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Week 5 - Staying up to date

Posted: April 24 2020

Connor, BA Creative Writing (2019)
Connor, BA Creative Writing (2019)

As many of you may know, lots of things have seemingly slowed down during this time. Employers have put their recruitment on hold until they, along with everyone else, know more about what the future may look like. I’ve received emails from places that I’ve applied to, all with something along the lines of “We are still reviewing the current situation regarding COVID-19, therefore there will be a delay in getting back to you”.

Now, it’s more important than ever to keep up to date with what's going on and the easiest way to do so is on social media, but just make sure that you’re getting information from a reliable source. Everyone is posting up-to-date information and advice on what’s happening with regards to their company or industry area. The PDC has a web page of good social media accounts to follow. I’ve found it useful to follow accounts that are sharing more general information (TARGETjobs is my favourite) as well as others that are posting things more specific to the industry I'm interested in, which is the creative industries for me. Most of these companies use their Twitter, but a lot of them will also have an Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and/or YouTube so find which you prefer.

A lot of companies are also running online workshops, which they’re promoting on their social media. Amazon’s ‘Student Virtual Event Series’ has been running some really interesting stuff lately. These workshops put you in direct contact with industry professionals, with the opportunity to ask them your questions. It’s a great chance to see what life is like at a specific company or within a specific industry sector, especially at this time. A lot of them are also giving top tips on how to get into their graduate programmes, which is a plus for me. They’re usually free, so it seems like a no brainer to me.

One point that I’ve mentioned a few times in recent posts, and one I’ll reiterate, is take this new found time to perfect what you’ve already got. With everything slowing down, I’ve found a lot of time to draft my CV multiple times to make sure I’m mentioning the best stuff in the most efficient way. It’s also useful to make your CV easy to adapt to the specifics of each job you apply to. I work well with video-learning and YouTube is my usual go-to for any help, so the PDC YT is a useful one for me.

So for now, it’s all gone quiet on the job front, but I’ll keep you updated with any progressions. Be sure to check in so you can stay up to date with how the current situation has affected my job search.

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