{"id":8182,"date":"2022-05-23T12:45:40","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T12:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=8182"},"modified":"2025-02-03T15:26:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T15:26:33","slug":"get-your-foot-in-the-door-bossing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2022\/05\/23\/get-your-foot-in-the-door-bossing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Get your foot in the door – Bossing It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starting out in the \u2018real world\u2019 after graduating can seem daunting, and finding (and securing) that perfect job, like an impossible task. We\u2019ve spoken to Cardiff alumni who hit the ground running in carving out their career paths as recent graduates. Here are their top tips for getting your foot in the door…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Imogen Carter (BSc 2018)\"Imogen<\/a><\/h3>\n

Imogen is a fully qualified Chartered Accountant, having trained at KPMG for three years on the graduate scheme. She now works as a Senior Finance Analyst at ASOS within the Returns Team. The leap from audit and financial accounting to commercial finance was inspired by her placement year at Cardiff University, where she spent time as a Finance Intern at the Walt Disney Company and loved it!<\/p>\n

Apply apply apply!
\n<\/strong>Job applications can be incredibly tedious and time consuming (believe me I know). However, if you take time to put effort into each one, making sure you curate it specifically for each role\/company, you will find your time has not been wasted! In my experience, a rushed and impersonal application always ended up in rejection whereas the ones I took care over always got me through to the next stage. Even if you\u2019re unsuccessful further down the line, you\u2019re gaining valuable experience by progressing through various stages of different application processes which will ultimately help you succeed.<\/p>\n

Recruiters are your new best friends.<\/strong>
\nThey might clog up your LinkedIn inbox, but without them I wouldn\u2019t be at ASOS. They work hard to make sure they are finding jobs suited to showcase your skills as well as searching to find you a job you\u2019ll love. If they don\u2019t reach out to you initially, make sure you make every effort to connect with them. But be ruthless! If they send you a job specification you don\u2019t like then tell them! It helps you filter out unsuitable roles and will help you find your perfect job quicker.<\/p>\n

Nicole Jay (BA 2018, MA 2022)\"Nicole<\/a><\/h3>\n

Nicole is a Digital Account Executive at Helpful Digital PR agency, managing communications and crisis training for private and public organisations worldwide. Previously, she studied an MA in International Public Relations and BA in French and German.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re falling behind
\n<\/strong>Graduation can seem like it\u2019s a race to see who can get the best job first. If you already know what you want to do, that\u2019s great! But it\u2019s ok if you don\u2019t, too. After I finished my BA, I tried a variety of different roles before I discovered that PR was something I enjoyed and decided to begin my career in professional communications. Taking the time to try different things, find out what you\u2019re passionate about, and what kind of environment is a good fit for you is so important.<\/p>\n

Build connections
\n<\/strong>As nerve-wracking as it is to reach out, it really is about who you know, and most people are more than willing to help! I started my MA in PR and Communications with no previous experience and found LinkedIn so useful in building connections in the industry and asking people already in professional roles how they got started. One PR practitioner I spoke to helped me to rewrite my CV to suit the type of role I wanted work in, and ran through interview questions with me, which helped me along so much to the role I\u2019m in today.<\/p>\n

Marielle Wilkinson (BA 2017, MA 2018)\"Marielle<\/a><\/h3>\n

Marielle is an Assistant Producer currently working on a series for National Geographic. She consolidates stories filmed around the world and oversees productions through from start to finish. Prior to this, she has worked as a Researcher and Translator for the BBC, Netflix and the Olympics\u2019 official YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

Seek out experiences in your desired industry
\n<\/strong>Something that really helped me was attending as many media-related masterclasses that I could. Experienced freelancers also attend these, and you can also meet a few veterans in your industry. Masterclasses are great means of communicative access to industry professionals who are there and happy to answer your questions. Take advantage of them! Some great media organisations in Cardiff who organise these are BAFTA Cymru<\/a>, Creative Cardiff<\/a>, and ScreenSkills<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Be transparent
\n<\/strong>Don\u2019t know how to do something? Ask! Don\u2019t pretend! Being earnest and showing willingness to learn will make you stand out to your employer, who will help you develop in your career. If you don\u2019t ask, you won\u2019t get!<\/p>\n

The Cardiff University community are a helpful bunch, here to help you get ahead in your chosen career. You can browse through their advice and top tips on a wide range of business topics in our \u2018<\/strong>Bossing It\u2019<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0series.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ready to connect with fellow Cardiff alumni?\u00a0Join our LinkedIn group<\/a>\u00a0and get networking.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starting out in the \u2018real world\u2019 after graduating can seem daunting, and finding (and securing) that perfect job, like an impossible task. We\u2019ve spoken to Cardiff alumni who hit the ground running in carving out their career paths as recent graduates. Here are their top tips for getting your foot in the door...","protected":false},"author":6913,"featured_media":8185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[206,39,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bossing-it","category-cardiff-connect","category-news"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8182"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10151,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8182\/revisions\/10151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}