When you are applying for a job, apart from your school experience, relevant work experience and general life experience, it is likely that your potential employers are going to cast an unwavering eye on your university experience. While this scrutinising glare might fill even the loftiest of Oxbridge graduates with a sense of tremulousness, it is important that you are aware of the advantages of your having been to your specific university and that you can communicate that to a potential employer, whether through your CV or in direct speech at an interview.
The first thing you should do in preparation for this scrutiny is to wise up on the facts about your specific institution. Whether this means trawling your university's website or going through article after article of university rankings, it is key to try and procure some key data and facts which champion your university as a quality place to have been. Whether that means acquiring stats about your uni's student satisfaction rate or its premium academic standards, you absolutely have to be aware of how and where exactly your university excels! When an employer hears about your university education, it is likely that they will have a preconceived notion of how good your university is, so it is crucial that you possess and provide some metaphorical ammunition to support your case as to how your experience at your university makes you the ideal employee!
It is also important that you understand the details of your specific university course and are able to demonstrate how what you specifically are taught is different (and better) than at other universities, and how it prepares you specifically for the job you are applying for. It is easy to transfer a skillset into any environment and it is vital that you can persuade potential employers of how your particular university experiences will benefit the job you are hoping to get! For example, if you study drama and have done a particular unit on TV broadcasting and how to formulate and pitch programme ideas, you have to be able to demonstrate how that kind of experience will prepare you perfectly for any kind of job in the media. You can use the experience to show your abilities to examine a specific market place, how to present an idea and give a persuasive argument, as well as equipping you with some key analytical skills.
Overall, when a potential employer hears about your university experience, they are less likely to care about where you exactly you went, and will be more concerned with how your very particular experience would help you with their specific job vacancy. If you equip yourself with the right amount of knowledge of your university's academic, pastoral, social and extra-curricular qualities, as well as swotting up on your specific course details and subsequent advantages, then you cannot fail to present your university experience as a positive factor in your employability. With the right amount of enthusiasm and evidence, you should be able to make your university experience stand out as a key reason for your employability, both in the short term and long run of your professional career.
