Graduate Hunting For Job!

jay-chill

Hey folks!

I'm a marketing management graduate - get my results in July, expecting a 2:1. The problem is I went for graduate jobs, but think my applications were a bit weak, or failed on the maths parts. Well at the moment I'm applying for jobs but don't have any experience - something that everywhere seems to want. I feel like I've reached a dead end. I work part time at the moment, earning 13,000 and I'm so tempted to get a second job to increase my earnings, a little drastic but I'm rather disheartened to going through 4 years of university to not get anything.

Is there anything else I can do?

holstar

is there any way you can gain experience...work experience, maybe work shadowing or something, that would increase your employability? try doing that for 6 months or so (if you can) and then reapply to graduate jobs
might be preferable to getting a 2nd job, as it would increase the chances of you being able to use your degree in your job

greyster

Hi Jay

If you log onto monster which is the largest job site I think in the UK and browse the grad forums you will see you are one of millions of students that are in the catch 22 situation i.e. got the qualification but not enough experience etc etc. The best bets for you are the graduation schemes which don't need experience. Infact most have a restriction of 18 months experience before they auto reject you.

They're heavily over subscribed and its quite disheartening to do 1-4 stage selection processes with final stages being whole day selection centres or even 3 day ones in the case of the forces.

With all the negativity out the way I can tell you not to worry. You haven't left university yet, I would suggest you keep applying and applying and don't give up. I got a friend working for Accenture grad scheme on 28k + 10k bonus over two years and he applied for at least 15-20 jobs before he got it. By the time he started work there, 5 months have passed since graduation. For me personally, it was 4 months and we're the ones with relatively high pay for graduates.

Use the time you have left as an advantage. Many don't get "good" jobs one year after they finish university and do work which doesnt need a degree. Just keep going and remember that a lot of companies have a really !!!!!! selection process where your application is read by monkies and perhaps you were (and can never find out because you cant get feedback) rejected for the wrong reasons.

I am contracting but its relatively easy in IT (dont know about marketting) and doing fine. However I know how annoying job hunting can be, as I did a sandwich degree and applied for over 60 jobs and did 5 interviews before I got my job with the MOD.

Good luck ... just keep going ...... its all you can do .. unless you want to accept lower paid work. Try not to lower your standards and expectations as the months pass.

jay-chill

hey guys, thanks for your replies. Yeah I think the whole thing is just to keep on going, and not be put down by all these refusals. I didn't realise that grad schemes were still recruiting. Perhaps I should look outwith Scotland aswell.

greyster

milkround.co.uk is best site for grad schemes. Many are recruiting all year round, some are just at certain times. Dont be deterred if your favourite retail outlet grad scheme is closed

fran_from_willesden

You can try out Matchtech as well...they have all sorts of jobs, matchtech.co.uk

I'm doing a Masters at the moment and even with this extra qualification, I'm finding it difficult to find a job that is willing to take on a recent graduate without at least '2 years experience'. How are you supposed to get started!!

Good luck with the job hunt

blueghost

greyster wrote:

milkround.co.uk is best site for grad schemes. Many are recruiting all year round, some are just at certain times. Dont be deterred if your favourite retail outlet grad scheme is closed

i'd have to agree about the milkround site - i got my job through it, worth while registering on there