Graduate Advice - Advice for Graduates, Even in Tough Times
John Lees, leading Career Transition Coach and Working Lives Expert, offers guidance to help people get back into work.
With reports of a poor job market putting more pressure on graduates than ever, it would be easy to get discouraged. Luckily John Lees is here with good advice for graduates looking to get an edge in recruitment. Lees, the best selling author of How To Get A Job You'll Love and several other careers titles, gives helpful strategies to make sure you don't get lost in the struggle.
Don't Play the Ideal/Real Game: You don't need a perfect job, just one you enjoy 3.5 days out of five - hunt for a 70 percent overlap between your work satisfaction and the true needs of an organisation.
Time Things Sensibly: Panic thrusts people into an over-eager and unfocused job search. Don't follow the herd. Only applying for advertised positions is a safe way of prolonging the agony, as is chasing jobs in declining industries. Look for organisations that are swimming against the tide, or niche sectors that are doing well.
Don't Refresh Your CV - Rethink It: There are too many undifferentiated CVs out there, so look again at the first 20 words. If you find you're being offered the same tired old jobs you're trying to escape, it's probably your doing. If you want to change career path, your CV needs to be very clear about why you want a change of direction. The opening section should communicate the explanations you would give when handing the document over to someone in person.
Get Out There: A job search conducted sitting at a screen in your bedroom will always be low-energy. Jobsites will occupy your time, but unless you have a technical specialism, you are unlikely to get results more than 5% of the time. Better to boost your confidence by wearing good business clothes and meeting people at least once a week. Success in the hidden job market comes when someone remembers you when you're not in the room so make an impression by meeting people in person.
Finally, think your job search backwards: As recruitment advertising continues to shrink it becomes even more likely that you'll only find interesting roles through connections and chance encounters. Push the law of averages in your direction and you start to create your own luck - make direct approaches to target organisations, and keep talking to people in real jobs rather than conducting your job search on the Internet.
Add to
Send to a friend
Post a comment
Comments
No comments....
Graduate Employers
| Total Professions | TotalProfessions.com was created to guide and inspire you about th... | more |
| D&AD | What we do Well, if you were keeping it short, if you were writ... | more |
| RICS - Royal Institution of Charte... | RICS is the world's leading qualification when it comes to profess... | more |
| TravelWorks | TravelWorks offers a myriad of volunteer and paid work opportuniti... | more |
| ESCP Europe Business School | Founded in 1819 and now one of the world’s oldest business s... | more |
| Towers Watson | Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt have come together as Towers Watson... | more |
| Nottingham University Business Sch... | Postgraduate study at Nottingham University Business School offers... | more |
| nucleargraduates | The UK’s nuclear industry is facing its biggest challenge in... | more |
| AXA UK | With 210,000 employees and distributors worldwide and a presence i... | more |
| PwC | PwC is the one firm for all talented graduates. As one of the wor... | more |
Latest Graduate Jobs
| Title | Organisation | Apply by |
|---|---|---|
Company Secretarial/Governance Graduate - Immediate start
|
PwC | 03 Jun 2014 |
| Radiological Protection Engineer | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Materials and Metallurgy | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Project Management | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Waste Management and Environmental Science | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Project and Safety Care Engineers | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Mechanical Engineer | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Chemical Engineer | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| C&I/Electrical Engineering | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
|
Exciting new business Placement opportunities within Human R...
|
PwC | 31 Dec 2012 |
Graduate Case Studies
|
JONATHON WEBSTER - STARTUP SUMMER SCHEME PARTICIPANTJonathon Webster is studying Information Systems Engineering at Imperial College London ... more |
|
VICTORIA MOREMON - SOLICITORVictoria Moremon is a solicitor working across the private client and residential property and land estates departments at Latimer Hinks. She studied law at Teesside University ... more |
|
PUJA MEHAN - TRAINEE SOLICITORPuja Mehan is a Trainee Solicitor with Herbet Smith. She studied Law LLB at King's College, University of London. ... more |
|
MICHAEL SKREIN - CSR PARTNERMichael Skrein is the CSR Partner for Reed Smith. He studied modern history at Oxford before doing and MA in international relations in California. ... more |
Graduate Advice
|
Less than Satisfactory: UK schools and colleges Ofsted (who inspect schools in the UK) just released their annual report,... more |
|
Getting Help from the Professionals Recently PUSH asked its viewers if they knew what a professional body was.... more |
|
Famous playwright Alan Bennett has today warned that the increased tuition... more |
|
Eyes opening.....or eyes closing? How that year out can wreck or reinforce your career... more |
Comments