Successful Graduate Job Hunting
have a real interest in the role they’re applying for. This means that almost every employer in the room wants to publicise their programmes to history graduates, along with most other subjects and degree disciplines. There are several other things that your university careers service can introduce you to in your first year. Online work experience with graduate employers, in either the Christmas, Easter or summer holidays, can be a be a great way to find out about different graduate jobs. And this can fit around doing a part-time local job, if you’re using this to fund your university studies.
tips and advice about the application and selection process. It’s important to talk to as many employers as you can – not just those that you are already considering – because the majority of employers who offer entry-level vacancies aren’t necessarily household names, nor are they offering graduate jobs that you will be familiar with. Remember too, as you go round a careers fair, that employers rarely promote ‘opportunities for history students’, because they are happy to recruit graduates from any degree discipline, provided they have the right skills and can demonstrate they
Start Early for a Career in Banking & Finance
of graduates who are already doing those roles. And during the programme you’ll have the chance to be assessed for an internship in your second year too. To get a place on one of our discovery programmes, you’ll need to apply during the autumn of your first year at university. Places are limited and the selection process includes an application form, online assessments that focus on your values, your mindset and your aptitude, and then a final-round assessment day. We’re not expecting you to already have an in-depth knowledge of banking but we are checking if you have the right skills and a real desire to find out more about the opportunities we offer. If you’re applying for one of our 10-week internships in your second year – or a place on our graduate programmes – it is a more competitive process. We would expect you to have a good understanding of the part of the bank you’re applying to, by that point. We are very transparent about our assessments and provide plenty of information about what we’re assessing at each stage. To be successful, you need to be able to demonstrate that you’ve really researched who we are as an employer and that your skillset and values genuinely align with what we’re looking for. If you take a scatter-gun approach and make multiple applications to different employers without doing this research, you’re much less likely to be offered a place. ”
I f you’re thinking about a graduate job in banking & finance at a global bank like Barclays, then it pays to start preparing as soon as you can. Around 70 per cent of our graduate intake are students who have done a paid internship at the bank, usually at the end of their second year at university. And up to half of those who do an internship are students who’ve taken part in one of our first year discovery programmes. These two-day taster experiences, held at Easter in your first year, give you a proper understanding of what the day-to-day roles are within the bank and introduce you to a network Richard Irwin, Global Head of Early Careers, Barclays
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