4 full time job offers during gap year?💰🥹

Hey everyone! I'm Xuan, and I wanted to share some tips based on my own experience on how I managed to get four full-time job offers from established companies after graduating from poly.

For some context: I was searching for a business development full-time role during my gap year. I ended up accepting a BD role with a company related to an HR platform. Currently, I’m running my own businesses, @talentkakis (a job channel) and @welive.network (a live streaming & media company). This is purely based on my own experiences and what I felt helped during the process, so take what resonates!

1. Building Relevant Job Experience

The keyword here is *relevant*. It’s important to figure out which area or role you are most interested in and build your portfolio/experience in that area, rather than mass applying for different kinds of jobs (out of FOMO or just to fill up your portfolio). When you focus on a specific area and work on it, you can gain more knowledge and experience, making it easier to pitch the value you can bring to future employers. If you’re unsure of what you want to do yet, it’s good to start early by trying out a few different roles, and then focus on one (e.g., marketing or sales). For example, in my case, I had to do a bit of everything while running my own businesses, which allowed me to figure out the areas I wanted to focus on (at that time, marketing and business development). I then started to steer my efforts toward business development by self-sourcing business development/sales internships before I graduated, which helped me build my portfolio in that area.

2. Don’t Be Picky at the Start

I’ve heard friends around me complain that they can’t secure internships, and when I ask why, they often say it’s because they didn’t want to work for smaller companies or the roles weren’t exactly what they wanted (despite having little to no experience). While everyone has their own preferences for the companies they want to work for, when you have little to no experience, any internship that aligns with what you want to learn is a good opportunity. For instance, when I applied for my first-ever internship, I only received one offer from a very early-stage startup, out of the many internships I applied for. I accepted it anyway, and that internship actually kick-started my business development journey, eventually leading to my full-time job.

3. Customising Your Resume

I’m not a professional in HR, but one thing I did for my full-time job applications was customize my resume for each company’s job description. I would pick out keywords and key duties from the JD and tailor my experiences to match. For example, if the JD mentioned “pitching and reaching out to potential prospects by xxx,” I would highlight relevant experience from my past roles and emphasize that in my resume. So yes, most of my resumes were slightly different from each other. 😅 Another thing I did was list the most relevant experience to the company at the top, rather than just listing jobs in chronological order. For instance, if the company was in the HR industry and I had experience in that field, I would put that experience first.

4. Trust Yourself and Just Go for It

Because it was a gap year job (meaning I only had one year or less before returning to school), a lot of my friends told me not to aim too high or expect too much since many companies might not want to hire someone for just a year. But I went for it anyway, negotiated for the salary I wanted, and ended up with a decent job with a very decent pay as well. The result? I learned and grew a lot, both in my career skill set and as a person, throughout that year.

These are just my personal experiences and what I felt helped me secure a full-time role. To all the soon-to-be fresh grads, I hope this helps you a little! 🫶 Feel free to ask me any questions as well~

#freshgraduate #jobinterview #CareerTips