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Graduate Careers Advice

The Graduate Job-Seekers Guide

Managing The Study-to-Workplace Transition

Temping Tips for Graduates

Graduate Study Abroad

Careers in the Arts

Graduands

Personality Profiles

Professional Qualifications

Working Abroad

Going Freelance

A Guide to Graduate Job Hunting

It is amazing how quickly a three- or four-year degree course can fly by because of all the lectures, exams, parties, student union activities and society events you have to attend!  All of a sudden, you will find yourself ready to embark upon a new career so here is The CV Centre guide to graduate job hunting.

When to start

Although your aspirations may change during the course of your studies, you should still start thinking about the general direction you wish your career to take as early as possible. This will help to ensure that you are working towards the achievement of your objectives from the outset and that you target your job search more effectively upon graduation. If you have an idea of exactly the kind of companies you wish to work for and it will be beneficial to research their application procedures well in advance of your final exams to ensure that you do not miss any crucial deadlines.

Improving your chances of employment

Some companies do not consider a purely academic background to be sufficient and instead prefer to see some industry experience. This can be gained during summer holidays or on a part-time basis during term-time, and is the ideal opportunity for you to decide whether or not you are really suited to your chosen career path. It could also be useful to seek work placements with the specific companies you intend to focus your job search on so that you stand a better chance of future employment with them upon graduation.

Undertaking work experience placements and internships are the perfect way of helping you to enter industries which are particularly difficult to secure employment in, and can also enable you to demonstrate the particular skills and attributes appropriate to the industry.

In addition, involvement in extra-curricular activities can demonstrate your willingness to take on new challenges and to experience a variety of situations. The skills and abilities you can acquire, such as leadership potential, team work, organisational skills and the ability to perform under pressure, are all attributes that employers may consider valuable in the future.

The job hunting process

There are a variety of sources you can use when searching for graduate positions including industry publications, national newspapers and specific recruitment papers. Trade journals can not only help you to find suitable vacancies but can also provide useful information about the industry you are applying to.

Universities, colleges and exhibition centres host regular careers fairs including those specifically targeting the graduate market. You will be given the opportunity to meet representatives of the types of companies you wish to work for and to acquire invaluable information about possible opportunities in the future.

The Internet is now one of the most commonly used tools for job hunting with an abundance of general recruitment sites. Specific companies also have their own careers pages detailing available vacancies and explaining the application process in detail.

High street recruitment agencies are still a good way of finding employment and can also be used to seek temporary employment while searching for a permanent position.

The application process

It is important that you prepare and submit all applications in accordance with specified procedures and deadlines. Because different industries have different application procedures, it is possible to prepare in advance by getting your CV up to date, producing industry-specific covering letters and writing a personal statement which can then be tailored to particular positions and organisations.

There are many ways of boosting your chances of employment but arguably one of the most important of these is to make sure that your CV and covering letter sell your skills, abilities and experience, and emphasise how these make you ideally suited to a career in your chosen profession.