Career Centre at St Petersburg University

While you are studying at university, finding the perfect job might seem simply unthinkable. Yet, first, you should give it a shot, and, second, follow these two steps bellow: 

1. Self-analysis. Try to answer the following three questions: In which area do I feel more confident? If I didn’t have to worry about money, what would I do? What do I like to do in my free time? 
2. Adequate assessment. Assess the current situation. What soft and hard skills do you have? How advanced are they? Are there any weaknesses and how critical are they for your career? Write them down on paper.

Important:

Don’t think that if you haven’t been employed officially, it means that you don’t have any skills. For example, participating in educational projects can develop different skills: research skills (working with scholarly literature, data analysis), technical skills (knowledge from classes in engineering or programming), and managerial skills (organising different projects).

First, decide on your goal. If your goal is to earn money, consider any vacancies. If your goal is career growth in a certain field, look for internships in your area of interest. 

Prepare in advance. Make a list of dream companies where you want to be hired and explore when they launch recruitment for internships. If different job postings designate the same required skills, take a course to develop these skills or try to gain an insight into the topic yourself. Create a professional online profile on several job search sites (for example, use jobby.ai to uncover the internship opportunities and vacancies for students).

Important:

Don’t ignore "simple" jobs. Working as a waiter, a courier or an administrator can provide valuable experience: money, communication with people, responsibility, and team work.

The CV structure is definitely individual, but make sure you include the following sections: 

• Contacts: your professional photo, phone, email (not funny one!), tg, city 
• Education: university, area of study, the year when you started your study at university, city 
• Experience: include information on volunteer, research assistantship and other extracurricular projects (indicate your achievements in them) 
• Hard skills 
• Soft skills 
• Non-degree programmes: online courses, crash courses

Important:

Tailor your CV to a specific position.

When looking for a job, there are some signs in job descriptions that may warn you: "Think twice before applying for a job!". Learn to read the danger signs: 

• The salary is too high: this may mean that the salary is unofficial or the company’s activities are illegal 
• Spelling errors/aggressive text: it is a sign of unprofessionalism of the employer or disdain for employees 
• Blurred responsibilities: most likely you will do everything in a row and burnout is guaranteed 
• Negative reviews from employees: try to google comments from employees and it will become clear whether the company is real or not, whether it is engaged in a legitimate business, whether employees are paid

Before a job interview, re-read the job description and highlight the keywords, i.e. soft and hard skills that HR is looking for in a candidate. Find more information about the company: what it does, what projects it implements. 

When answering the recruiter’s questions, use the STAR method: 

• S — Situation — indicate the situation 
• T — Task — tell us about the tasks 
• A — Action — describe the actions 
• R — Result — share the result 

We also recommend that before the interview, use a mirror or ask a friend to have a mock interview!