Although it may not feel like it, you will be done with your studies one day. It is a rather daunting thought and it becomes so much more persistent when your friends and acquaintances suddenly start graduating at an alarming rate. So in an attempt to convince myself that I am a responsible adult with a promising future, I accepted an invite to a seminar concerning succeeding in finding graduate employment.
Griffith tends to hold a lot of seminars, and they have become rather good at it. From your first semester at uni and throughout every single year of your studies, there are certain things you’ll be told over and over again. The importance of networking. Join LinkedIn. Don’t rely on advertised jobs. That kind of thing.
It’s all solid advice, but it does not really matter how good you are at all those things or how fancy your resume is unless you know where you want to send it.
Opportunities in terms of graduate employment are highly individual and one of the factors that can be rather important in determining your personal chances of success is whether you are an international or domestic student. If you are an international student, it is important to keep an eye on the Department of Immigration’s website to stay informed about your specific situation and potential policy changes.
One of the topics, or the so called keys to success in finding graduate employment, was finding your place. Find something to aim for. Find goals. Identify the steps you need to take to reach those goals.
This is one of the best pieces of advice you will ever get in your life. I know far to many people who have stopped striving to improve their lives and who have settled for something that is ‘okay’. People who end up working in a field they don’t even enjoy and end up becoming miserable because of their job. People who dream about travelling but keep delaying it and regret that fact their entire lives.
Don’t know what your goal is? You’re lucky. You have the perfect reason to dabble in every field imaginable. That is my strategy in life, to try as many things as possible. Learn as many skills as I can. Maybe one day, someone really needs a graduate who speaks obscure languages, knows how to handle pincurls, has experience in the field of building swimming pools for tapirs by hand, and can survive on caffeine only for extended periods of time.
– Ida
Do you know what your employment goal is? What advice do you have for students still deciding their career path?
