Survival Kit

When the competition is fierce it’s important to do everything you can to separate yourself from other applicants. We’ve provided a few of the bare essentials, but absolutely encourage you to do your due diligence before interviewing. Here a few critical steps to getting you closer to landing the job.

Step 1: Take a good but critical look at your resume…and make sure that other peers and professionals do as well. Don’t find out in an interview that you have misspellings and grammatical issues with your resume. Read, revise, proof, revise, share, revise, proof again…you know the drill.

The below example is a good contemporary resume template for presenting your skills clearly and efficiently!

Step 2: Refine your resume and highlight your achievements. If your resume format is good and you generally feel like you have the right content, make sure that it’s presented in the  best light. Highlight your achievements and make sure you are using appropriate industry jargon. A little legwork at this stage can mean the difference between getting the interview or not.

Step 3. Practice presenting yourself!  The more comfortable  (and natural) you appear selling yourself and your abilities, the better chance you have convincing a company you will represent them well. How? Interview as much as possible with relevant companies and network professionally and socially. DO NOT get caught in the trap of spending the majority of your time applying to jobs online. This is undoubtedly an important part of the process, but should not become your main focus. The best companion in any project – and your job search is project – is a PLAN. Create one that includes the grunt work of applying online, but also includes essential networking with peers, informational interviews with industry professionals, using recruiters, and stress relief.