How to beat the summer slump if you're a student and unemployed

We’ve all been there; the school year is over and done with, you’re unemployed and your friends aren’t, and you’re left staring at the blank wall in your room trying to fight the summer heat. What to do? Below are a few ways which will still help you look to the future and build up your CV, paying job or not.

Do some voluntary work

Help out an elderly home, become a receptionist with Caritas, give a hand to nuns who are have their own hands too full with taking care of less fortunate children - the possibilities are endless. Just google voluntary work in Malta, or the country you’re living in, and take your pick of the one that seems to most suit you.

You’ll be doing much needed work for your community, while showing your potential future employer that you have good people skills. If you choose wisely, voluntary work is also very valid work experience and helps build skill areas that are perhaps still underdeveloped. Not to mention, voluntary work helps give you a sense of purpose and a boost of self-confidence like no other.

Do an internship

Sure, it doesn’t pay in cash. But it does pay-off in experience. Internships give you the hands-on experience that no course at university or otherwise can provide. You’ll learn things which will be invaluable to your own personal skill-set and which your future employer will appreciate welcoming into their company.

Don’t wait around for an internship to be advertised on the usual platforms, send emails to the companies you want to want to work with in the future or which you know are of a certain calibre. Who knows, if you work hard enough they might like you so much that they’ll ask you to stay on and you’ll have your future job secured and waiting for you already.

Network

People, people, people. Knowing as many of them as you can is always a good thing. You might need to exercise your social media skills to the full and nose out where the crowd of people relevant to your field will be hanging out in the weekend. Are there any specific events that are happening specific to your area?

In this case, it’s best to keep an eye on the student organisations from the Faculty or Department relevant to you. They’re usually quite active and set-up a number of social gatherings which will help you get a foot in the door somehow.

Sign up for a course

You don’t need to pay vats of money to undergo a course which will help you hone your skills and fluff up your CV. There are loads of online free courses which are genuinely good and respected enough to be valid to your potential future employer. Graphic design, Photoshop, programming, digital marketing, and more…

All you need to do is conduct some well founded research on the courses available, and sign up. They usually don’t take long to complete and are easily adapted to fit your schedule.

It’s easy to let yourself go a little too much when you hit that summer slump, but follow these four alternative ways of building up your CV and you’ll soon be out of it. It’ll definitely give you that extra edge over fellow competitors when it comes to sitting down in that interview seat.

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