Friday 25. 2019
Kick-starting your job search as a graduate can be tough. Awash with worries that you’ll never find work when you leave university (a common misconception, by the way) it can be demoralising before you’ve even begun. For some, starting to look for employment beyond graduation is moved to the back foot, sparking a vicious circle.
Graduates earn, on average, around £9,500 a year more than those without higher education. So attending university is well worth its weight. However, with as many as 1.76 million students expected to graduate this year – it’s a saturated field. Searching for employment isn’t easy at the best of times, but when you’re amid lots of competition and don’t have much experience under your belt, it may seem impossible to even begin.
Luckily, though, there are ways and means by which you can cut through the crowds and top the competition amongst the graduate pool who’re all searching for the same kind of position as you.
There are a number of things you can do whilst at university to help ease your transition into a graduate who’s searching for employment. Undertaking work experience, for example, helps set you apart from similar post-graduates, and attending CV workshops will give you fundamental advice that’ll come in handy come job searching time too.
However, chances are that you’ve landed on this post because you’re now a graduate and don’t want to hear about what you could have done – you want to know what to do now. So, if this applies to you, here are some of our tips on how to ignite and fuel your graduate job search, from the experts who know recruitment inside and out.
You may or may not have attended CV writing workshops in the past, but there’s never any harm in updating it one last time before you start searching for jobs. Being a graduate now, you’ll also want to add that as your latest status. Include your grade and a short snippet of what you’ve learned at university and how this will be a transferable skill in the world of work. Remember: CV’s shouldn’t be overbearing, try to keep to one sheet of A4, but at the same time they should be informative – they’re your gateway to showing an employer why they should hire you.
For more information on how to write a great CV, head over to our blog.
To make yourself truly stand out in applications and interviews thereafter, you want to offer a potential employer something different than what they’ve seen before. And also, you’ll want to demonstrate your knowledge in the field in which you wish to work.
The best way to do this is to gain some experience in your industry. This may be via a week’s worth of work experience, or if you’re looking to work in a sector such as journalism or web design, writing a few articles or building a few website structures in your spare time. When evidenced to your potential employer, this kind of initiative can go a long way. It shows you have the drive and determination to gain a better knowledge of what you should expect in a job, and also proves to an interviewer that you’ll be totally competent in the graduate role you are applying for.
What’s more, having tried your hand in your future career field, it’ll help you to decide whether that path is right for you. If it is, then great. If it isn’t, then you’ve plenty of time to decide on what you might like to do instead.
The saying ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ is largely untrue as most employers will be interested in a graduate because of their skill sets and their knowledge – not because they’re a ‘friend’.
However, it doesn’t hurt to have a few great connections across your professional network to gain different perspectives. LinkedIn is a great way to reach out to people who are well placed within the sector you want to join. And, if you build a good relationship with them, they may even point you in the right direction towards a job that suits you down to a T.
LinkedIn is also a great tool for reaching potential employers themselves. There’s also an abundance of job roles on LinkedIn. If you’re connected with somebody who’s recruiting and they like your profile, they may very well reach out to you.
And finally, asking for a helping hand is truly the best way to get ahead in your graduate job search. There are plenty of ways by which you can do this, but here’s a few ideas of what resources are best to call upon – and why it’s a good idea to do so.
If you’re interested in a role in the digital sector, including copywriting, developing, SEO and more, then get in touch with us today. We have decades worth of experience in pairing graduates to their perfect jobs and are certain we can help you to wave farewell to the painful employment search and wave hello to a fresh opportunity instead.