- Linkedin

- Professional Communities

- Local career networking – young grad networks

If you are considering working or studying abroad for a year or two, it’s worth remembering that once you put it on your resume, you’ll have to make sure you maintain your multi-lingual skills. The ability to speak another language often becomes rusty over time if under used and many countries will require that you take a language test before gaining entry. In the United Kingdom for example, an English exam needs to be passed before you can even apply for a study Visa. Language tests aren’t particularly difficult if you are really fluent in a language either, in fact, it’s likely you’ll score highly. Usually they consist of four parts: reading, listening, speaking, and writing.

Once you have the physical evidence of your language skills, you can start to make progress in terms of getting opportunities. Before making applications to organisations that will allow you to work or study abroad, you’ll have to make sure that you have an online presence for when they do research about you. Many organisations will now look at their applicants (no matter what they are applying for) and see what kind of online presence they have. One of the best ways for them to find you, and know a little more about you, is by having a blog. You can share your interests, as well as information about your language skills, and build up a community of similar minded people. If you then link this blog to social networks like twitter or Linked In, you’re bound to found by the right people.

Video blogging has become ever more useful, and makes a blog seem much more personal as it breaks the barrier created by a text based system and not actually seeing the blogger. If you feel comfortable doing a vlog (don’t worry if you don’t) then it’s definitely an idea worth exploring. If you upload the videos to Youtube it also means much more exposure for your blog.

It’s also a pretty good idea to consider guest blogging, which is writing blog posts for another blog as a special guest. It’s quite explanatory really. Anyway, by doing this you will expand your network even further and gain a reputation. If you then apply to work somewhere over your gap year, you can explain to them how you’re a reputable blogger in your chosen field and language.

The advice we would offer at Graduate Career Tips is that pensions are absolutely crucial and you really shouldn’t put them off. There are a number of reasons why young people aren’t investing in pensions early on in their careers and this could be due to:

1. Wanting to clear the student debt from student loans, bank loans and previously interest free overdrafts

2. Saving for a house deposit to get on the property ladder

3. Having too much fun going out, going on holidays and spending money on all those things you couldn’t afford as a student

However, it is not just accountants, bean counters and geeks who will be saving pensions for their retirement. Those that start at a young age and invest a proportion of their income each month are going to have a much better standard of living in their old age. A recent report found that the average amount of pension income the average worker wants in retirement is  £24,300 to live comfortably and only 51% save adequately for their old age.

What can I do now to get started towards saving for my pension?

This depends how old you and how many more working years you have left. The advice from Money Saving Experts is  to, “take the age you start your pension and halve it. Put this percentage of your salary aside each year until you retire.” Obviously this means that the older you get the more you are going to have to put aside each month. However, if you start saving for a pension at 24, you need to put 12% of your salary into a pension each month. Bear in mind that many major FTSE companies who do graduate schemes will match your pension contribution.

So you may only need to sacrifice something like 6% of your salary each month to be on a good footing towards a decent retirement pot. This is just a guideline and not all graduates will have their employers topping up their pension contributions so just contribute what you can afford.

If you put off saving for a pension until you have cleared all your debt and maybe got a house and then start saving in your early thirties, you are going to have to invest something like 15-18% each month into a pension. Even with an employer contribution, you will still be looking at 7.5% – 9% from your salary which will hit your take home pay even more. Start early and make it less painful and just adapt to never seeing that money coming through into your account each month. If you use an employer private pension scheme, the pension contribution will be taken direct from your payslip each month.

Also remember that the longer you save and the bigger pot you have on average, the longer you have to get a better return on your investment and reap the rewards of compound interest, which means you get interest on your interest.

GC Tip: Don’t put your pension off and start saving early to ensure you can live comfortably in your retirement. Put aside what you can afford. Pension savings should come first before clearing debt and saving for a house unless you are accruing major debt repayments from student debt.

Body language tells people how you are feeling and can be emitted in a positive or negative way. Body language tells people what you might not want the them to know – that you are having a bad day at work, had an argument with your partner before setting off for the day or that you don’t like the person you are working with or listening to.

Really? All this from a few body language signals I hear you say?

Well, let’s remind ourselves that the impact of body language far outweighs what people say or how they say it. Body language is something people always remember and it can make a positive impression on clients or colleagues. You will have heard the phrase a picture paints a thousand words and this is often the case for how your body language can be perceived. So don’t underestimate the power of body language in business. Successful people and senior business leaders will undoubtedly have a keen grasp of how to use body language to their benefit and will understand how to read others’ body language.

Here are a few tips to consider for how you can use positive, confident body language to your benefit to make an impact in the workplace without going over the top. Some people make a career in being an expert in body language alone and we are not suggesting you go that far but an awareness of how your body language might be perceived or how you can react to others body language because you have an understanding of what they are saying will be very useful for your career:

1. Posture

Make sure you sit up straight and don’t slump in a chair during a meeting or while talking to someone and the same goes when you are standing up. Keep your head upright and shoulders back. A negative posture can give a bad impression about your interest in the the topic at hand. Good posture can help with your breathing, which can improve how you feel at work and reduce anxiety and stress.

2. Eye Contact

Make sure you use eye contact to show you are confident in what you are talking about – this emits confidence if you are prepared to look someone in the eye and discuss a project or break some bad news etc. Looking away when you talk to people is not appropriate in the workplace and shows signs of low confidence in yourself or what you are saying. Maintaining good eye contact shows you respect the person you are talking to and that you are interested in what they have to say. Don’t go over the top though and eyeball them constantly as that can be perceived as aggressive.

