Spring clean your CV

Goodbye winter, hello spring! The season of new beginnings has arrived and its time to rectify the shameful failure we made of trying to stick to our New Year’s resolutions.

As we are constantly being reminded, graduating with a 2:1 is no longer a golden ticket into the job of our dreams. In order to stand out from the crowd, you need to be able to sell yourself as someone who has taken full advantage of the university experience. In other words, you need to devote time to work experience – sooner rather than later. And no, sadly, that paper round which we all had when we were thirteen doesn’t count.

That’s the bad news, now for the good news. Never fear, the Careers Service is here! Yes, that thing you were told about during freshers and neglected to give a second thought to.

Search ‘CareersLink’ on the Manchester homepage, click on the first link which appears, sign into your account and meet the vacancy search, which can only be described as an angel sent from heaven.

The search advertises endless volunteering opportunities, as well as internships and paid part-time jobs. There is something to suit every interest, with sectors ranging from Advertising, Marketing and PR, to Children and Young People, to Science and Pharmaceuticals.

There are placements for students at all stages in their degree, in every region of the UK. If you fancy going further afield, you can search for work in the rest of Europe, or even Africa or America.

With all the doom and gloom, who knew that the secret to boosting our employability laid only a few clicks away? There is now absolutely no excuse not to dust the cobwebs off that CV this spring. All hail the Careers Service.