How international student Arpan landed his first job

- Arpan Malhotra

Let’s be honest, getting your foot into the door of communications has only become harder in a post-COVID world. As students, we have questions like how do we get into the industry, and what can we do to be seen as more employable? As an international student, my journey has been a rollercoaster ride, coming to Australia alone, acclimatising with university life, running between multiple jobs and networking, all while trying to complete internships to help me get employed.

So, how did I do it? I’ve put together this post containing my two top tips to help make the transition from studying to your first professional role easier, especially if you’re an international student who is struggling with finding your feet and gaining employment in the field of comms. 

Up your LinkedIn game

There is no doubt that LinkedIn has changed the scope of recruitment, a lot. It’s super simple to set up a LinkedIn account, then just add your educational credentials, skills, and experience. Remember to keep it as professional as possible, choose a professional picture, and create a unique description of you and your experience. Include skills that you have that comms employers are looking for, like being reliable, having excellent time management and your ability to accept feedback in a team setting.

As students, we may not have a lot of work experience yet, but employers love these attributes. Lastly, network with managers, university lecturers, recruiters and any peers you may have in the comms field.

Secure an internship

Starting my career in the communication field was a challenge, and everything moving online only limited my chances of networking with industry experts and securing an internship. Many internships require prior experience and involve long hours that can be quite challenging for students to manage. I still remember when I began looking for internships with an empty work experience section in my resume. I reached out to more than 100 businesses, and I received only 5 responses. COVID-19 made it harder to get into the industry as a student, and many of the big corporations didn’t accept international students for their internship programs.

Then I discovered Commsgrad, and it completely changed my experience of securing an internship. It's so easy to register (it takes only 3 minutes here), and we are assigned internships at random, making it a fair and equitable process. That’s right, that means no cover letters! The remote internships are completed in 4-week blocks, 1 day of your choice per week, making it incredibly flexible around study and life commitments. As part of the internships, the internship host provides a few sentences for your CV if you have conducted yourself professionally and they want to recommend you. This is very helpful in standing out in application processes for future roles you may apply for.

I had the opportunity to gain a wide range of work experience through Commsgrad and apply my university learning to real professional settings. The work experience section of my resume now looks really impressive as I’ve worked for a solar energy client, a national PR agency, and a parking business.

Securing an internship is like sketching an outline on the canvas, and is the most crucial step at the beginning of one's career.