To support Kent’s students who are due to graduate this summer, the Careers and Employability Service has organised a week of events and workshops dedicated to preparing you for your next steps. There will be a range of virtual sessions on offer, which will allow you to explore your options, develop your job-hunting skills and receive advice from recent graduates and employers.

Finalist online events include:

• Finding work in the UK for international students
• How to find a graduate job
• HSBC Starting your career, managing your finances
• 10 Ways to Nail Your Virtual Interview
• Starting your own business
• Postgraduate Study
• Managing your student loan after university
• Optimising your CV for the algorithms

There is something for all finalists, whether you are undecided about your future career, you need support when applying and getting through the recruitment process or you’d like advice to help you prepare for your first job. Visit our Life after University Week webpage to access our full events programme and to book! You can also view these events and more on the Finalists webpages.

Kent students now have free access to the Pagoda Cultural Fluency Course. The course usually costs around £40 so it’s a great opportunity to take the course now.

Cultural fluency is the set of skills that allow people to live, work and interact effectively in a multicultural environment

About the course

The course sets out to develop your cultural fluency and adaptability when working in a multicultural team or society. It will help you become familiar with the concept of intercultural communication and cultural fluency; and will allow you to develop and improve your skills related to this field.

The course will cover the following:

• An understanding of what cultural fluency is
• A clear idea on the main barriers that come into play during cross-culture scenarios
• A self-reflection on your experience of cross-cultural situations and on your own intercultural skills to see where you are currently standing
• An understanding of how to apply your knowledge of cross-culture to different workplace scenarios
• Tips on how to improve your intercultural communication

93% improved their cultural fluency competency by undertaking the course  .

The course takes 8-10 hours to complete and can be paused at any time.

How do I sign up?

You need to register online before 30 April and then complete the course by the end of August 2021. You will receive 25 Employability Points once you complete the course.

Kent student William shares his top three tips to help you build resilience.

‘Graduating and finishing studying in the middle of a global pandemic can seem daunting, however, there are methods and mindsets to deal with the increased uncertainty when looking for graduate employment or perusing postgraduate courses.

‘Applying for graduate jobs and waiting to hear the outcome can be stressful. Developing methods and strategies to deal with this is a great skill to have. There are three key things I personally hold key to resilience: perspective, mindset, and physical wellbeing.

‘In this blog I will talk about how these three elements help me to be more resilient, with my studies and applying to jobs.

1. Perspective

‘This is what I like to call ‘looking out’, understanding that companies maybe taking longer to process an application, due to a lower number of staff working and more applications. Looking externally at things beyond your control can help understand why things can be taking longer. Equally, looking in is just as important. If when applying to a job it comes back with unsuccessful, looking at the reasons why and think I can use this to improve. Taking the view that it was not a failure but something to learn from and there will be future opportunities, this is a longer time perspective, looking forward. Steve jobs once said, “you can only connect the dots looking back”.

2. Mindset

‘Mindset is one of the biggest points of resilience. It is how you process a blow or set back. I try and use every job rejection as an indication that maybe I was not right for that role and I would not have enjoyed it. I follow a similar outlook on university work, if I get piece of work back that I am not happy with I use the feedback to better prepare for future essays and talk to academic staff about the feedback. This allows me to use it as a learning experience and not feel negative. This leads me into my next point of mindset, that also is closely aligned with perspective, letting things that are out of my control go. If I have applied to a job and been unsuccessful, I take that and move on and, it is out of my control and focus on what is next. A job or postgraduate application rejection can be very hard to take but putting it behind you and thinking ‘I did all I could’, then looking for new opportunities is just as important. This for me is a way of picking myself up and moving forward, a way of feeling I am progressing, ensuring that I do not let a job or postgrad application derail me from other things.

3. Wellbeing

‘The final of my three points is physical wellbeing, for me this is really important with the other two areas that make my resilience. During lockdown many of us have become used to a daily walk, me included. Before the pandemic I was always interested in fitness and the connection between physical and mental health. I found when I was most active, I was doing well in most other areas of life. During the first lockdown, I started my day off with a long walk or run. The action of just being outdoors really helped set up the rest of my day. This then allowed me to have a set time of day to think about and manage the stress and anxiety of any jobs I was applying for. It also meant that I felt healthy physically and this does wonders for my mental health. I feel like I have more capacity to deal with things if I keep my physical wellbeing. This means it can be easier to process setbacks and deal with them and get back up from them.

‘In this blog I outlined how I have improved my resilience. However, the University’s Careers and Employability Service runs frequent sessions on building resilience, these are aimed at those seeking employment and how to manage stress in the recruiting process.’

Photo by Jenny Hill on Unsplash

Kent student Aleeya shares her advice for current final year students.

‘Being in your final year can be a very confusing time in your life. You are going through a bunch of emotions that include nervousness, uncertainty and questions about your ability when entering the working world.

‘With this blog post, I hope to be able to sympathise with what you are going through now, as a student myself, as well as give you enough information so that you can go out and receive the resources that can help you on your journey to success.

Focus on what you can do

‘With Covid-19 and the current situation that we are all in, it is important that you do not get discouraged. Moods can be overall low, but that does not mean that your self-worth should go down as well.

‘Applying for industrial placements and graduate schemes can be a great way to start thinking about your skills and experience.

‘From my personal experience, I went into many applications thinking that I was not qualified, the more time I spent on a specific application, the more and more I became discouraged. There can be a thought that it is something that has to be done for your future to be secure, but this feeling can be so weighing that it can cause you to lose sight of what you are good at.

‘My one piece of advice for this particular feeling is to look at the job specification and write down things that you think you can offer to the company before you even start your application. This can either help you feel confident with yourself before applying and thus make you do your best when you are applying, or you can see if there is anything that you can improve on in the field that you want to go into, thus preparing for when another listing appears.

Grow your skills

‘With finding things that you need to improve on, the TargetJobs site that the University works with gives a list of events that are happening throughout the term which can give you more information about the working world as well as expand your knowledge with the Study Plus sessions. With these you have a chance to ask questions to professionals working at the university.

Get advice

‘If you are a bit more unsure about your career path go to the Careers and Employability Service. Even though you may have heard this advice plenty of times, there is a reason. From my experience the Careers Service gives me that extra step that I needed to find industries that I am interested in and gives me things that I need to improve on. They also care enough to do some of the research with you in the background, so that when you go back to them for more insight they will be able to focus on your needs specifically. It can be daunting to talk to someone about something that you are unsure about yourself, but it will be incredibly helpful if you visit them once, just to check if you are on the right path, or just for some confirmation on if you are doing things right.

Don’t let your stress get out of control – get help first

‘Exam preparation as well as dissertation writing can be another thing that is causing many of us to stress. These feelings are valid, but there comes a point where these feelings can be changing our focus from things that are important. When these feelings get all consuming, it is important for you to reach out for help. Luckily, the university provides many services that can help you navigate these feelings. The most recommended one is the Student Wellbeing Service.

‘Before this post turns into a diatribe of my experiences and what I have learnt. The message that I want to convey is that we all can get through this, and when we do, we will be stronger than ever. Use the resources that are out there to put your mind at ease and remember you are not alone. The University is here to support you in your final year and beyond.’