In today’s competitive market you may have found it hard to separate yourself from the crowd when applying for your first graduate job role. Generally you will have a very similar skillset and qualifications to your fellow students applying against you, so you need to go beyond and prove that you are the better candidate! A fantastic way to show that you are knowledgeable in your chosen sector and that you are a candidate that will go above and beyond is to start a graduate blog! It’s an easy way to showcase your work in one place and demonstrate that you have a genuine interest in the subject! Want to get started?
Read our 6 Tips to start a graduate blog:
Choose your subject
Your blog has to be about something you are knowledgeable about and are interested in – if you don’t tick these boxes then nobody is going to want to read it! If you are looking to start a career in fashion for example choose to write a blog relating to the latest trends / fashion campaigns.
Do your research
If you need some inspiration then spider out online and start to read up on related articles and blogs that interest you. You will pick up some useful and interesting facts and often spark ideas for fresh blog posts of your own!
Keep it simple
It can be tempting to over format your blog with different font sizes, colours and layouts but truth be told – the simpler the better! I personally find that keeping text the same colour and size aligned to the left and centring the images looks clean and easy to read. Make sure you bold any sub headings to make it simpler for the reader to navigate around!
Use images
Blogs with images are so much more appealing than those of plain text so get creative and include some interesting images! If you have taken the pictures yourself then insert away, otherwise make sure the photos are labelled as available for free reuse or you have paid for the use of them. Here is a link to a useful blog that suggests 10 sites with photos for free reuse!
SEO
There are certain ways you can improve the SEO of your blog – while this may not be overly relevant for your first ever post, it is important that you get used to improving it with affordable SEO strategies. The keyword (blog title) should appear in the first paragraph and be repeated throughout the blog. You will need to include a meta description which sums up what the blog is about whilst still including the full keyword. Try and hyperlink parts of the blog with outbound links to relevant sites as this will also up the SEO!
Share share share!
What’s the point of writing a blog if nobody reads it! Share it across social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn etc.) and encourage connections to read, like and share your posts! It will impress your employers if you have published a blog that has a lot of attention!
So there are our 6 Tips to start a graduate blog! The main thing is: HAVE FUN! Write about what you enjoy and the words will come naturally!
Sophie Heaton (Digital Campaign Manager)