Taking a gap year will help you secure your dream job

With A-level A grades at a record high, gaining life skills and experience from a gap year is becoming an important requirement to help your CV stand out from the competition. Taking a well planned gap year should be seen as an investment in the future that could help you secure your perfect job.

This year, a quarter of A-level exam results were A grades, with one in ten students receiving at least 3 A grades. With so many students scoring top grades, it is becoming increasingly difficult for employers to differentiate between candidates. Taking a gap year offers the perfect opportunity to gain valuable life skills and experience which could make your CV stand out from the competition and help you secure your dream job. However, the popularity of gap years is coming under threat due to fears of the inevitable student debt that will be accrued by attending university. The number of university applicants deferring their place for a gap year fell last year from 7.7% to 7.3%, according to UCAS.

Rather than being seen as a frivolous drain on finances, we believe that a well structured gap year should be viewed as an investment in the future, giving an advantage to graduates when applying for their dream job.

Gap years are all about “what did you learn”?

What future employers will want to know is not what you did on your gap year, but what you learnt. Fill your gap year wisely and it will prove to be a CV enhancing period in your life. There are endless opportunities open to you so it is essential to undertake careful research and detailed planning if you are to make the most of the time available. iGapyear.com recommends a mixture of activities to offer the best skill set, such as paid work to raise funds, gaining valuable work experience in a career relevant field, participation in a structured volunteer programme and a period of independent travel.

Gap year work, travel & volunteering

So how do your gap year activities translate into valuable life skills? As well as the inevitable growing up and acquiring of independence that a responsible gap year will surely bring you, many of the popular gap year activities you experience can be shown to directly translate into skills that are important in a commercial business environment.

Pushing yourself to save and fundraise for travelling will show organisation, commitment and determination. Participation in volunteer projects will develop your team working skills and your ability to achieve in a challenging environment. Experiencing multicultural work environments and picking up language skills will prove useful in today’s global work environment. Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is also a popular option, which can gain you valuable communication and presentation skills, interpersonal skills and enhanced confidence.

Hard skills, such as PADI or sports instructor qualifications, may prove more a talking point in an interview than a skill around which a career is shaped. However, acquiring such qualifications shows a level of competence and commitment to a future employer, as well as a drive to achieve personal development.

Work experience or an internship

Undertaking career relevant work experience or an internship on your gap year is a more direct way of enhancing your CV. These fixed term undergraduate placements are an ideal opportunity to gain first hand experience of a commercial business environment, which is why iGapyear.com launched its undergraduate placements section. Some industries, such as medicine, law and media, are very competitive and gaining work experience may be essential to stand out. Getting known to a company through work experience could also result in a job offer from them after you graduate.

Better chance of success at university

Not only will a gap year improve your chances of employment when you leave university, it will also increase your chances of choosing and completing the right degree. A gap year is a character shaping experience that provides the opportunity for self-reflection and facilitates better informed decisions about degree plans and career choices. Students who gapped show greater maturity than non-gappers, and are less distracted by the freedoms of university life. Those who take a gap year are less likely to drop out of university, or under-perform because they are unhappy. Changing courses or switching to another university is not easy, and with the high costs of university education, it is important to get it right first time.

Grab the opportunity while you can

Taking a year out between school and university, or even during your university degree is probably going to be the only time in your life when it is possible. In reality, not many people manage to take several months off to go travelling later in life. It is quite socially acceptable to have a year long gap in your CV before you graduate, but a gap year after you graduate is viewed more as unemployment. You will certainly have fewer ties before you graduate than in the future when you are likely to have a mortgage, a family to support and a career that it’s difficult to shelve. It is a unique opportunity that you should not miss out on due to practical concerns. iGapyear.com has an in depth saving money and fundraising section which will help you to raise the money you need and encourages you to assess and change your current spending habits.

Your gap year will change you

It is a cliché to say that taking a gap year is a life changing experience, but at iGapyear.com we believe that this is true. The long term benefits of taking a gap year are immeasurable and could have far reaching consequences in your career and future life.

So what are you waiting for? Get your career off to the best start and start planning your perfect gap year today.