Student Success: How to Get the Most Out of Uni, and Land Yourself A Top Job After Graduation.
As I write, there are less than seven days to go in 2019! And what a year it has been, with recent elections in the UK, political showdowns across the US and Americas as well as public protests across Europe, Asia and Africa. However, for the purpose of this article I would like to focus on students studying a degree at university, sharing my experiences of working with a broad range of students across different subject disciplines and individual meetings with more than 300 business owners in the last 5 years.
With over 2.3 million students (HESA figures from 2017/18) at UK higher education institutions and the symbolic figure of 50% (reached in 2019), of all young people in England now going to university, the competition for those highly sought-after graduate level jobs has got even more fierce. For students, this is not a time to be fearful, but indeed, an opportunity to embrace the vast array of opportunities that lie ahead for you in 2020 and beyond.
For this year’s Xmas day, I did something which I had never done before on Christmas day. Usually, like millions of people on Christmas day, I huddle around the food and presents being shared out to others. However, this time, I felt compelled to go out and meet people in the community, and so I did, I was at a homeless shelter in Central Croydon that had prepared food for people suffering from homelessness. While I was there, I met with an elderly couple, my guess is that they were both in their late 70s, as we spoke, from mere mentioning of my name, the husband, was able to say where the name originated from and what tribe it belong to. Highly impressive I thought as I did not expect him to know so much detail. He later explained that he had lived in Nigeria as a VSO volunteer several decades ago. However, what intrigued me more, was what he said regarding his career as a Barrister. He was called to the bar in early 1970s, he told me while as a student he had to learn so much as about different aspects of law and life and the work he now does (advising dentists about law and procedures) was not exactly something he had trained for or specialised in, but fell into by chance. And this is my first tip for the modern 21st century student, though the world of work has immensely changed from 40 years ago with the advent and adoption of internet of things technology, robotics and AI, one thing remains constant, especially from the point of view of employers, you need to have an inquisitive and open mind to learning all things. By embracing all or most things on offer, you instantly stand out from an ever-increasing crowd.
About 5 years ago, I read an article written by British journalist, Amol Rajan, in his article, he expressed the importance for students to focus on the end goal of getting the most of out university in preparation for graduation. Three years in beginning sounds like a long time, but I remember my time at university, over 20 years ago now, how quickly those 3 years dissipated. So how do you get the most out of university when in fact you have so much to do while at university, making new friends and preparing for life after uni?
In short, embrace all! There are essential and vital lessons to gain from often ‘disconnected’ work experiences that you can transfer successfully into your future roles.
What else could you do to get most out of uni?
1. Complete an internship while at university – most employers would want you to have gained office-based experience by the time you start applying for their graduate jobs. (High Fliers 2019 Report - Over a third of recruiters who took part in the research repeated their warnings from previous years – that graduates who have had no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful during the selection process for their graduate programmes.)
2. Engage Your Careers & Employability Services Team – this is perhaps one of the most important departments that you should engage while at university. I remember a student many years ago calling me after she had graduated to say, "I wished I had sought the advice from the careers team more while I was at university", I suggested to the student that it was never too late and to seek the help required nonetheless.
3. Get involved in societal clubs and events – engage your student union body, join a societal club in an area of interest to you, or indeed, set one up yourself, this shows to an employer that you are a self-starter with an entrepreneurial spirit, key qualities sought by most employers today.
4. Work on Campus – there are opportunities while at university to get invaluable industry experience while at university. Utilise your time while at uni to seek opportunities within a specific department of interest. Also, sought work as a student ambassador, this is often a selection process and you should embrace it as once you get out into the real wider world, the experience will be indeed similar or indeed much tougher, so any experience now, improves your preparedness for “tomorrow’s” job interviews and assessment centres.
5. Find a Mentor – in all of life, there are generally two ways we can learn, it is either through our own personal experiences, or by the experiences of others. There is not much wrong if you choose to learn from personal experience, so long as you learn from your experience. However, they do say, the quickest way to learn is through the experiences of others and therefore almost all successful people have or would have had a mentor at some point in their life. As a student, you can choose your mentor, whether that is a lecturer, businessperson, friend or family member. Indeed, they can be a person you have no personal connection with, but you admire greatly from a distance their work and achievements. We all need guidance no matter how gifted or talented you are, it is necessary for success in any field of work. You just have to look at the libraries of any successful person.
6. Develop Your Network – In Tony Buzan’s (credited with popularising mental literacy and mind mapping) and Raymond Keene OBE (Chess Grandmaster, FIDE) highly acclaimed book – How to Unleash Your Genius, they researched and studied all the modern as well as past geniuses from centuries gone by, from Socrates to Leonardo da Vinci to Bill Gates, the one key element they discovered among many others that they generally had in common, was this – a Mastermind group. Essentially, a group of people that they could sought feedback, accountability and encouragement. Your network can be sourced from a wide range of areas similar to looking for a mentor, academics, careers professionals, business people, friends or family.
