Successful Graduate Job Hunting
researched, well-written applications will be more successful, especially when coupled with thorough practice and preparation for employers’ tests, online interviews and final-round assessments. If you reach the second half of your final year at university and you haven’t received a graduate job offer yet, then the key message is not to panic. Many students do opt to prioritise their academic studies and postpone their graduate job hunting until after graduation. Others choose to take time out or go travelling and up to a fifth of students decide each year to extend their studies with a Masters or other higher-level qualification. Some employers recruit on a year-round basis and others have multiple intakes during the year, not just September or October start dates, which means you may be able to apply over the summer for a graduate job starting a few months later. Whichever stage you are at, though, your university careers service will continue to support you preparing applications and getting ready for the selection process, even after you have graduated. And if your initial applications have
The final selection round for most larger employers is an assessment day or selection centre. These are usually in-person at employers’ offices or regional centres and include a number of different exercises and assessments, such as one-to-one interviews, group exercises, presentations and more testing. Again, it’s essential to practice each of these elements beforehand, because you don’t want your first attempt to be with the employer you most-want to work for. Completing applications and going through the selection process can be very time-consuming so it’s important to be realistic about the number of employers you apply to. On average, employers featured in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers receive between 40 and 50 applications for each graduate vacancy. Or to put that the other way round, they reject 97-98% of the graduate applications they receive. With such intense competition for places, it’s instinctive to try and make a large number of applications, in the hope of improving the odds of landing an offer. But in reality, fewer well-
Graduate Job Applications made by ‘Class of 2024’
Consulting
Accountancy
23.6%
9.1%
Media
Teaching
17.4%
8.6%
Marketing
Engineering
16.1%
8.5%
Research & development
Sales
14.7%
8.0%
Investment banking
General management
12.3%
4.9%
Law
Retailing
12.2%
4.2%
Finance
Transport & logistics
11.1%
3.7%
Technology
Actuarial work
10.8%
3.0%
Charity or voluntary work
Buying or purchasing
9.9%
2.9%
Human resources
Property or surveying
9.7%
2.2%
0
5
10
15
20
0
5
10
15
Percentage of final year students
Percentage of final year students
Source High Fliers Research 14,271 final year students leaving UK universities in the summer of 2024 were asked about the type of graduate jobs they had applied to or planned to apply to, during interviews for The UK Graduate Careers Survey 2024
44 TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS
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