- Seeking a Graduate Job
- Applying for Graduate Jobs
- Facing Up to Interviews
Start early - many employers do
You might be lucky enough to get a job with a likely employer in
your last summer vacation. If not, make contact with your careers
service as early as you can in your final year – a lot of
major employers start recruiting quite early in the first semester.
It's a year-round process
It can seem as if all recruitment activity happens in the first
semester. Some final year students will be offered
jobs during at this time, as the result of careers fairs, campus
interviews or on-line applications during these early recruitment
campaigns. But recruitment goes on, and in other cases, the right
vacancy might not come up until much later in the year.
In some
professional faculties, this might be immediately after final exams.
In other cases, you could move into the following year without
securing a job. Do not be dismayed – this is the nature
of the graduate labour market.
You will get a
first job, and that will be the starting point in a career that
could take many turns. Stay in touch with your Careers Service
to maximise your chances..
Much of the action is online
Increasingly employers are seeking online rather than paper applications.
However, it always makes sense to prepare yourself on paper (or,
more likely, on the computer) with the kind of application materials
that you think present you best – you can always adapt them
to the form that suits the online processes.
You should always
have an up to date resume readily accessible. If you have one already,
review it at least at the end of each semester.
A resume or a CV?
These are really interchangeable terms – one is French, the
other Latin (short for ‘curriculum vitae’) – we
don’t have a standard English term! ‘Resume’ is
now the more widely used. Both are simply well organised, well
structured outlines of your background which make it easy for the
employer to skim through and get the essence of what you have to
offer. Remember that – make it easy for the employer!
Do the preparation
Start by making notes – as in other writing tasks. Write
down everything you can think of which makes up your past. Include
travel and holidays, and all your interests, even if they are far
removed from your studies.
If you get everything down, then you
are in a position to select what is really suitable for inclusion
in your resume, and are unlikely to leave out anything important,
which people often do. Remember, these are notes for your eyes
only, so you needn’t be embarrassed by anything you put in!
If you have been compiling an e-portfolio at university, you will
have done much of this already.
Preparing an effective
resume
Now that you have got all the basic information in the form
of your notes, you can start to put them in the form of a resume.
You don’t need to provide personal information (gender,
marital status, ethnic background, religion or other personal
details), but you must have good contact information. Remember,
an employer is likely to want to contact you during business
hours, so make clear which is the best way to do this – voice
mail on your mobile, or email for example.
Then you must summarise your educational background, without going
back too far (some graduate employers do like HSC details). Then
a summary of your work experience – not necessarily every
single restaurant or labouring or baby-sitting job you ever held,
but an accurate and useful summary for the employer of what work
experience you have gained.
Then you should give information about your interests and activities
outside your degree course. Employers like to know that you are
human! The fact that you are good at underwater photography, or
have captained a hockey team, or done volunteer work, or travelled
extensively, helps to give them an idea of your range of skills.
Set everything out clearly on the page, with good bold headings,
and put your name on every page. Remember – make it easy
for the employer to skim through and get the important information.
Careers Services will often have arrangements to review your resume
for you and suggest improvements.
A resume is never enough
A resume is never enough by itself. If you are applying on paper,
you should always include a covering letter, which says what interests
you about the job, and points to the major things in your resume
that back up your case as a strong applicant.
The letter links the résumé and
the employer’s job requirements, and it is helpful to reflect
the sort of language which the employer has used, especially when
talking about the skills you have to offer.
The importance of skills
‘Skills’ is the magic six-letter word. Employers are
interested in what you can do, or have the potential to do, as
well as in the details of your degree - perhaps more so.
Mostly,
they are interested in a range of ‘generic’ skills,
such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving and computer skills.
Employers will have different lists, and they should indicate in
advertisements what they want, but these are common ones.
In a
covering letter you are going to mention which of these you are
particularly strong in, and relate them to evidence shown in your
resume.
Know your skills
It is important to compile a ‘skills inventory’. Sounds
daunting, but it needn’t be. You might already have a good
record in your e-portfolio. If not, go back to your resume, or
your notes, and identify what skills you think you have acquired
from each of the activities listed there.
In some cases your claim
to the skills might be modest, but at least you can show that you
are aware of the importance of, say, communication skills, and
show what you have done in the workplace to develop them. Look
at your own university’s list of graduate skills or graduate
attributes (they all have them) and see how you can claim to match
up with them.
What to send to the employer
What the employer asks for, and no more. Do not flood the employer
with too much paper. If they have not made clear what they want,
simply send a resume and covering letter, and indicate that you
will be happy to send anything else they require.
And keep it simple – do
not decorate and elaborate things. Stay away from coloured paper
and clip art.
The world of online applications
While the paper application outlined above will still be what some
employers want, they increasingly require online applications.
You have to be guided by what the particular website asks of you.
As recommended, have a thorough basic resume already prepared,
and have it with you – it will often help with the online
form. And you can usually cut and paste from the electronic version
of your résumé to complete parts of the form.
If
you are not a good typist, take it slowly and carefully. They also
often ask quite challenging questions designed to assess your relevant
skills. You need to take time and care in answering these.
Some
online forms will give you a large space in which you can make
the sort of general case you otherwise might have made in a covering
letter. Use it!
The interview can have many
forms
If your written/on-line applications materials are impressive enough,
you will get an interview, and they come in various forms.
There
is the initial on-campus interview; the telephone interview; the
more formal and usually longer interview at the employer’s
premises, either by an individual or a panel; the ‘serial’ interview,
with a succession of people. You may be called to an assessment
centre - this involves not just interviews, but also tests, group
projects, and other methods of seeing how you actually perform
in certain circumstances.
You need to find out what you will be
facing, simply by asking what form of interview you are being asked
to attend. Get as much information as you can.
Get yourself prepared
All interviews are about you much more than they
are about the job or the organisation. You are the subject of the
interview, and you need to be able to talk about that subject confidently,
and with relevance to the job and the organisation. This takes
practice, and if you go to an interview without having tried to
practise, then you make life harder than it needs to be.
‘Practise’ does
not mean learning ‘answers’ off by heart. It does mean
going over the things you have said about yourself in your written
application, and saying them, or a version of them, out loud. You
are trying to develop the ability to talk about yourself, to make
claims about yourself, with a quiet confidence, without being boastful.
It works even better if you can do this practice with a friend,
a family member, or in a group – your Careers Service probably
runs groups that will do this for you.
Anticipating questions
All questions are hard if you haven’t practised. You can
easily find out about some ‘classic’ hard questions: “What
are your strengths and weaknesses?” "What do you want
to be doing in five years time?” and so on. Include answers
to these in your practice.
Of course you might not actually get
any of these in a particular interview. But it will be good practice
anyway, and will mean that you are prepared and more relaxed when
you get some really unexpected and difficult questions. That will
happen!
‘Expect the unexpected’, is the general rule
for interviews. Always feel free to ask for a few seconds to think
about tough ones – but don’t do it too many times in
the interview!
 
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