With summer 2020 turning out quite differently to how we had expected, many of us find our plans for the next couple of months changed significantly. If you’ve had work or travel experiences cancelled that would have enriched your CV, you can still rescue your summer by taking proactive steps to improve your future career prospects. We’ve compiled six top tips for a range of activities you can do from home, which will have a positive impact on your CV and skills development.

Virtual internships
A number of big employers and organisations have responded to the cancellation of summer internships by developing virtual alternatives for current students. Whilst these aren’t paid, they are also open to anyone, and therefore it’s much easier to get a big name added to your CV without having to go through the usual rigorous recruitment process.

The Bright Network is offering a choice of three-day internships across six options: investment banking; technology; business, operations and marketing; finance and professional services; consulting; and commercial law. Each programme is delivered by leading employers and industry experts, giving you a chance to complete a project which simulates real-life work. The first one starts on Monday, 29^th June 2020 – closing dates vary for each programme, with applications for the first one closing on 24^th June.

Rate My Placement have teamed up with Inside Sherpa to bring you a programme suitable for students from any degree background to develop work-readiness and soft skills. These are vital under any circumstances, but resilience and skills for virtual working (and networking!) will be increasingly in demand. The range of free virtual experiences offered will help equip you with the skills you need to navigate these challenging times and empower you as you seek and apply for future opportunities. Leading employers from a range of sectors – including consulting, law, banking, technology, building and infrastructure – have also added virtual experiences.

Volunteering from home
Volunteering allows you to put your skills to good use within the community or to gain new skills. With the Deloitte Impact Survey finding that 82% of employers are more likely to choose a candidate with volunteering experience (and 85% even overlooking other CV flaws for active volunteers), it’s also a great way to supercharge your CV.

You can search for volunteering opportunities from home via Do It, and there are some great current vacancies for students from any degree background, ranging from radio presenter, feature writer, social media and marketing support, to telephone counsellors. Further online searches also bring up projects like Instant Wild which allows you to support conservation efforts by tagging animal sightings on live video footage from around the world, and LibriVox which is looking for people to record book chapters and poems. Or look at the United Nation’s online volunteering platform for lots of opportunities across areas like art and design, technology, writing and editing, and project development.

Online learning
2020 is the year when online courses became fashionable! Whether you’re just looking for a new interest to keep your mind active or would like to impress prospective employers with your commitment to developing career-related skills and knowledge, there will be an online course or learning activity out there for you. And best of all, the vast majority of them are free! Our recent blog post introduces you to the world of online learning and will help you find online courses, webinars and podcasts to develop your digital abilities, language skills or subject knowledge.

LinkedIn
Another positive step you can take now that will benefit you in the future is to build up your network of contacts. LinkedIn is a virtual networking platform, often called the ‘Facebook for professionals’, where you can find and connect with people working in careers and sectors that interest you. If you haven’t already, create your LinkedIn profile and start interacting with potential future employers and industry professionals to improve your understanding of different careers and get advice from people in the know. Our blog post provides some great tips on setting up your profile and making the most of the power of virtual networking.

Get ready for recruitment to go virtual
For obvious reasons, any steps of the recruitment and selection process that would usually be done face-to-face, such as interviews and assessment centres, have largely gone virtual recently, with both employers and candidates having to adapt quickly. With virtual processes having some key benefits from accessibility and cost effectiveness to flexibility, they might well be here to stay, so developing your skills for these will be a long-term investment in your career. Our blog posts on telephone interviews, video interviews and virtual assessment centres will help you get started.

Portfolios
Start to put together a professional portfolio you can update regularly with examples of your academic work and personal projects. Although you might think that portfolios are only used within the creative industries, they can be useful to showcase your skills and work for many different careers, from IT and engineering to social media/content writing and teaching. There’s some great initial advice on creating an impactful portfolio and choosing an appropriate online platform on our Careers Zone 24/7 and you can conduct some further research online for tips for your sector, e.g. portfolios for video game developers.

Hopefully you feel inspired to take action and have got some new ideas to work on over the summer. Employers across all sectors are looking for candidates who are resilient and can adapt to change, so how you responded to the challenge of having your plans for 2020 disrupted might even give you great evidence for future interviews!

For those of you looking to apply for summer internships for 2021 or yearlong placements for 2021/22 during the next academic year, also check out our tips to start preparing for these.

FURTHER ADVICE AND INFORMATION
The Careers, Employability and Enterprise Team is available to help from 9am-4pm, Monday to Friday.

The Careers Team is offering remote appointments by telephone, video or email; call 0151 231 8740, email careers@ljmu.ac.uk or visit the Careers Team website. Also, check out our programme of webinars (online classes) on writing CVs and applications with impact, interviews and virtual assessment centres.

For advice on starting your own business or freelancing, contact LJMU’s Centre for Entrepreneurship at: startup@ljmu.ac.uk.