If you’re nearing the end of uni – your final class, your final exam – and don’t have work lined up for straight after you finish, you might be wondering, “What do I do now?”

It’s reasonable to feel concerned: the stability an education institution provided your life is about to be lost, while the number of graduates finding full-time employment within four months of finishing uni is at its lowest level in 30 years.

However, you don’t have to get too anxious over the newfound surplus of time you’ll soon have. There are ways to make sure the time between finishing uni and starting your first job is as productive as ever.

Establishing structure

RMIT’s Career Development Education Manager, Sally Brooks, regularly sees students who’ve recently graduated or will soon.

She says keeping busy and engaging with other people to grow your network is really important during periods of unemployment. “Graduates can very quickly become demotivated when they hit a period of unemployment,” she says. “I think it’s really important that graduates enrich day-to-day life with other activities.”

The end of uni is also an opportunity for people to pursue interests and build skills in other areas. “Sometimes interests can lead people off in a different direction,” Sally says. “A lot of people end up in jobs quite different to their degree, so pursuing hobbies or learning a new skill – say a language or involving yourself in a committee of an arts organisation or sporting club – can lead to something they hadn’t considered previously.”

Volunteering as a resume-booster

Sally also recommends volunteering, both as way of applying yourself post-education and filling skill gaps on a resume.

“If you search volunteer websites, there are often really good opportunities,” Sally says. “For example, if you’re an InfoTech student, you could get experience designing and developing webpages for a not-for-profit organisation, which you can find on these sites.

“And often that’s accompanied by training and references as well, which looks good on a CV. Even if it’s doing something that doesn’t directly relate to their studies, the skills students and graduates build in volunteering are just as relevant as paid work or a degree.”

Use your uni as a resource

You’re probably happy to leave uni behind after years of classes and assessments, but it’s not a bad idea to keep in touch with your institution after you finish studying.

“The Careers Centres at most universities will see students for a few months after graduation, but students don’t always realise that,” Sally says. “So it’s always worth checking, because if you’re in that really critical time of looking for work, it’s really great if you can access those services and events.”

Sally also recognises alumni networks as a useful tool for graduate job hunters. “Networking’s absolutely critical, and by attending events the alumni network holds, graduates can stay in contact with people in their industry.”

Staying positive

It seems the challenge of the jobless graduate is to build employability and not lose resolve. Enthusiasm might seem a tall order as you’re drafting your hundredth cover letter, but it’s worth remembering that 90 per cent of graduates had found full-time work after three years in 2013.

As Sally explains, there’s reason for grads to be optimistic. “Overall in the longer term, if people have degrees, that benefits them when they’re looking for jobs. It just takes a bit longer these days to get graduate work.”

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Alex Darling is a final-year journalism student at RMIT University. He values Nutella donuts, Gibson guitars and getting paid to write – in that order.

(Lead image: Alex Bellink, Flickr Creative Commons license)