Why summer is the perfect time to bolster your CV – even if you can’t find a holiday job

With a little initiative and ingenuity you can find opportunities in your local area that will help you gain the skills that graduate employers love to see

Today’s employers want more than just applicants with a degree. In fact, 71% of those polled by Universities UK said that improved work-ready skills among graduate applicants would make them more likely to recruit. And with nearly half of employers with vacancies saying they are consistently struggling to fill graduate-level roles, this could be a golden opportunity for you to stand out from the crowd.

So where do you start? Many traditional summer jobs – working in a pub or restaurant or on the shop floor in retail – can be oversubscribed. But you can still build skills and your CV this summer by being a little proactive. Even informal work can arm you with transferable skills that future employers would love to see.

Are you a trustworthy babysitter for friends and family? That shows reliability. Can you build on that? Perhaps offering pet sitting services or even to help a neighbour with manual tasks such as decluttering their home office or mowing their lawn? You’re not only showing initiative, but time management and organisation, too.

Once you open your eyes to needs in your local community, you’ll find plenty of opportunities. For those neighbours who aren’t digitally savvy, you could offer tech and digital support, everything from simple computer tasks to setting up new services or home electronics.

It doesn’t just have to be for individuals. Local sports clubs or charities are often in need of an extra pair of hands and could do with your technical wizardry. Could you help manage their social media or update their website to refresh their digital presence? You can even track engagement to show tangible results for the work you’ve done.

The University of Essex’s Students’ Union runs the VTeam (volunteering at Essex) programme throughout the year with some projects continuing into the summer break. SU president Mina Comez says: “Volunteering isn’t just about giving your time – it’s about investing in your future. Students develop the confidence, teamwork and leadership skills that employers value, while making a meaningful difference to their communities. It’s one of the best ways to gain experience when paid opportunities are hard to find.”

Volunteer work definitely doesn’t have to be a formal internship. Even organising a litter picking event at your local park, or a food bank drive among your neighbours takes organisational and communication skills.

And if you ask around, perhaps a friend of the family has a small business and would be delighted to have a voluntary assistant to help them with filing or research projects. They get extra support and you show teamwork, analytical skills and that you can manage administrative tasks.

If you want to scale up, the summer months see a huge uptick in seasonal events, offering some interesting work opportunities.

“Summer can be a good time for festivals and they need people to do all kinds of roles, from bar work to security,” says Anne Delauzun, director of careers and employability at the University of Reading.

“There are loads of good websites to see what’s going on in your area. Find the companies running events and if you’re making your approach, your enthusiasm and interest can go a long way even if you don’t feel you have particularly a lot of relevant experience.”

These ad hoc jobs can have more impact than you might expect. If you need to supplement your student finances with work at university, picking up skills while helping your community could give you the edge when it comes to finding a student job. And you’ll find that many universities will strive to connect you to opportunities once you’ve arrived.

“At the University of Reading and many other universities, there is a central point where all the jobs on campus are advertised,” says Delauzun. “You can go and register and say what work you’d be interested in, whether it’s working in the library or in halls or catering. We prioritise students for these jobs.

“We also run an event at the start of term when we invite employers from the local area on to campus offering part-time work,” she says. “Typically that is things like hospitality, care work and tutoring.”

If you’re very focused on getting experience in a certain area, then you may want to consider working on a more voluntary basis.

“We’ve had students in the past who want to go into journalism, for example,” says Delauzun. “And we suggest they set up a blog or look for a student society to work with that needs content. If you want to explore what marketing is like, is there a student society that needs some help with their marketing or social media?

“These aren’t paid but it shows a future employer that you’re proactive and you can make your own opportunities.”

At Loughborough University, careers support is designed to help students turn exactly this kind of initiative into long-term success.

“We encourage our students to recognise the value in every experience they take on, whether it’s paid work, volunteering or something they’ve set up themselves,” says Sophie Hyde, head of student futures at the university. “Through personalised careers guidance, skills workshops, and strong links with employers, we help students reflect on what they’ve learned and confidently articulate those skills when applying for roles. It’s about equipping them not just for their first job, but for a successful career beyond university.”

Anne Delauzun’s top three tips for gaining work experience at university:

1 “You don’t need to see where an opportunity will lead you to be open to taking it, so that goes to talking to employers, getting involved with societies, trying things out, and following your interests.”

2 “There’s a misconception that careers teams focus only on work after graduation, but we support students to do things while they’re still with us, so we encourage people to come as early as they can and make use of the huge amount of resources and the job opportunities boards.”

3 “It is a challenging labour market so you don’t have to find the perfect thing before you start doing anything about it. We talk about the A, B, C model. First is A, get a job, then you’re in a good position to reflect on what you like. Then B is the better job, doing more of what you like. Then C is the career job that you really want – and the careers team is perfectly placed to help you work out what that is.”

For more guidance on the right course for you, check out the Guardian university league tables for 2026. The Guardian league tables for 2027 will be out in September in print and online.