The Grad Soc

3 common CV mistakes we see all the time and HOW to fix them 👀

🔗Broken links or links to portfolios that aren’t finished
Make sure if you’re including project links that they’ll take the hiring manager to the right place and that your portfolios will give the best impression of you

🌈A design with too many colours or fonts
Before sending your CV, ask yourself “is this easy to read” or “do these extra colours and fonts add anything” - a simple word doc and Arial font will do for most CVs

📝A list of responsibilities with no use of SAR
If you’ve got a list of responsibilities like “created content”, “wrote blogs”, “managed the till”, a hiring manager can’t take much for this… use SAR to talk about the skills you developed and your positive results

Let us know if you found this useful and drop a 👋 in the comments if you want a copy of our free CV guide!

❌ AVOID LINKEDIN NETWORKING FAILS WITH THESE SIMPLE STEPS ❌

If you want someone to accept your LinkedIn request - personalise it!

👉Use their name
Do you know how many connection requests a founder/CEO/hiring manager gets saying “hello, give me a job pls…”,

👉Mention a post of theirs you like
Keep the focus on them (people loveeee talking about themselves) and what made you interested in connecting with them specifically

👉Say WHY you want to connect (politely!)
Make it short but sweet and tell them why you want to connect - is it to stay in touch about potential job opportunities? Are you asking them for a summer internship? Do you want to know the hiring manager for a role they’ve advertised? Make it really clear

👉Follow up
If they don’t reply the first time around, follow up - it’s really easy for a message to get lost in a busy inbox

3 THINGS THAT EXCEPTIONAL STUDENTS/GRADS DO WHEN APPLYING FOR A MARKETING INTERNSHIP 📱🎓

💻 Create a good quality portfolio
Whether it’s a website or a Canva PDF, capture your previous marketing experience to showcase your work

If you don't have a lot of experience, make your own! Create projects for your favourite companies, write blog posts as a hobby or draft up marketing strategies for your own socials

🧠 Come to an interview prepared to share ideas
Alongside your standard research, come prepared to share marketing ideas you’ve had based on your company research and WHY (e.g don’t just say they should be on TikTok because they don’t currently have an account)

Consider their target audience - what platforms are they on? What kind of influencers do they interact with? What type of content do they prefer? Share your ideas with a reason why you think they’d work!

🚀Show a willingness to learn
Nobody knows everything about marketing but a willingness to learn and stay on top of new changes makes you invaluable

Talk about new marketing courses you’ve completed or webinars you’ve attended to stay ahead of the game

WHEN YOU’RE APPLYING FOR INTERNSHIPS OR JOBS IT’S QUALITY > QUANTITY

Make sure you’re…
💼 Applying to roles and companies you ACTUALLY want
You’re going to have to do some serious research to stand out, actually wanting the role makes this research feel less like a chore

👀 Researching like your life depends on it
It’s time to get stalking, everything from company socials (all of them!) to recent hires on LinkedIn

✏️ Using a tailored CV
This means using keywords from the job description, weaving the company mission and values into your personal summary, and highlighting your relevant skills throughout

👋Interacting with them online
Everything you need is at your fingertips, from sliding into the hiring managers' DMs to commenting all over their socials

If you really want a role, you have to do the most!

Your friendly midweek reminder that it’s okay to not know what job or career path you want to pursue…

Or to get a degree and realise you want to pursue something different entirely…

It’s never too late to change direction 👀