Are you in your final year of university? Now is the perfect time to start thinking about your future and how you can present in a professional setting. Whatever stage you’re at in your university career, it’s never too late (or too early!) to begin curating your professional brand.  

 Here are 4 easy tips to get you started: 

 1. Create your LinkedIn profile 

LinkedIn is the easiest entry point for translating your experience to fit a professional lens – even if that experience is minimal at the start of your career.  

 To start, ensure you have an up-to-date profile and cover photo. Your headshot doesn’t need to be fancy, but it should clearly show your face, have a simple background and you should be wearing an appropriate outfit. This photo will likely be someone’s first impression of you, so ensure you’re coming across in the best way possible: no close cropping, no alcohol or food (unless you’re looking for a career in those industries) and good lighting. 

 Next, make sure the ‘About’ section includes relevant information related to your experience and interests. Add skills you have learnt from previous work that are likely transferable and can be favourable in demonstrating your breadth of knowledge. If you don’t have any internship or career-specific work experience yet, don’t discount your other experiences. Your degree work, society engagement, casual work, volunteering or extra-curricular interests all count towards shaping your image. 

 Use all the other sections available to you on LinkedIn, too. List your skills, ask professors or prior employers to give you a recommendation, detail any honours and awards you’ve received.   

 Finally, start digital networking! Connect with everyone you know, follow the people and organisations you respect and engage with their content when it hits your feed. The more often you do, the more you’ll be noticed. 

 2. Develop your resume  

If you’re early on in your career and light on experience to add to your resume, don’t panic, almost everyone in your cohort will be in the same boat.  

 Focus on what you do have. Any paid work (including retail, hospitality or coaching jobs), academic achievements, extracurriculars or community involvement demonstrate transferable skills and can make up your resume until you have a bit more industry-relevant experience under your belt.  

 Formatting is important. Keep things simple, don’t go beyond pages and use clear headings to define categories like work experience, interests, skills, languages, your contact details, and more. Most traditional corporate industries will expect a simple and clean resume, while you can add more flair for a resume targeting the creative industries. Considering using Rate My Resume to check over your resume and get instant feedback on your formatting before submitting an application. 

 Your professional brand is the sum of how you show up and engage with the working world, so put your best foot forward and be confident to showcase what you have to offer. 

 3. Cultivate your skills 

You may be finishing university, but the learning doesn’t stop there. Honing your skills is a lifelong effort so think about how you may strengthen them while starting your career.  

 Some ideas to get you started include reading books by people you look up to and about companies you admire, pitching yourself to friends so you’re ready for job interviews, practising your networking skills, doing a short course on a topic of interest or practising writing some content in the style of your industry. 

 4. Get out there and network  

Demonstrate your appetite to commence work in your chosen industry by getting to know the people within it. Reach out to your connections on LinkedIn and use the alumni tool to connect with professionals who’ve been where you are now. Ask them for a casual meeting over coffee, say you’re happy to meet them close to their office to make it easy, detail what drew you to them and their industry in the first place and demonstrate what value you can provide.  

Be prepared with intelligent questions about them and their industry, and knowledge about what’s happening in their world (tip: read about their industry in the news). Also bring a notebook and pen to take notes – it’s much more professional than having a screen between you.  

 Skills can be taught, but hunger gets you noticed. Take the leap and ask to pick someone’s brain – what’s the worst that could happen?  

Featured image courtesy of Pexels