It can be really difficult for university graduates to get a full-time job.
While a bachelor’s degree may have been enough to secure your parents a job, increased competition means you need to go above and beyond to get your career on track.
We asked experts from three Melbourne universities how you can improve your chances of landing your dream job after graduation.
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RMIT Director of Careers and Employability Judie Kay says you should start thinking about what you need to do to increase your employability as soon as you begin university.
“It is too late to leave it to the last semester,” she says.
“From day one you start that journey, and that continues on beyond graduation.”
Swinburne University Manager of Career Development Rob Vague says ideas surrounding employability have changed in the last few years.
“It used to be, ‘well you’ve got these skills, you’re employable’,” he says.
“Now you need a degree and you need skills, but it’s also about developing attitudes and behaviours.”
Ms Kay says while universities are there to help students, you need to be proactive and take charge of your career.
“What we encourage students to do first is to explore the industry or the area or the discipline that they’re wanting to enter,” she says.
She says this can help you understand more about what pursuing a career in that area may look like and what you need to do to get a job.
Monash University Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Zlatko Skrbis encourages a similar approach.
“We want them to be aware of the magnitude of the challenge that employability prospects represent,” he says.
“We need to make them aware just how important it is that they think about employability issues, not towards the end of their degree, but at the very beginning of their university story and journey.”
While high marks can go some way towards reflecting your aptitude, Mr Vague says it’s important to gain industry experience.
He says Swinburne offered a range of industry placements, differing in industry type and length.
“Students will graduate with not only not only a degree, but also a significant amount of experience which is really going to help them getting a bit become employable and get into the workforce,” she says.
Ms Kay and Professor Skrbis say RMIT and Monash also recommend undertaking industry placements while you complete your degree.
Ms Kay suggests you can either do it inside or outside the curriculum.
Professor Skrbis says about 15,000 Monash students completed a Work Integrated Learning unit at Monash each year.
“We are trying to make sure that we are not focusing those opportunities simply on areas that obviously lend themselves to Work Integrated Learning opportunities, like education,” he says.
“We do place a lot of emphasis on areas like law, like arts because this is really where traditionally universities have been weakest.”
Professor Skrbis says Monash is looking at its curricular and co-curricular structures to ensure students were equipped with skills for the future.
“They range from data and analytical skills, to enterprising skills, to intercultural competency skills,” he says.
“No universities should purely focus on the narrow skill set that is associated with a particular profession or particular calling.”
Professor Skrbis says you can build intercultural competency skills, for example, by going on a university exchange or study tour.
Ms Kay says part-time work can help to build transferable skills that will be relevant in most industries.
“Even if you’re flipping hamburgers at McDonald’s, you’re still building those generic skills around teamwork and customer service,” she says.
Ms Kay says other useful skills you might develop through work, volunteering or travel include digital literacy, communication skills, resilience, initiative and the ability negotiate.
“You must start to take an interest in building those skills and reflecting on what skills you need,” she says.
Mr Vague says it’s not only important for you to build these skills, you also need to be able to articulate their relevance.
“It’s one thing to have done a part-time job; it’s another thing to be able to tell an employer how you have the skills and how are they going to help you,” he says.
If you get the opportunity to take on a leadership position, you should
“They’re the sorts of things that, I guess, make people stand out from other people from other candidates,” he says.