3. Arms

The classic observation is that folding your arms means you are being defensive and lacking interest. However, at Graduate Career Tips we think this is a little old fashioned and folding your arms can just be comfortable when you are sitting in a chair. Be aware of how you use your arms for gesturing, for example, you can use your arms to welcome people into what you are discussing by having an open posture and open hand palms. Although crossing your arm can be a comfortable way to sit, you shouldn’t cross your arms when presenting or receiving feedback.

4. Body angle

When you are in a meeting or talking to a client or a colleague, use body language positively through showing your interest. If you position your body angle away from the person who is speaking then this shows you might not care about their point of view. Real body language experts in business will adjust their body angle position to position themselves towards the presenter or person talking. This takes effort but can be worthwhile as it shows you are engaged and motivated.

5. Hand gestures

The use of your hands is important for positive, confident body language. You ay have seen the way Tony Blair used to use hand gestures very cleverly to show progress being made by making lists and moving his hand away from his body to demonstrate each point. Open, upward palms are considered to be positive and welcoming. Also, handshakes are a key facet of body language – it’s important to not be too overbearing with a handshake and also a lot of men don’t shake the hands of women in business which is disrespectful. Treat people equally in shaking hands whether they are male or female and don’t do a ‘bone crushing’ hand shake as it shows you want to have power or dominance over that person.

GC Tip: Body language can be a powerful force to exhibit in meetings – it can show you are controlled, professional and calm and also will reflect well in the impression people have of you and the quality of your work. Learn to watch others’ body language and try to predict what silent signals they are showing.

Most large companies recognise that a graduate has a lot to offer but lacks the general experience required. Employers circumvent this situation by providing graduate jobs. The number of these positions is often limited and there is stiff competition to land a graduate job. However, the opportunities that are open to the graduates who are able to secure these positions can be astounding.

Graduate Jobs
Graduate jobs are clearly advertised on company websites. These businesses want to attract the cream of the crop. This is their opportunity to find a candidate that will fit into their organisation and will remain there for years to come. In effect, these organisations will groom the chosen employees and provide high levels of training. Most graduate positions are for the future managers of the company. As long as you are able to prove your worth, your chances of progressing within the company are greatly increased.

How to Get a Graduate Job
In order to increase your chances of obtaining a graduate job there are a number of steps that can be taken. It is vital that the interviewee has an intimate knowledge of the company. Using this knowledge will give the prospective candidate more insight into what the hiring organisation is seeking. Research the graduate position to discover the qualities they are seeking. This could vary from highly motivated individuals to interpersonal skills or analytical skills. Think of examples of when these skills have been demonstrated. These examples can come from during your studies, hobbies, sports or other personal experiences that fit the situation.

The secret to securing this type of career is to portray yourself as someone that would fit straight into the company tomorrow. The culture of the company is also very important. If the interviewer believes it’s not a good fit then no job offer will be forthcoming.

If you have little to no experience, and have recently graduated, then applying for graduate jobs could be the best option to securing your future.

Many thanks for the guest post from Guardian Jobs.

1. Be proactive – An effective person is a product of their own choices whereas an ineffective person is a product of their circumstances.

You are free to make choices and you are responsible for the outcomes so show more initiative and increase your influence at work. Proactive people show a high degree of maturity and exercise their choices based on self-awareness, their conscience, their imagination and their independent will.

2. Begin with the end in mind – An effective person lives by design rather than living by default.

You need to have a clear view of the desired results you are trying to achieve and set out with an objective in mind. Envision outcomes before you act so you know where you are going in a project or working with a customer.

3. Put first things first – An effective person puts important things first but an ineffective person puts urgent things first.

Act on your priorities to avoid crisis management. Eliminate the non-important tasks and plan weekly and daily so you know what you need to be focusing your time on.

4. Think win / win – An effective person views the workplace as somewhere where there is plenty out there for everyone whereas an ineffective person views people as taking things away from them.

An ineffective worker sees there is only so much available and the more someone else takes, the less there is for them to get. e.g. job promotions at work. Seek mutual benefit at work to get people to collaborate with you and create win-win situations.

5. Seek first to understand then be understood – An effective person listens with the intent to understand whereas an ineffective person listens with the intent to reply.

You may have been in these situations in meetings with your team or on conference calls. Diagnose what the issue is before you prescribe. Make sure you understand the other persons’ point of view and listen empathetically. This leads to faster problem solving and better solutions to complex problems.

6. Synergise – An effective person thinks that by working together can create a more effective wway forward whereas in ineffective person thinks ‘it’s either your way, my way or a compromise’

It is not always as black and white as the ineffective persons’ view on working. You may have heard the phrase ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’.

7. Sharpen the saw – An effective person nurtures the goose that lays the golden eggs but an ineffective person only focuses on getting the golden eggs.

This is about continuous self reflection and maintaining and increasing our effectiveness. We need to renew ourselves mentally and physically so be aware of things like work life balance. This can lead to improvements in your career, stronger relationships and an improved capacity at work.

GC Tip: Think about how you can improve and be more effective…it’s a good habit to get into. It doesn’t need to be Covey’s Seven Habits but think of this as a framework for increased effectiveness. Start by writing your own down and then produce an action plan or a personal development plan for how you can deliver increased effectiveness in the workplace.