you to fill gaps in your experience, knowledge, networks and skills. If you are missing anything start to plug the gaps as quickly as possible.
Equally, being so early in your career you don’t have to get your choices right first time. You can either get it wrong, picking the wrong job or career path and moving on. Or you can deliberately choose something which works in the short term such as simply earning you money, getting you to the right location or entry into a sector or field you are trying to build experience in. You may decide there are short term imperatives which outweigh your ideal path – for now. As long as you remain in control, have a clear path and can describe it, make the right decisions at the right time and know when to move on, it is ok to take a role which you feel is less than ideal. Only you can judge this.