7. Develop Your CQ and LQ - You will be familiar with IQ (Intelligent Quotient) and EQ (Emotional Quotient) both valid and relevant in today's academic and business world, but increasingly there is a greater demand for individuals and businesses to have CQ (Curiosity Quotient) and LQ (Learnability Quotient). With an ever changing business landscape with technology having an impact on all areas of our life and in business beit health or medical care, customer service, logistics, product development or workforce development. Companies want to know how curious you are and especially your attitude to learning. How do you answer the tricky question, "Tell me when you had to think outside the box to reach a solution?" Your response ideally should show some creativity and innovation, and sometimes, solutions originate from unusual and disconnected areas of life. Reason why it is useful to be curious and experimental.
"Curiosity Quotient (CQ): Research indicates curiosity to be a predictor of an individual's employability, as a relevant job skill. Being curious equips a person to connect with others, making them more collaborative and connected. But having a high curiosity quotient is a necessity, in the wake of automation, organizations who do not want their skill pool to get redundant must continuously feed curiosity to their people, to keep learning and upgrading. Senior leaders must encourage junior leaders to be curious i.e. to know what they don’t know." Courtesy of People Matters.
Learnability Quotient (LQ) is: “the desire and ability to quickly grow and adapt one's skill set to remain employable throughout their working life.” As technological innovation accelerates the pace of change, there is growing awareness that individuals who seek learning opportunities will be better positioned for career growth. Today, professional success is determined both by an individual's ability to adapt to change and their willingness to own the progression of their career. Courtesy of https://www.learnabilityquotient.com/en/about
“Learnability is the hot ticket to success for employers and individuals alike.” said Mara Swan, Executive Vice President, Global Strategy, and Talent, ManpowerGroup
Two books which have caught my attention in 2019, are ‘How to Own the World – A Plain English Guide to Thinking Globally and Investing Wisely’ written by Andrew Craig. Though this book is mainly focused on investments and financial markets (the industry I first worked in after graduating from university), I was more interested in the book’s message which essentially recommends diversification in a range of assets to have a successful portfolio. By the same token, I am convinced as a modern student (by the way, I consider myself a student, a student of lifelong learning) in today’s 21st century global jobs market, there is an imperative to have an open mind to learning and gaining as broad range of experiences to prepare you for the future, whether known or unknown.
The second book, which I have now invested in, is a book shortlisted by the Financial Times, sponsored by McKinsey & Company, in the category of Business Book of The Year 2019 and New York Times bestseller, ‘Range – How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World’, written by David Epstein, author of Sports Gene and Senior Writer for Sports Illustrated.
Range in short aims to show that by sampling widely, seeking new experiences, taking detours and juggling many interests is in fact the secret to career success.
Still early days for me as I am gripped by the content of this 300-page book, nonetheless, I can draw relevance from my own career and people I have met in business or life in general. Personally, I see myself as a generalist with specialist skills in aspects such as employer engagement and business development management. However, when I speak to employers, regardless of sector, for example, a sector as complex as healthcare, generalist skills and experiences are still highly sought after, it is no wonder a medical doctor or nurse studies the wide breath of their field before specialising in their chosen field of interest such as mental health, kidney or heart.
Marketing, a field highly sought after by many students and graduates is an industry where you can experiment and develop general skills before specialising. I once had the fortune to be at a workshop with Jay Abraham, he is regarded as the guru's guru, considered America's highest paid marketing consultant and without doubt one of the foremost experts in the field of marketing on the planet. While at the workshop, it was just incredible listening to Jay the number of industries that he has worked in, from the construction sector to computing, indeed, he said, most of the solutions he now uses in his marketing consultancy work stem from his diverse skills and experiences.
Employers are increasingly seeking generalists with some specialist skills, as for the most hyper-specialised roles, these are often and likely to continue to be outsourced in an ever-increasing competitive business world.
When you consider all the tips above, it is about stepping outside of your comfort zone. You have already taken that step, coming to university, and now that you are there you should continue in such vain as a result you will develop immense confidence and resilience that will enable you to go forward into the graduate jobs market after leaving university regardless of the competition with belief in yourself and abilities that you can adapt to any changing work landscape.
Wish all readers a wonderful festive break, peaceful and prosperous 2020!
Best regards,
Femi
For Employers – looking to hire students or recent graduates for placements or internships, my email is – [email protected]
For Students – graduate job boards,
· https://www.milkround.com/jobs/public-sector