Getting ready for the job “battlefield”

Hi all,

As you all know, I’m already in my third  year, which means I should be looking at graduate job soon. Recently, there’s an article on BBC news website which caught my attention: “Fall in graduate vacancies sees 85 apply for each job”

Here’s the link to the article if you want to have a look: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23247176

Each and every year, especially in the current economic situation, we see more and more students graduate but remain unemployed. And the figure given in the BBC article really shocks me. Does it really mean that, in general, to win myself a job, I need to “defeat” about 84 other people? This seems to be QUITE a tough “battle”, I suppose? So from where, can I get my shield, armor and other weapons for this battlefield?

Luckily for me, I have an internship with PwC this summer and as other seniors told me, holding an internship guarantees 80-90% chance of having a graduate job. And even if I don’t get the job at PwC, I must have differentiated myself from other students in the job market.

There have been tons of articles online talking about how to make yourself stand out during a job hunt; I’m sure you have seen at least one of those. If not, here’s one for you to have a look through

http://www.shldirect.com/en/assessment-advice/advice-for-graduates

This link above is from the shl direct website, they often provide recruiters with the assessments you have to go through during the employment selection process.

I won’t go through any of those bullet points in detail because in my point of view, they are all good strategies but also too theoretical. All the articles I read talked about part-time jobs, volunteers and internship. I would dedicate the next post to talk about my own experience in getting the internship with PwC.

As of volunteering, there are many societies to join. My advice to you is joining them won’t be enough. If you really want to differentiate yourself, attaining a high position within the society is crucial. In your CV, if you only mention what you’ve done as a member, it won’t be as impressive as saying you are the treasury, or the head of marketing… A title does make a difference.

As of part-time jobs, in the current economic situation, finding any job is hard. The unemployment rate in the UK is standing at 7.7%, and as everyone wants to have a job, even part-time one, it’s becoming tougher for the students. In my situation, even when I already had experience in waitressing, it still seems to be impossible for me to find one in Leicester. After many applications, I found this one, blogging, which really suits my interest. So keep applying, use unitemps as your guide and I think there should be at least one suitable for you.

So after all that talk, what I’m trying to say to prospective students and even current students is that don’t just wait and hope for the best. Go out and do something! Anything can make a difference.

I’ll see you all next post!