26 March 2020

How to Boost Your Employability Whilst Self-Isolating

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Exhausted all your friends’ recommendations on Netflix? Lost count of the number of times you’ve walked back and forth between the sofa and the fridge? Sick of tidying your room… again?

Staying indoors can be dull. Especially if you’ve already ticked off these 5 Fun Things to Do When Self-Isolating.

But, it’s also a prime opportunity to boost your employability. Here are some ways you can use your free time more productively to ‘get ahead’ in your career.


‘Register Your Interest’ for 2021/22 placements, internships and insights

By teaming up with some fantastic Best Student Employers, RateMyPlacement.co.uk has made it possible for you to register your interest in job roles before a firm opens for applications.

This has two main benefits:

  • You can view the range of opportunities available to you earlier in the application process. That way, you can filter and organise your work experience search in advance of any deadlines.
  • You will be notified via email as soon as applications for your fave jobs open, helping you get one step ahead of your competition and show an employer you’re serious.

The ‘Register Your Interest’ feature was introduced last year. Since then, it’s been used 17,879 times by students registering for more than 110 jobs. ​


Take a free online course

You might still have university exams. You might not. Whatever your situation, it doesn’t hurt to pick up a few extra skills.

Learning and education also improve your mental health by helping to alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression. If you’re not sure where to begin, Futurelearn, Udemy and edX are good places to start.

But which one?

The next job is to select a course to do. You don’t have to study aerospace efficiency equations either. In fact, self-isolation is a great time to trial something light-hearted. Maybe try a course that isn’t in your line of usual study.

But, if you do fancy doing a course more relevant to your career aspirations, then head to Forage. It’s a great, free, resource for students wanting to take virtual work experience programs.

We asked some of the RateMyPlacement team what exciting courses they’re taking:


Apply for a ‘Key Worker’ role via RateMyPlacement.co.uk

We have all been encouraged to self-isolate under new government restrictions. But, there is still a huge demand for key workers.

To help maintain and support key services at this time of uncertainty, RateMyPlacement.co.uk is advertising vacancies in sectors where the demand for workers is high.

What does that mean for you?

Well, you can now search and apply for short-term jobs, such as a Stock Assistant role with Aldi. You’ll earn a wage whilst helping ensure vital services run smoothly to protect the most vulnerable members of society.

Expect lots of new key worker vacancies to go live for applications over the coming weeks.


Create a LinkedIn account

85% of jobs are filled through networking. So, not having a LinkedIn account sounds pretty ludicrous. After all, LinkedIn is the ultimate professional networking. And networking is a key ingredient for building your personal brand and firing up your employability.

With the shutdown of a lot of social venues and activities, you’ll probably have an abundance of free time. Setting up a basic LinkedIn profile is also pretty quick to do.

We know a lot of students won’t know where to begin. But fear not. Follow this step-by-step guide to help you create the ultimate LinkedIn profile and you’ll be inundated with job offers in no time.


Update and perfect your CV

Having a great CV is like having a sound Tinder profile. Share it and you’ll have potential matches flocking over to you in no time.

You probably haven’t had the time to whip your CV into shape. Not with all the lectures, pub crawls and jazzy club nights you’ve been having at uni.

In fact, it’s probably been one of those ‘admin’ jobs that have been on your to-do list but that you’ve never quite gotten round to. Well, the time has come.

A CV has 7 basic sections:

Contact details

Personal profile

Key skills

Education

Previous work experience

Interests

References

Each one must be delicately handled. Maybe not the contact details and references as much – they’re pretty straightforward. Want some help?


Do your career research

If you’re not sure what career path you want to take, that’s fine. But it’s probably a good time to start looking into the different opportunities on offer. Conor and Louise (our fabulous content writers) have spent hours trawling the internet to find all the latest industry insights.

The result? You can read 16 Industry Guides that are brimming with useful advice, work experience opportunities and Best Student Employers.

So whether you want to break into the law, finance or science sector (or quite frankly anything else), make sure to have a good scan over the info available.

As well as choosing which career path you’d like to take, it’s important that you have the skills to beat the competition. The need for ‘soft skills’ in the professional market is at an all-time high. Employers LOVE candidates who can demonstrate these transferable skills.


Give yourself an edge. Nail those soft skills.

Joshua Mackenzie (Development Beyond Learning) has nicely packaged everything you need to know to get ahead, in his book, ‘The Graduate Edge.’ It’s flying off the shelves quicker than antibacterial gel during the coronavirus pandemic.

There’s a lot in this blog to keep you occupied. But if you’ve miraculously managed to be super productive and tick off everything in this list, then you should treat yourself.