Top Ten Tips to Find a Graduate Job
Leading graduate recruitment and careers advice website www.gradplus.com offers their top ten tips on how graduates can successfully find the right graduate job for them.
Finding a graduate job is proving increasingly difficult for many recent graduates. Competition for available jobs, regardless of the industry in which you are applying, is intense. But that doesn’t mean your dream graduate job isn’t out there.
Nick Godwin from Gradplus.com explains;
“At Gradplus we have seen a large increase in the number of recent graduates registering with the website in recent months looking for the latest graduate jobs and graduate training schemes. Despite the relative gloom about job prospects it is plain wrong to suggest that no employers are taking on graduates – there are plenty of jobs available to the right candidates if you look in the right place.”
“Anyone who has been struggling to find a graduate job should follow our top ten tips on what to do to increase your chances of landing a dream job. For example, keeping in touch with old course friends and past employers could increase your chances of finding out about particular opportunities; while registering with online recruiters such as Gradplus will obviously help graduate jobs find you, too.”
Gradplus.com suggests these top 10 tips for graduate jobs success:
- Keep in touch with as many people as you can – course-mates, past employers and lecturers as well as friends, as they can be a good source of information and can give you insider knowledge about graduate jobs!
- Think about your online profile and the impression it gives of you to potential graduate employers. Companies are increasingly using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to attract people to their brand via competitions, interactive games and viral campaigns. You may be following one of the world’s largest graduate recruiters without having thought about it! If you link to them, they can see your profile. Make the most of it!
- Join your university alumni society, a great way to network!
- Research everything. Decide what industry your ideal graduate job is in then research everything about it including the type of work available, the companies in that sector, starting salaries and career progression. The more informed and interested you are, the better you will do in interviews.
- Make sure that you know what your own strengths, weaknesses and skills are, so you know what type of graduate job you are most suited to. Use our behavioural profiling tool – Parallax – to help you with this.
- Learn to sell yourself and your skills. If you can’t shout about the experience you’ve got and how great you are then who will? This doesn’t mean boasting, it simply means promoting yourself in a positive light and thinking positively about all the experience you have gained so far and conveying them to graduate employers both on your CV and at interview.
- Visit your university careers service (or your nearest one if you have returned home).
- Make sure your profile on websites such as gradplus.com is up to date. Upload a new version of your CV, including your degree result. Add in your key skills and achievements as well as your preferred sector(s) of employment and preferred location(s). Avoid spelling mistakes in your profile; graduate employers look at this too!
- Make sure your applications are high quality. There are an average of 83 graduates applying for each graduate job according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) so make sure that your application stands out for the right reasons. You must tailor your CV for each graduate job you apply to and get someone else to proof everything before you send it.
- Stay positive. Finding a graduate job can be hard and time consuming but don’t get fed up. Desperation doesn’t come across well in interviews so follow these tips and keep smiling!
About Gradplus.com
Launched in 2004, the team at gradplus.com understand the recruitment process, the graduate marketplace and the needs of both graduates and recruiting companies from an internet job board. We have one very simple aim, to match up as many of the UK's graduate population to the most suitable graduate careers as possible. Visit: www.gradplus.com for more information.
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