I love this time of year (especially now I’m a term-time member of staff) as the long university summer holidays stretch out ahead of us. If you’re one of our students, or a finalist waiting for graduation, the holidays have already begun. How will you be spending your summer and can you be doing things now to improve your CV and make you stand out from the crowd when you reach graduation?

For many students the summer involves working, travelling, volunteering, spending time catching up with family and friends or a nice mix of all of these. Whether you’ve made plans or not here are our 5 top tips for making the most of your university holidays…

1. Start to think about the options available to you after your degree. It’s never too early to start career planning. Perhaps you have a dream job in mind, or maybe you have no clue what you’d like to do, the university break can be a great time to start thinking and planning. The Prospects website has a fantastic array of resources…from their quiz to options with your degree you’re sure to find some useful information to get you started with your career planning.
2. Get work experience. It’s time to start thinking about what you can put on your CV. If you’re not working try to find an internship, work experience or volunteering opportunity to add valuable experience to your CV. Check your e-mails for our student and graduate bulletins as we’ll continue to advertise vacancies throughout the summer. You can also login to My Careers Centre to search for jobs. Everything you do is useful and important but with a bit of thought can you add some ‘relevant’ experience to your CV over the summer?
3. Get more from your summer. If you are working can you get more out of the experience? Is there the chance to gain training? Can you take on more responsibility? If you don’t feel the job that’s paying the bills is really adding to your CV can you spare some time to volunteer?
4. Keep your CV up to date. Start to think about the skills you’re gaining and demonstrating and add these to your CV. Jot down notes of the things you do over the summer that might be of interest to a potential future employer and try to keep your CV as up to date as possible.
5. Use the Careers & Employability Service. We’re still open over the summer so if you’re struggling with career planning, finding opportunities, want help with updating your CV or even want to book a mock interview you can contact us via careers@hope.ac.uk or on 0151 291 2032.

Happy holidays!

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