When leaving university I had always thought I’d have a nice little job lined up. A dream job that would earn me a mint with great hours, oh and start in September, giving me the whole summer off to go and do the travelling thing. Wrong. Oh how naive I was. How idealistic! In reality I graduated (one box ticked!), but with no job even though I had done all this experience – unpaid internships, working abroad – you name it, I probably did it! Instead I managed to book up all these summer holidays (you can see the priority here) and declare to my parents that I was moving home, but just for a bit. The thought of having to adhere to parent rules was enough to get job applying, and quick! In comes the research, the CV tailoring, the cover letter writing, the interview preparation – wow you already feel like you’re back at uni.
I have to say I was lucky, very lucky. With Edelman it literally happened with the click of a finger. Research 10am, CV and cover letter 12pm, phone call from Edelman HR 6pm, interview set up for the following week. It’s as easy as that. So my piece of advice is to be pro-active. Search for the opportunities and apply speculatively. What have you got to lose?
With the student protests of late, the problem of tuition fee increases and continuing graduate unemployment are becoming more and more explosive. It’s not just the public who have noticed, companies have too. So here I’m going to praise our good office friend, can’t live without the computer, MICROSOFT. Microsoft has taken it upon itself to tackle youth unemployment by creating 100,000 opportunities for young people seeking work – brilliant news! Through a range of work experience placements, training vouchers and IT Apprenticeships, Microsoft aims to get 500,000 people into jobs by 2012. I like those sorts of figures!
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Let’s get graduates back into work!
Hi Mary, seems like good work from Microsoft. Only today in the office we were talking about how MS used to be an evil monopoly, but recently they are turning their image around. Some 100,000 graduate jobs couldn't come at a better time with the recent 8x uni fee hike!
ReplyDeleteHi Ken,
ReplyDeleteHow are you love? I know, nice to see they care! Not sure if it'll quite solve all the student protests, but at least its a starting block. We need to go for drinks soon with that mrs of yours too! x
Hey,
ReplyDeleteI hope it is ok to ask a question. I feel as though I, like most, have the same background as you and feel exactly the same as you did regarding jobs etc. Did you apply for the graduate scheme or was this as a later date and you were just lucky with timing ?
Thanks - very interesting blog btw !
Kelsey
Hi Kelsey,
ReplyDeleteTo be honest it was good timing really, but I must have had the credentials they were looking for. Other grad schemes which I had applied to earlier along which I did the most prep for, didn't happen (would make it to assessment centre and not quite make the cut). I think the difference was is when I went to Edelman I had that feeling of I really want to be. Seriously need to be here. I could thrive here and the panel noticed this.
How's it going?
Mary