Building up your Employability

I'm hoping someone could advise me on what I could do to improve my employability. I don't have anything but my grades to put in a CV.
I would have liked to have a summer job but I'm afraid that it may be too late. I'd like to volunteer as well but I don't know what skills I could mention when applying to volunteer at libraries.

Reply 1

Blinkr

TSR Community Staff

Original post by alevelstudiesmo

It can be hard knowing how to improve your CV but you can make it stand out even if you have limited work/volunteering experience.

Employers ultimately want to be able to see that you are passionate about something and that you can show demonstrable consistency in a project/job/activity. So in your situation it could be that you start a passion project e.g. a blog, a fitness challenge, an art/design challenge (e.g. creating an Instagram and aiming to post every day), making the active effort to start learning something e.g. you could write that you are learning Spanish and utilise Duolingo to improve your knowledge, things like this that you can then add into the Skills/Hobbies section of the CV demonstrating that you go above and beyond only getting your grades and that you engage in a community/a particular interest outside of school.

Also, reaching out to companies/particular people over email and/or LinkedIn, letting them know you would love to learn more about their company and seeing if they have any opportunities for work experience (even just a few days/week) or if they have more sustained internships could be a good way to boost your CV. You never know who will reply!

If you aren't sure how to word introductions to companies/people, using AI tools and/or asking your peers/trusted adults to help you write an introduction email/message is a great way to make that first impression really stand out. But make sure to add your personal flair and never copy and paste from ChatGTP or equivalent, as there can be AI checkers that mark your message as spam, and people can often tell if something feels a bit too robotic. It's also just good practice to get into the habit of understanding/practicing the craft of writing by yourself first and then using these tools to help tweak things/polish your writing rather than using them to do the heavy lifting.

Additionally, lots of service/retails jobs e.g. waitressing in a pub/working at H&M etc. require little/sometimes don't require any work experience and are more interested to see if you have a confident, engaging and professional attitude and may well take you on to work part/full time based on this.

Good luck and wish you all the best with your future jobs/career!!!