Landing a Graduate Job | My Experience & Top Tips

I've handed in my notice and I am super-excited to be starting my dream graduate scheme in a few short weeks! However it's not been an easy journey by any stretch of the imagination, so I though I'd share with you my journey and a few tips I have for anyone on the graduate job hunt.

I studied Philosophy and Theology at the University of Birmingham, which is perhaps the least vocational course ever! I did a 2-week informal work experience at a PR company doing some very simple work but other than that my only work experience was the standard student gig of working in retail. 

In my final year of university I applied to upwards of 50 jobs, mainly in marketing, and reached the assessment centre stage for two of them. I dropped out of one of the processes as I had some real concerns about the scheme and if it was for me, and didn't get the other one. Spring came and I didn't have a job to go into after graduation. Out of sheer desperation I applied to an Internship Programme in insurance, which I had no experience in but my mum and aunt both worked as underwriters and said they thought I could be good at it. I applied, thinking that in the very least it would be money to tide me over for 6 weeks. Somehow I got it, which was lucky as I hadn't applied anywhere else...

I honestly had such an amazing experience doing the Internship. I got to be involved in a real project which carried some weight. I had proper responsibilities and there was a very steep learning curve. I don't think I've learned so much in such a short space of time before, but it was an invaluable experience. The internship finished and the other interns went back to university but I needed a job. I ended up applying for an entry-level role within the same company, which I started a couple of months later. I'm not going to lie; it was a tough year in terms of my job role. I've been unhappy in the role and my ambitions felt frustrated. However I can't say I haven't learnt anything from this experience, as disheartening as I've found it at times. Also, it wasn't all bad as I got to work with some really great people.

The same company did offer me their graduate scheme in January, however it wasn't in the business area I'd wanted and they didn't seem to have much scope for putting me where I wanted to be. I had a graduate scheme but it wasn't in an area I had knowledge of or was interested in. So I carried on quietly applying elsewhere and this time I just went for 3 schemes that really stood out to me. One of them I failed a psychometric test for, one of them I got to the assessment centres but fluffed one of the activities and then finally I got one! It's in the area of the industry I'm interested in, the people seem great, the scheme sounds amazing and I just can't quite believe after all the failures it's really happening... 

Practice Psychometric Tests

Personally, I really disagree with psychometric tests and feel as though companies miss out on excellent candidates as a result of them. However most major companies use them so it is what it is. Make sure you practice, practice, practice with free online tests before doing the real thing. The more you do, the better you'll be at them and I've also noticed lots of employers use the same providers so I've often had the same questions come up repeatedly. There are four main types: verbal (reading comprehension), numerical (maths problems), logical (puzzles, usually shape-based) and behavioural.

Get Some Experience

This is a big one! Most internships will offer you more than you'd earn working full-time in retail or hospitality like a lot of students do over summer so they're well worth doing! You will have amazing exposure to your chosen industry. I really recommend going for a paid internship as (unless you have very generous parents) you need to support yourself and also I feel as though they give you more interesting and challenging things to do when they're paying you for it. Even a Saturday job is experience you can draw on for the dreaded competency-based interview questions ('tell me a time when you XYZ'). I really recommend doing an internship over the summer before your final year if you want to apply to jobs during that year.

Uni Work Comes Before Job-Hunting

Try not to take too much time out from your studies to dedicate to job-hunting. Whilst it's great to get interview experience, if you feel your grades are slipping it isn't worth it! You've spent a lot of money to get your degree so don't throw that away. Also  most schemes expect a 2.1 so it's also in your interests career-wise to study hard! You can try again for jobs next year but you can't re-do your work to get better grades.

Your Job is Not Your Worth

This one is a biggie: it's so easy to feel as though a lack of success in applying for jobs is a reflection of your worth as a person: it isn't! Plenty of bright people end up doing jobs that don't fulfil their needs for any variety of reasons. It doesn't mean that you can't or won't do better.

You Only Need 1 'Yes'

Don't let obstacles and rejections get you down. Try to think of it as a case of the job or company not being right for you as opposed to there being something wrong with you. You only need one 'yes'; only one company has to see something in you and envision you with them. Once you have that 'yes', all the rejections really don't matter!

Learn from Your Mistakes

Always get feedback! It can feel a bit negative to hear the reasons why you didn't get the job however I've also found a lot of the feedback surprisingly positive. Also anything you can learn from and improve as a result of will help you next time round. I also have a post all about interview tips here for a few things specific to that stage of the process.

You're Not a Failure if You Don't Get One Straight Away

Graduates are somehow led to feel as though they're abject failures for not walking straight out of uni and into a job earning over £25k. Now I've met the people I'm going to be on the scheme with, it turns out only about a quarter of us were people going straight from uni into the scheme! The vast majority of us had worked at another job for a year or more before landing this scheme. If it doesn't happen straight away; don't panic! You haven't missed your opportunity, you just may have to wait a little while and in the meantime work on getting some relevant experience (even if that's in an entry-level role like I did). 

At the end of the day, I've learnt it's important to remember life isn't a series of milestones to tick off a list and you can have valuable experiences along the path to your dream career. There isn't a 'right' or 'wrong' way to get to where you want to be so just enjoy the journey.

Have you had any experience with the grad job hunt? What are your top tips?

 

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