Early-career blog series: Finding a job after graduation
Early-career scientists: Finding meaningful work in the environment and development sectors
In this second post in our early-career blog series we are joined by Bridget Berlyn who - with her extensive experience in human resources within the environmental sector - offers some excellent tips for job seekers!
Note: In our final blog post in this career series will give you an opportunity to put your burning career questions to a panel of inspiring professionals from across the private sector, academia, and civil society. Please send your career questions to info@acdi.uct.ac.za. We will select several questions to put to the panel, but all of your comments or thoughts will be useful as we write the remaining blogs in the series.
Blog Post 2
NEXT STEPS AFTER GRADUATION: FINDING A JOB
By Tali Hoffman, Zoë Visser and Bridget Berlyn
If you’ve applied the advice in our first blog, you’re now armed with a vision for your career. You are now ready to leave all other job seekers in your blistering wake as you embark on your job hunt in earnest. But before you throw yourself into the job market, there are a few important things to consider:
1. Be prepared to sell yourself
That’s right folks, it’s time to market yourself. There’s no better place to start than with a killer CV and a cracking cover letter.
The CV
A common mistake that people make is sending out a sloppy CV. Bear in mind that many employers will scan a CV for only a few seconds before putting adding it onto the ‘yes’ or the ‘no’ pile. So your CV needs to be impressive, memorable and logical, both in content and layout.
Take the time to develop a CV that gives potential employers a well-rounded impression of what you care about, your professional experience, your achievements, your technical skills, and your education. There are many resources online (like this one, this one and this one) that can help you with advice about content and offer you free templates for improved layout.
Once you’ve got a CV you’re happy with, save it as a baseline CV and keep it safe. Whenever you apply for a new job make a copy of this baseline CV and tailor it to the job you are applying for, ensuring that your CV speaks directly to the requirements of the job.
TIP FROM THE HR DESK: #1
When considering what CV template to use think to yourself: "If this CV were number 97 on a pile of 200 applications, will they see that I am the right candidate in under a minute?"
DO: write a "profile" paragarph at the top of your CV that directly links your skills and experience to the requirements listed on the job advert. Remember that you will potentially be in a very large pool of candidate with similar qualification and skills. It may soung harsh but the average recruiter's attitutde towards very large batch of CVs is "what can I toss out to save time?". This means that we spend day one scanning CVs and saying "yes", "no" or 'maybe" to each candidate very quickly. The "Nos" are generally never looked at again and the "maybes" will be considered only if we feel we need to expand our "yes" pile. So if I can see immediately that you have a suitable degree and experience for the job, I will have no choice but to consider you further.
DON'T: Leave out informationg just because you think it may not work in your favour. Your prospective employer will have to find out information like demographics, citizenship and ID numbers before they can appoint you; if you leave it out, they have to hunt for it (which is a pain), so rather include it from the beginning to make their lives easier.
DO: Address gaps in your CV - if there is a gap between jobs or studies that is not accounted for, tell me why so that I don't mark it as a red flag.
Finally, there are entire posts dedicated to the HR gripe of elaborate formatting and difficult-to-read fonts used in CVs. Readability is very important. Comic Sans, for example, should not be used unless your CV is a comic strip. Actuall, a comic strip CV format may amuse me, but you probably won't get the job.
The cover letter
Some people make the mistake of using a cover letter to simply repeat the details of their CV. Instead a cover letter should be used to summarise and contextualise the details of your CV for your potential employer.
A good place to start when writing a cover letter is to take some time to ask yourself three questions:
- Why do I want this job? Research the post and find out exactly what it entails so that you have a good understanding of what you are applying for.
- Why do I want to work for this company? Research the organisation and think about what you will bring to the organisation that will set you aside from the other candidates.
- How am I suited for this position and this organisation? Tie it all together.
Then use your answers to write a cover letter specific to the job you are applying for, that ties your CV to the job advert. Be sure to keep it brief (1 page at most) and punchy or you risk losing the reader’s attention.
