NEXUS ISSUE 22 2014

nexus magazine
and romping all over the Austrian hillside. So it’s really
quite thoughtful of MoBIE to have ensured that you
couldn’t live on your student loan payments and had to
get work while you were studying...
Having said that, if your pre-graduation job(s) are in a
completely different field from where you’re heading,
you’re going to have to work a little harder to convince
your prospective employer of your transferable skills.
Another way to get relevant work experience on your
CV is...
Volunteering. Giving your time for free may seem
like a hard sell when you have rent to pay and beer to
drink, but can be all important when you’re out in the
big bad job market. If you’re interested in, say, marketing,
and you get a stint helping the Cancer Foundation
promote Daffodil Day, or the local Saturday farmers’
market promote its big annual event, then you will have
some really valuable stuff for your CV, some real life
experience to draw on in the future, the beginnings of
get chatting. This is harder than it sounds and will take
some practice, but if you do make an awesome contact,
get their business card and follow up with them
in a week or two.
Internship. Another great way to get a foot in the
door is to include an internship as part of your study. If
you search for ‘work placement’ on the website, you’ll
find a link to the section of the catalogue of papers
that lists all the current work placement papers. Or ask
your Faculty student advisors for advice. Internships
can often lead to a job offer, or at least to some very
valuable networking.
The University of Waikato Careers office has been
through a recent revamp and is in the process of moving
to awesome new and easier-to-find quarters in
the Student Centre. If you’re keen as, bruh, but not
sure where to start, give them a buzz and they’ll sort
you out.
Having said all of that, the great news for those of
“IGOING OUT INTO THE COLD, UNFRIENDLY JOB MARKET WITH NOTHING BUT A
PAGE FULL OF QUALIFICATIONS AND A DREAM IN YOUR SHINY LITTLE EYES IS
LIKELY GOING TO WIN YOU NOTHING BUT A PILE OF REJECTION LETTERS WITH
WHICH TO KINDLE YOUR SHOPPING CART FIRE.”
a network (see below) and a warm glow in your heart.
There are loads of different volunteering opportunities
and a good place to start is by registering with
Volunteering Waikato at www.volwai.org.nz.
Networking. You’ve no doubt heard the statistic that
only X percentage of jobs are advertised, the rest are
found through word of mouth, filled internally, etc? If
you want you a piece of that action, you’re going to
have to make some contacts. There are a few ways
to go about this, depending on your areas of interest,
and the University organises a bunch of networking
events you can attend. But if you want more ways to
get your name out there, you can check out some of
the Chamber of Commerce networking events, attend
relevant public lectures on campus, events in the city
and so on. Once you’re there, make sure you’ve prepared
yourself with some interesting, relevant things
to say, then sidle your way into a circle of likelies and
you at the tail end of Generation Y, is that in the next
10-15 years all of the Baby Boomers currently clogging
up the top end of the job market are going to have to
retire (or, y’know, die), leaving a gap in the employment
market. So if you’ve cruised through Uni with the bare
minimum so far, and can’t be arsed with any of the
stuff I’ve mentioned, just bide your time. Ten years of
flipping burgers can’t be that bad…
28 nexusmag.co.nz