Hello and welcome back to our Alumni blog! It’s Hayley here and this week I have asked our Careers and Employability team to share some of their top tips for finding employment for our alumni who have recently graduated.
As a graduate myself, I know how difficult it can be to find work after your degree. You have left behind the reassuring comfort of your student life – no more student loan and weekday lie-ins! Instead you are suddenly faced with the prospect of things like setting a 6.30am alarm, council tax, paying a water bill (no long showers to cure your hangovers after a Wednesday night social!) and ultimately, finding a job.
While that all does sound rather scary, a proactive approach to your job hunting will go a long way in helping you secure that graduate job.
From my own experience, I have learnt how important it is to tailor your CV and application to the job and organisation – one size does not fit all! If you spend most of your time glued to social media on your phone too, why not make the most of it in your job hunting? Follow employers on Twitter and join relevant LinkedIn groups. Search to see if any of your tutors (including WBL and Careers and Employability staff) are on LinkedIn and ask if they can be a contact – you never know who they might be able to introduce you to!
Our wonderful Careers and Employability team are also here to help you at every stage of planning your career, and their services are available to graduates (free of charge) for up to three years after graduating.
Here are some of their top tips for graduates…
- If you are unsure of your options, you can book a guidance interview with one of our career consultants. This can be by telephone or Skype, as well as face-to-face.
- We also offer mock interviews to help you feel more confident when you have an important interview coming up.
- Have you been asked to complete some online tests? Practising them will help to improve your performance – use Graduates First.
- Do you have a LinkedIn profile with a professional-looking photograph? Employers are using LinkedIn as a recruitment platform and you can use it to search for jobs.
- If you are yet to find employment, Careers and Employability also offers the unique and innovative free Graduate Head Start (GHS) programme, developed to provide you with the employment skills and professional development to give you a head start towards your chosen career path.
- CareerHub is your first port of call to find out about the range of services we offer so make sure you are signing in regularly. This includes access to current vacancies from local and national organisations for part-time and full-time opportunities, details of internships and the chance to submit your CV, cover letter or application form for checking via the “Ask a Question” function. There is also information about our Venture programme if you are thinking about self-employment and access to Work Shadowing opportunities.
