Use the summer to kickstart your career

The summer vacation period has arrived. And it is this free period without school obligations that gives you the space to work on your resume or develop your skills. The pandemic has caused quite a stir in the job market. A number of sectors are eager for extra hands. This offers opportunities for students or recent graduates:it is the ideal period to gain work experience or to develop essential skills for the future. How do you handle that? LinkedIn shares useful tips and insights.

Working on your skills
It is clear that there is currently an acute shortage of personnel in, for example, the catering industry, healthcare and ICT. These sectors offer a great opportunity to work on your skills. For example, if you start working in the hospitality industry or in the service sector, you will come into contact with communication, social and customer-oriented skills. Even though you may be studying for a different direction and don't aspire to a career in these sectors, these are all skills that you will benefit from in the future.

Build your future
You can find many different vacancies on LinkedIn, which can provide you with useful information about the labor market and the demand for work. Read, for example, in the vacancy of your dream job what skills are required and what you can possibly brush up on. You smartly pick up these skills with interim work. The work experience you gain during your studies increases your chances of finding that one dream job later on. LinkedIn already helps you with some tips on how to tackle this:

• Check your skills: Research which skills you still want to gain in order to be able to apply for that dream job later. Once you have a clear idea of ​​which skills are needed, see which ones you can improve on and gain in a side job.
• Create flying hours: There is such a thing as 'learning to work'. Employers like to see that you have a sense of responsibility and experience with working life. There is a good chance that your future employer will consider it a plus if you can show that you have already made flying hours on the labor market.
• Digital brush up: Don't have time for a (part-time) job but do you want to learn extra skills? LinkedIn offers professionals more than 1000 hours of free online courses that are a welcome addition to your resume and help you one step further in your career.
• Work on your profile: Make sure your resume is up to date both online and offline. Have you added skills or additional certificates to your resume in addition to your work experience? This makes you easier to find for recruiters and they can see at a glance what you have to offer.