GEARING UP FOR FINAL YEAR: ESSENTIAL STEPS FOR EXPERIENCE,CERTIFICATIONS, AND PORTFOLIO BUILDING

By, Rafif Ridwan

Reaching at the end of your study must be really exciting. All the assignments, exams, projects, annoying classmates who often ask at the verge of class time, or that particular lecturer who the students like or dislike have finally will come to an end. For some it is a relief, for others the real world starts right there. 

While it is a relief, being a final year student where the credits that need to be taken has become less, it comes with costs. People –conveniently at the time like this– unanimously will start to ask you where do you want to go after getting your bachelor degree. Are you getting married, are you going to pursue your master, are you going to take over your family business, or are you going to take a break from this hectic world and be in isolation for indefinite time. These inquiries will start to rot you within with anxiety, stress, and pressure. 

Nevertheless, acts need to be done in order to dismiss the negative thoughts and alter them into positive ones by starting to prepare your self-branding to ensure your starting career’s path is adequate through gaining experience, collecting certifications, and building a portfolio. 

Experience 

Experience can be gained in many ways, and one of the most common during campus life is through assignments and projects. Consider the essays you’ve written, videos you’ve created, footage you’ve edited into cohesive topics, experiments you’ve conducted, or group projects you’ve contributed to that led to tangible results. These efforts are invaluable for developing practical skills such as problem-solving, teamwork, and time management. Beyond practical 

skills, assignments also enhance soft skills. For example, presenting your findings to classmates, leading a group project, or adapting in a group full of leftovers from a class you are in builds your communication, leadership, and adaptability. More importantly, assignments provide a structured approach for lecturers to evaluate your understanding of the subject matter. By following the given guidelines and standards, you stay focused and ensure your work meets the objectives without veering off track. 

Experience can also be gained by joining clubs and societies, which provide invaluable opportunities for hands-on learning. Have you ever wondered how large events are successfully executed? What happens behind the scenes to ensure their success? How do the people organizing these events work together? These questions can only be fully answered by participating as a committee member and gaining first-hand experience. Joining a club or society not only enhances your organizational skills but also opens doors to valuable networking opportunities. You’ll connect with alumni, like-minded peers, and guest speakers who can offer career advice or mentorship. Additionally, contributing to and successfully

executing events or projects can significantly boost your self-esteem and sense of accomplishment. Another thing to add, involvement in clubs and societies gives you a glimpse of the working environment. From navigating bureaucracy and understanding organizational hierarchies to participating in annual general meetings, these experiences prepare you for the professional world and its dynamics. 

In addition to gaining experience through class assignments and joining clubs, volunteering offers a valuable opportunity to experience real-world working environments. Volunteering comes in various forms, such as education, social services, food service, environmental initiatives like tree planting or wildlife protection, health campaigns such as mental health awareness, or emergency services like crisis response during disasters. Participating in these activities enhances both your practical and soft skills while expanding your network. These experiences lay a solid foundation for your future career path by helping you develop essential qualities like teamwork, adaptability, and problem-solving. Volunteering also allows you to give back to the community while building connections with people who share similar interests and goals. Volunteering includes part-time jobs where you can get additional income .Through this experience, you can get a taste of how real life works. Getting an income by your very own efforts will definitely teach you valuable lessons in not taking things for granted, respecting time more and doing things efficiently and effectively, as well as how networking is really important. 

Certificates 

Certificates are important to legitimize your knowledge or skills. It shows that you are adept at the things you are doing. You cannot just say in your resume or CV that you are good at excel without providing proof of your excellency in using excel. You need proof to legitimize your skill in doing your work to convince other people –or employer in this matter– that you really can do it and are dedicated to it. Hence, credibility. 

Now where is the starting point for getting a certificate? You can start by getting a generic certificate for technical skill used highly by companies, which is using software like Microsoft Office words, excel, and powerpoint. Have you ever wondered why our assignments rely heavily on writing? Or why do we need to present our writings? Or if there is just one software that can automatically compute all the complicated formulas so we can easily compile our data? These three softwares are essentials in the working life. You need to write a report according to certain guidelines, you need to present your ideas and convince the higher-ups that your ChatGPT idea is better than your coworker who also gets the ideas from another AI machine, you also expected to be able to compile the data you are tasked on that is not eye straining. Let’s say you are decent in using those softwares, however employers need proof. Either you are proving it to them during the interview or conveniently show them the certificate you have gained –or your portfolio– which will be discussed in the next topic. 

Portfolio

Now here is the most important part, creating your own portfolio. In essence, a portfolio consists of who you are and what you do or did. Therefore, in other words your self-branding or self-image is compiled. The most common contents of a portfolio will have your education, what you act as in certain events, the achievements you get, your personal projects, or where you worked previously. However, as a student who is on the verge of graduating, where our main schedule is attending lectures, doing assignments, and they will test it out on the exam, it seems that we do not have something to put or offer in our portfolio. Alas, there are plenty of things you can put to set your foot on the ground. 

Firstly, do not underestimate all the work you have done in class assignments, especially assignments that require you to work jointly and make something. Generally, you will be tasked with writing a report or writing a proposal in a group. However, if you perform really well in that project and get great marks, you can include that in your portfolio. The essence of this is that, this teaches you teamwork, communication, jointly combining ideas to produce an outcome, much less getting A in that subject. Secondly, your role in a campus organization or in events. If you have an important role and participate in the decision making process (mainboard committee), it will teach you teamwork, problem-solving and leadership skills, where you can put it in your portfolio. Furthermore, your technical skills will be valuable to be put in your portfolio. How good you handle a camera, how good you take a picture or video, how good you are using editing software, how good you are at writing, how good you are at designing and many other technical skills you can improve. Things like your news being published by IIUM Today is valuable, your experience in controlling a camera for IIUM TV is valuable, and your experience using broadcast control for IIUM FM is also valuable. Lastly, your volunteering experience is essential too. Getting a taste of a new environment in a different setting helps you with your adaptation, being able to get additional income from a part-time job hone you to value more your time and money because the stake was money where you need to put your effort to make sure you are worth to pay as well as near real working experience.  

Conclusion 

All in all, adequately preparing for the future is sure to make anybody anxious, however to not going afar from the focus, having a set of objectives to achieve the properness of our preparation is needed, therefore focusing ourselves in present rather than future much less the past is the utmost energy we need to spent on. 

Obviously, there are more ways to prepare for our post-graduation where it highly depends on the path you are going to take. Nevertheless it will not be in vain to have some fundamentals and foundations to hold your grounds for your future rather than sitting duck –not upskilling ourselves– as our life progresses.

(Picture is from MalayMail)***