If you have no idea what to do after uni, then this is the blog post for you!
It’s a daunting prospect to have to make the first big decision since choosing which uni to go to. Furthermore, it’s easy to see it as a choice which will have ramifications for the rest of your life!
After 3 or 4 years of hard work, and taking that first step toward adulthood and independence, you are now forced to find your own path in life. The myriad of different options can feel extremely overwhelming.
However, we’re here to break down your options and offer you some much-needed career advice for those vital first few post-university years.
We’re sure you’ll find this advice useful if you have no idea what to do after uni, or even if you do!
General advice for if you have no idea what to do after uni:
Firstly, don’t panic! You’re not alone in this.
Many individuals who ended up in what are generally considered ‘dream careers’ had no idea what they were doing with their lives after they finished university.
In fact, most career progressions these days look nothing like the traditional ones old films and tv encourage us to believe in.
Most graduates have changed careers once by the age of 24. The previous stigma over ‘job-hopping’ has almost disappeared. “71% of Australian hiring managers would happily recruit someone who has held five different jobs in ten years.”
This all indicates that the job you first take when you leave university doesn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, lock you into any particular career path.
Start taking career advice from friends and family, specifically focussing on what jobs they took up and how long it took them to get to the careers they are in now, and you’d be surprised how many people end up taking a route that looks as unusual as missile defence to product management.
If you’re still worried that having no idea what to do after uni will negatively impact your career, then read our blog post on how to deal with those fears.
Internship or work experience:
Some of you will have taken the time out during university in order to try and nab some work experience or an internship prior to finishing your degree.
If you didn’t do so and have no idea what you’d like to do as a career, then throwing yourself into a workplace that sounds interesting to you can be an excellent way to find out.
Studies on the effects of career preparation experiences such as these have shown that, whilst “work experience related to career goals was the only experience of universal effectiveness,” anybody can benefit from “enhancing existing assets such as ability or overcoming deficits such as lack of specialized preparation” through work experience, internships, or even (if you can find it) employment.
It’s no secret that the job market is tough at the moment, with 2.3 million recent graduates competing for the 30000 jobs available each month.
It’s no shame if you’re struggling to find the employment that you want, and getting experience in an area which will help further your career, improve one of your competencies, or help bring one of your less developed skill sets up to scratch can be the differential between you and another candidate.
If nothing else, you’ll greatly improve your coffee-making skills!
Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels
Remember, many of the summer internships that are usually advertised to current graduates are still open to you now. Check out our comprehensive guide on how to nab yourself one of those here.
Get a graduate job or a place on a graduate scheme:
This might seem like a bit of a no-brainer, but there’s no harm in starting your applications for graduate jobs as early as possible.
Whilst you might not know exactly what kind of career you want at this point, that isn’t as important as you might think.
As demonstrated above, experience in a working environment is one of the key skills that any employer is looking for, as degrees become less and less valuable in the modern job market.
This means that applying to these positions early and often increases your chances of getting a job. And that job can garner you the experience and time required to figure out what you want to do as a career.
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Despite fierce competition for jobs, just under two-thirds of recruiters who took part in High Flyer’s assessment of the 2019 graduate market claimed that graduates who have had no previous work experience will still be considered in the selection process for their graduate programmes.
Work experience can be the difference between you and another candidate, but if you follow our 5 CV tips for graduates with no work experience then you’ll be guaranteed to have a leg up on some of your competition.
Even if you have no idea what to do after uni, throwing yourself into a challenging graduate job can be an unrivalled opportunity to grow and learn whilst also figuring out what you want to do in the long-term.
If you’re concerned about the applications and interviews required for these positions, then Graduate Coach has a wide variety of online courses available to help ensure that you feel as confident as possible when making your applications.
Graduate scheme guides:
–Police Graduate Schemes and Routes into Policing
–Finance
–Technology
–Software engineering
–UX Design
–Product Management
Take a gap year:
Believe it or not, gap years are not only for uncertain 18-year-olds who need to go out and experience the world. They can also be for slightly less uncertain 22-year-olds who need to go out and experience the world.
Unless you’ve already got a mortgage, kids, or other responsibilities, the best opportunity to broaden your horizons and find new experiences can be when you have no idea what to do with yourself.
Remember, it’s your non-academic experience that really counts for the most on your CV.
Having spoken extensively about the benefits of getting work experience, there’s nothing to say that you can’t gain similar experience whilst also travelling the world. Many companies out there offer the opportunity to travel far and wide whilst also taking part in enriching experiences perfect to put on a CV.
It’s important to realise that by gap year, we don’t mean getting pissed up on a beach in Thailand for 3 months before running out of money and returning home to get a job at McDonald’s.
We mean a structured and researched year out which gives you the opportunity to have the kind of experiences that will add to your CV and your life.
The UCAS page on gap years gives plenty of different ideas for what to do with your time out, and goabroad has a wide number of suggestions for post-university gap years with particular focuses.
Postgraduate studies:
Whilst we felt compelled to include this on our list, we hasten to add that postgraduate studies are not for those who simply wish to continue to live like a student (I learnt this lesson the hard way!)
Masters programmes are truly a step up from the undergraduate experience and require a lot more dedication and focus in order to gain the most out of it.
However, if you have a particular passion, or have found a vocation which requires extra education to ensure access, then I cannot recommend it highly enough. If you’re unsure as to whether postgraduate education is for you, please check out our blog post on the subject.
Photo by Loe Moshkovska from Pexels
Start your own business:
Having just finished university, spending time with other people of a similar age, drive and determination might have left you hungry to enter the world of entrepreneurship as quickly as possible.
If you have an idea that you want to try and develop into a business, there is never a better time than straight out of uni.
Talk to friends and family, especially those who have started their own businesses in the past, and try to understand the difficulties and rewards involved. If it still sounds like something you want to go ahead with, then there are plenty of excellent guides out there. We recommend starting here.
Now you have some idea of what to do after uni:
Don’t beat yourself up if you take one of these paths and it doesn’t work out for you.
Remember that despite the number of high-flying graduates out there, only 52% of graduates secure a graduate-level job six months after they finish their course.
It’s unfair on you to compare your career development to that of your coursemates, especially in the new world of social media.
You have an entire life ahead of you, one which is going to be full of both ups and downs and very few graduates start flying out of the gates immediately.
Focus on ensuring that any experiences you do have are ones which help grow you as a person and give you insights into potential careers so that when you do start to accelerate, you do so in a field you know you want to be in. And if it all goes tits up, then apply to a recruitment agency.
Thanks for reading our post aimed at graduates who have no idea what to do after uni!
If you have found yourself in this position, or are having trouble finding a job, do not despair! We can help you here at Graduate Coach. Visit our pages on one-to-one coaching, interview coaching and our books.
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