When you get to the end of a degree course, what do you do next?

In the good old days, nobody worked in tech. If you were able to use the fax machine, that gave you an automatic foot-in the door. Nowadays, everyone has some knowledge of information technology. From Cell Phones to Laptops, we all use it, every day.

This doesn’t bode well for those that are finishing up their degree in IT and are looking around for what to do next. If everyone in your class has turned out looking for work at the same time, the job market becomes smaller. Times that by the dozen universities we have per region of the UK, and you end up with a saturated market and low salaries.

Here’s a guide to the things you can do to bolster that CV and make yourself stand out from the crowd.

Stand out from the IT Job Hunting Crowd

We wanted to know how to make the average post-university IT graduate stand out from the rest of the ex-student crowd.

Refine your Skillset

So, you just graduated, and you need to start making money, instead of spending it. On the other hand, you have to speculate to accumulate, and that’s what we suggest you do. You have a portfolio of training, but which bits are missing? What training trends are up and coming in the IT sector in the next few years? How much do you know about AI and task automation?

If you are always adding new training to your CV and skill set, your worth as an employee is going up and up and up. If you want to make the best IT wages, you need to know everything in the business that helps other businesses to make money. Keep training, the University of Life doesn’t count.

Inject some Personality

Before we send off that CV, we need to look at how much of you has gone into it. Add in some personality. If you are funny, then make your CV funny. If you have a skydiving license, add that in there. The point of a good CV is to showcase you in the best possible light – but if you want an employer to notice you, you have to make them want to ask you questions.

If you put yourself in the interviewer’s shoes, think about how you would feel if you had been reading CV’s all day. You’d be bored, and tired, and then you come across one from someone that was the Amateur Fiddle player of the year in 2019, you would remember them.

Upload that CV

Once you have your CV suitably boosted by all these new extra curriculars and studies of yours, you are ready to put it out into the world. Don’t rely on Linked-In to find you work, try uploading your CV so that it’s working even when you are sleeping. Hays Technology Jobs is a great UK site for IT graduates looking for work.

Upload that CV, send it out into the world, and apply for the jobs you want while simultaneously attracting offers in your downtime. That’s what’s next as an IT graduate.