Successful Graduate Job Hunting
recruitment process is likely to be an assessment centre. You can expect to do a face-to-face interview, you may well do further psychometric tests, plus some sort of group exercise. During the day, employers will want to see how you interact with other people, how you work in a team, and judge whether your skills match the role they’re recruiting for. These final round assessments are likely to be in their o!ces, so this may be your first chance to get a real sense of whether this is an employer you want to work for. You’ll be able to see the working environment, the type of people they employ, and get an idea of the culture of the organisation. Following the assessment centre, you’re likely to hear the outcome quite quickly and whether you’ll be o"ered the job or the internship. If you’re lucky enough to get more than one o"er from the applications you’ve made, it’s important that you only hold one confirmed place at a time, otherwise other graduates may miss out on potential job o"ers. So, if you’ve accepted an earlier o"er from an employer – and then receive a later o"er from a di"erent organisation that you’d rather accept instead – let the first employer know as soon as possible. Many students don’t get a graduate job o"er before the end of their degree, but even when you’ve left university, your careers service are there to support your job hunting, so keep in touch with them. In addition to the high profile national and international employers, it’s important to actively explore and apply for jobs in smaller, lesser known firms too. These firms are likely to get fewer applications for their roles, so in the current, more competitive jobs market don’t rule these companies out. Most graduates start their careers in smaller firms and gain brilliant experience. Your careers service can help you broaden your search to companies you may not have previously heard of but are o"ering great opportunities. We know just how demoralising it can be, to be back in your childhood bedroom making job applications to employers. You’re not alone and your careers service can check your applications, give you feedback on your test and interview performance, and help you make more contacts and improve your network. This support usually continues for at least three years after graduation – and at many universities it’s available for life.
application you can put it into AI and ask ‘Do you think I’ve missed anything?’ – as long as you’re careful not to enter any personal, confidential or sensitive information. There is no magic number of applications that will guarantee you a job o"er or internship, but making fewer higher-quality applications and really investing time into each of them will improve your chances of success. The next stage after your initial application is likely to be psychometric testing. There are several di"erent types of tests that employers use, but they’re likely to include numerical or verbal reasoning, critical thinking, situational assessments, personality questionnaires and job simulations. Many people don’t realise the value of practicing these tests in advance and often struggle when they do them for the first time. That’s not because their maths is poor or they don’t have the right abilities, but it can take a while to get used to the format of the questions or the ‘gamified’ style of the tests, especially when you’ve not done them under time pressure before. Your university careers service can help you familiarise yourself with what the di"erent psychometric tests are and go though plenty of practice sessions. The more practice you do, the more you will improve and become less nervous about them. As well as the testing, many employers will ask you to complete an online automated ‘interview’ too. You answer questions under time pressure but instead of talking to a human being, you’re speaking to yourself on a computer screen. It’s an unnerving experience if you’ve not done it before and it’s another thing that takes practice to improve your confidence and technique. Not looking directly at the camera or being unclear in your answers won’t help your chances of success. Again, your careers service has plenty of tools to help you practice, get experience of some of the typical questions that are asked, think through how to structure your answers, and boost your performance. This may be another area where AI can help you. If you describe that you have an interview coming up with a specific employer for a particular role, it may be able to guide you as to the type of questions to expect. If you’re successful with the testing and recorded interview stages, then the final round of the
44 TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS
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