TIP FROM THE HR DESK: #2
Remember that the cover letter itself is an assessment of your communication skills (a base requirement for every job), so keep the information personal but the writing style formal (tell them who you are and why they should hire you, in the most professional way possible).
Open with a bang! For example: “I think that your company will benefit from my exceptional research skills and four years of experience in your industry”. Use the letter to draw the reader’s attention to the details in your CV that are most relevant for this particular job, and to paint a picture not only of what you have done in the past but what you would like to do in the future.
TIP FROM THE HR DESK: #3
Make sure that you follow any job advert instructions to the letter - not following the instructions simple tells me that yoou don't read thing through properly, can't follow instructions and don't care about the job. In other words, it's a one way ticket yo the "NO" pile (another CV that I don't have to read!). So if the advert has asked you to fil in an online profile, take some time to do so properly as having the information in a certain format will help us sort through the minefields of hopefule apllicants, weed out the ones who haven't followed process correctly and pick you instead!
IMPORTANT! Before you send your CV or cover letter to any potential employers, get a kind and ideally grammatically-pedantic friend or family member to proof-read your CV and cover letter to ensure they are both free from spelling, grammar or formatting errors.
2. Google yourself before others Google you
It’s likely that a potential employer will look you up online. When they do you want to make sure that (1) they can find you, and (2) that they can only find the things you want them to find. So:
- Develop your online presence by setting up a profile for yourself on LinkedIN and (if appropriate) ResearchGate and Twitter. If your previous department has a graduate network page, make sure your profile is up to date there too.
- Google your own name to make sure that the images and content that come up are things you’d be happy for your employers to see.
- Unless you want future employees perusing your Facebook page, ensure that your privacy settings are at their highest. You may have forgotten about that photograph of you wearing antlers and drinking straight from a bottle of Russian Bear, but your potential employers will not.
3. Oh Job Vacancy, where art thou? Prepare to search high and low
One of the best ways to find job vacancies is via mailing lists and websites. Here are some to get you started, but browse the web (and LinkedIN) for mailing lists that are most appropriate for you: ACDI (climate and development vacancies mailed out weekly), SANCOR, WWF, GreenMatter, NGO Pulse, and Indeed.
Don’t limit yourself to South African or sector-specific mailing lists – search as widely and diversely as your skills allow. The best opportunities can be lurking in unexpected places.
4. Ask professionals that you respect for referrals
Applying for advertised jobs is only one way to find work, and it can feel frustratingly passive and depressing at times. Using your existing social and professional networks to identify potential positions is not only more proactive and empowering, but often a more productive way of finding work (in fact, we believe so strongly in this that we are devoting our entire next blog to Networking!).
Set up meetings with people that you know and respect, and ask them for referrals and introductions to people you’d like to meet. For example, your Masters supervisor or your old boss might be able to introduce you to people within their network who might be willing to chat to you about your career path. People are often more receptive to requests for advice than requests for jobs, so steer the conversation in that direction. If they want to hire you, they will.
Always make a note to thank people for any support that they give you, and let them know if any of their connections bear fruit. By acting as if they are invested in your career, they may become invested.
5. Be willing to take small steps upwards
Finally, until that dream job comes knocking, an internship can provide a good way to find your feet and gain professional experience in a supportive environment (and yup, we’re dedicated another entire blog to this topic!).
You may have to take a few detours, but know that most experience is helpful in some way. For example, you may spend a year as a research assistant on a project that does not relate to your core passion, but the research and project management skills that you learn will be crucial in securing your next position. Be patient with yourself, especially early in your career. It might take quite a few positions until you find your niche within the sector.
That's it for now! Next week we turn our attention to the ins and outs of Networking, covering topics from elevator pitches to personal branding and power poses. It’s a goodie…you don’t want to miss it!
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the authors in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the ACDI, or any other entity affiliated with the ACDI.