You are going to finish your degree soon and you will be allo­wed to ride the lion. But you don’t know whe­re it should take you yet? Starting a care­er after uni­ver­si­ty can be intimi­da­ting but the­re are many tips that can help you find your way. 

Shown are arrows on a road intersection pointing in all possible directions.

Especially uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents who star­ted their non-voca­tio­nal stu­dies right after gra­dua­ti­on will have to face this ques­ti­on soo­ner or later: Which care­er path do I want to pick? Maybe you are about to finish your degree and still haven’t found an ans­wer. You just star­ted your stu­dies or are in the midd­le of them and you alrea­dy have thought about it? No mat­ter what situa­ti­on you find yourself in, ori­en­ting and informing yourself is always worth it. 

Obviously, such a quest always starts wit­hin yourself. To bring your per­so­nal strengths, inte­rests and expe­ri­en­ces to mind is not only hel­pful for your own ori­en­ta­ti­on but also bene­fi­cial for pre­pa­ring job app­li­ca­ti­ons. Career expe­ri­ence is not the only fac­tor that counts. Social, eco­lo­gi­cal, poli­ti­cal and other forms of invol­ve­ment, hob­bies prac­ti­ced over many years and pro­jects rea­li­zed in your free time play a role as well. The resul­ting skills can make you uni­que. In addi­ti­on, you should think about your deman­ds that have to be met by your job and employ­er. Should the job just be a source of money or more than that? Do I pre­fer flat or steep hier­ar­chies? Do I want per­so­nal con­ta­ct with cus­to­mers or cli­ents? Depending on your ans­wers to the­se ques­ti­ons, you can find out what you look for in a job and can spe­ci­fy your search. 

Internships 

An honest self-assess­ment is a use­ful gui­de to your dream job. If you have litt­le to no pro­fes­sio­nal expe­ri­ence and would like to try things out first, internships are a very good way to get star­ted. You get to know a pro­fes­sio­nal field, get an impres­si­on of the expec­ta­ti­ons of ever­y­day work the­re and you are not tied down for long. An ide­al way to get a tas­te. If the employee and the employ­er think a long-term coope­ra­ti­on is pos­si­ble, the­re can even be the chan­ce of being hired after an internship. In addi­ti­on, an internship offers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to gain expe­ri­ence and make con­ta­cts that can be use­ful even if you deci­de to take a dif­fe­rent care­er path or do not get taken on. 

Networking 

The word net­wor­king is con­stant­ly heard when it comes to fin­ding a job. And even though the­re is more to suc­cess­ful­ly choo­sing a care­er path, in many cases it is use­ful to make con­ta­cts here and the­re. The obvious rea­son for this is to make it easier to get a job sin­ce refe­ren­ces are wel­co­me in many app­li­ca­ti­on pro­ces­ses. Additionally, you learn about jobs that were out of your view previously. 

Internships are not the only pla­ces to net­work. In fact, any oppor­tu­ni­ty can be used for this pur­po­se. You meet a per­son at a par­ty who works in a field that might inte­rest you? Get their con­ta­ct infor­ma­ti­on and show inte­rest. A friend knows someo­ne who knows someo­ne? Get intro­du­ced. Take advan­ta­ge of such ran­dom oppor­tu­nities. Apart from the­se, you can also pur­po­se­ful­ly make con­ta­cts. Job fairs are a won­der­ful way to not only get an impres­si­on of employ­ers but also to intro­du­ce yourself in per­son. Such an event, the “10. Jobmesse Halle”, will take place on March 19th, 2022 in the SWH.arena. Another one is the “Chance “, which will take place on April 1st and 2nd, 2022 in the HALLE MESSE. The stu­dent con­sul­tancy “Campus Contact Halle e.V.” orga­ni­zes the annu­al fair “cam­pus­meets­com­pa­nies” (@campusmeetscompanies on Instagram) to pro­vi­de oppor­tu­nities for uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents and com­pa­nies to con­nect. It took place digi­tal­ly ear­lier this year. 

Pictured is a person sitting at a table and biting thoughtfully on a pen.
Online offers 

It is also gre­at to make con­ta­cts online. Professional social net­works such as Xing or LinkedIn are very popu­lar. They are desi­gned exclu­si­ve­ly for making busi­ness con­ta­cts and can also be very use­ful for stu­dents. Similar to Facebook, you can get an impres­si­on of poten­ti­al app­li­cants, bos­ses, col­leagues etc., as well as make new con­ta­cts or dis­co­ver job offers. 

For the lat­ter, howe­ver, por­tals such as StepStone, Monster or Indeed are pre­fera­ble becau­se they are made for fin­ding employ­er or employees. 

Counseling 

Transitioning from uni­ver­si­ty into the working world usual­ly requi­res a lot of initia­ti­ve. That can easi­ly beco­me over­whel­ming. If you feel like you don’t know what to do, con­sul­ting an out­si­der can help. At the Jobcenter in Halle, it is pos­si­ble to make an appoint­ment for a talk. Information and job offers can also be obtai­ned the­re. Within our uni­ver­si­ty the Career Center acts as an inter­face bet­ween uni­ver­si­ty and the working world- just the right place to go regar­ding all mat­ters rela­ted to fin­ding a job, the tran­si­ti­on and any uncer­tain­ties you might have. Apart from per­so­nal coun­se­ling the Career Center regu­lar­ly orga­ni­zes events. You can find the­se on StudIP. In addi­ti­on, the Career Center offers the ASQ modu­le “Wege in den ver­bor­ge­nen Arbeitsmarkt” (engl. “Ways into the hid­den job mar­ket”). The gene­ral stu­dent advi­so­ry ser­vice of the uni­ver­si­ty can be hel­pful as well, espe­cial­ly if you are con­si­de­ring a Master’s pro­gram. Beyond that, con­ver­sa­ti­ons with fel­low stu­dents or alum­ni of your major can also be inspiring. 

Even if you’­re not 100 per­cent sure after fol­lowing the­se tips, some­ti­mes it is worth it to take the plun­ge. And if it turns out it was not, that would not be so bad, would it? At least you will know what you do not want to do. 

Image sources: louf­re, Buffik, Karolina Grabowska, Rama Krishna Karumanchi via Pixabay

Author (Translation): Nele Finck

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