In last week’s blog we talked all about getting work experience during a pandemic. We promised we give you some of our thoughts on what you can do to make yourself job ready. This is all about your transferable skills. A good place to start is a little skills audit of your own.
What skills do you need to be a solicitor? Here are a few quick ideas:
Communication skills – written and oral
Accuracy and attention to detail
Time management and multi- tasking skills
Teamwork (leading teams is great but do remember that when you start work you’re probably going to be a team member not the leader)
Empathy and the ability to get along with people
Self confidence
Ability to persuade
You’ll be able to add others to this list. Once you’ve got them written down do some honest reflection to work out what you’ve done to learn these skills.
Have you worked in retail or hospitality? That’ll give you a good few ticks! Have you engaged in extra-curricular activity alongside your studies? Did you get involved in running a society or representing other students at student/staff liaison meetings. Are you a carer for someone in your family? You will have learnt so much about empathy and you’re likely to have great multi-tasking skills. Are you a thespian, a musician, a sportsperson? All of those will have given you lots of opportunities to work in a team. With any luck you’ll start to see that you have got lots of useful, transferable skills. When you write job applications you will be able to draw on this experience to create good answers.
If you’re not so sure about what skills you’ve got, perhaps because you’ve concentrated on your studies, then seize the chance now to start to develop some more skills. There are things you can do. Get active in the local WhatsApp support groups, maybe set up more social media for your road or town, you might do some blogging on your own account and build up a following. You might volunteer to help others (make sure that whatever you do is permitted during lockdown though!!) You could try learning a new skill too – pilates, yoga, couch to 5K, a new language, baking…. There are still lots of choices out there. Employers like the proactive candidate and it may be that if you are someone who has been struggling with your mental health over these last months you might find that engaging with something new takes away at least a bit of the stress and anxiety. We do hope so!