team holding hands

 

Hello friends. Good to see you here.

For students, COVID-19 has had a big impact. Students have all had to study from home and the job market for graduates has become even more competitive.

In this blog, I will share some tips and tricks with you to help you navigate this challenging job market and find a role which suits you.

My 3 step process for making yourself more employable as a graduate is:

  1. While studying, identify the career you are interested in entering, and make sure you gain knowledge relevant for that career during your studies.
  2. Learn about trending technologies.
  3. Upskill yourself with some free training courses.

 

 

1.   Gain knowledge relevant for your chosen career

 

When at college it is easy to focus on enjoying the experience, but it is important to also use your opportunity to gain knowledge in areas relevant to your career aspirations.

a hand holding a tablet with charts coming out of the screenSome ideas:

  1. First, think about which topics most interest you and research careers which would provide relevant opportunities.
  2. Set a clear goal to gain skills in specific areas relevant to your interest and/or chosen career. There are so many technologies out there, if you do not focus on relevant tech you may invest lots of time in skills which are not useful for your job.
  3. Plan your tasks according to a timeline and re-evaluate regularly to check if you are keeping to your plan.
  4. Have a practice of taking notes which helps you to recollect information.
  5. Try to keep your routine regular and stick to it.
  6. Create social media profiles on all job sites. Keep your profile active and add qualifications / skills as you get them.

 

Some other things which worked for me personally:

  • I scheduled time for my college activities (assignments, seminar etc) during the week.
  • I used the weekends to learn new relevant technologies.
  • I took a five minute break every hour for refreshment.
  • I would visualise concepts to help recall them more easily rather than relying on words/descriptions alone.
  • During exams, for a particular topic, I would visualize examples for each key point.

 

 

2.   Learn about trending technologies

 

Advances in technology happen so fast now. In only ten years we have seen so much change and new technology available to us. For example:

  1. Ten years ago, many companies provided their employees with desktops which were in a fixed location. Now, laptops allow us to work from anywhere!
  2. We used to go to the shops to buy things we needed – now we can get anything and everything delivered to our doorstep!
  3. Just think about the great apps available to communicate with people around the world!

While at college many of us are not aware of the latest technologies and trending topics, and we may not be sure how to find this out either. But this may hinder our job search once graduated. Particularly if you choose to work in IT, it is vital to know about and stay up to date with changes in technology.robot machine

 

Here are some of the trending and popular technologies I have come across in my role and my research:

  1. Data Science (Data Mining, Data Analysis, Data Visualization and more)
  2. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
  3. Cyber Security
  4. DevOps & Automation
  5. Cloud Computing
  6. Internet of Things
  7. Microservices
  8. APIs
  9. Languages such as: Python, R, Java, C#
  10. Java Script (and AngularJS, React JS)

 

 

 

3.   Take free training and certification courses

 

In just a few hours you can learn lots of new skills in a previously unknown area. This will help to broaden your view (and maybe focus your career goals) as well as looking good on your CV.

Here are a few sites and tools providing free training and certification courses:

  1. FreeCodeCamp – https://www.freecodecamp.org/
  2. Amazon – https://aws.amazon.com/training/
  3. Sololearn – https://www.sololearn.com/
  4. Hubspot – https://academy.hubspot.com/
  5. Google – https://skillshop.withgoogle.com/
  6. Guru99 – https://www.guru99.com/
  7. Mygreatlearning – https://www.mygreatlearning.com/academy
  8. Edx – https://www.edx.org/
  9. Simplilearn – https://www.simplilearn.com/skillup-free-online-courses
  10. ClassCentral – https://www.classcentral.com/report/free-certificates/
  11. Alison – https://alison.com/certificate-courses
  12. Udemy – https://www.udemy.com/courses/free/
  13. Coursera – https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=free
  14. W3Schools – https://www.w3schools.com/
  15. Tutorialspoint – https://www.tutorialspoint.com/

 

If you spend some time searching you will find there are many more out there as well!

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you. All the very best!” – Janani

I hope these tips and links are useful to you in your job search. Good luck!

 

Learn More

Are you interested in joining Sandhata? Our careers page has information on what you can expect at Sandhata, how we can support you, and help you grow your career.

Our roles currently open are here.

 

 

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Janani Priya

Janani Priya is a Trainee Analyst at Sandhata Technologies from Chennai, India. Janani is an Engineering Graduate with a B.Tech degree in Information Technology, securing CGPA 9.16/10. She joined Sandhata as a fresher and is thriving in learning new skills, particularly in microservices, testing, web designing and full stack development.

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