It’s not really the most normal time to be hunting for graduate jobs or trying to get into one or other internship or one of the graduate scheme that companies offer. With finals just weeks away, most of your contemporaries will probably be adopting the attitude that considering the future is best left until after exams finish. That means many will put off looking for two or three months (what with post-finals celebrations), which effectively means they will be well into the holidays before they start looking properly. By which time, it’s likely to be too late.

With a little preparation and forward planning, this is somewhere you could get ahead. Finals are significant, but life goes on afterwards – it’s just hard to remember that fact in the throes of exam revision. However, when you get to the end of them the rest of life is going to meet you. You could spend the next stage doing something interesting that will set you up in your future career. On the other hand, you might end up spending the next three months killing time in a series of menial jobs you only do for the money – perhaps all for the sake of spending an hour or two in the Careers centre or on the web checking out which companies are offering jobs you might like to try.

There’s plenty out there. Graduate jobs aren’t particularly easy to come by at the moment, thanks to the downturn, but there are still lots of opportunities. Internships are comparatively common, and offer a good way to get to know a bit about a company, what they do and how they treat their employees, without you signing your soul away to them for the long term. (The other side of this is that they typically don’t pay so well. In practice, you will probably have to balance your interest in the company and hope for experience with the financial realities of life after studenthood.)

The bottom line is: act soon. It’s never too early to start looking for graduate jobs or other options like graduate scheme. Even if you’re not hoping for something that permanent – perhaps you’re not even a finalist – then an internship can get you a foot in the door and allow you to gain valuable experience and contacts. Given the job market at the moment, a search at this stage – when many of your contemporaries won’t be able to take their eyes off exams – could surely pay huge dividends in the long run.

Please visit http://www.careerplayer.com/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.careerplayer.com/

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