Uni graduate...new to job seeking.

bitsandpieces

lexilex wrote: »

At the moment these are the websites I am visiting on a daily basis...

Job Centre (rubbish, yesterday there was one job put on there in my area!)
Local paper website
Reed
Total Jobs
Jobs Go Public (only seems to post jobs on a Mon)
Children and Young People Now Jobs
Monster (again, rubbish)
Fish4Jobs
Gumtree (Although all the jobs on there sound like scams)
Civil Service

You could also look on http://www.goodmoves.org.uk. Guardian jobs are worth a look (good for charity and government jobs). Times Education would be good if you'd consider jobs in education and NHS Jobs if you want, well, you can guess what this one's for Have you tried http://www.ngdp.co.uk ?

It's a hard time to be looking - definitely a good idea to speak to your university's careers advice. Why couldn't you do sales? I wouldn't take the jobcentre person's word for it.

vaporate

lexilex wrote: »

Psychology

Cool I did that. It was a very hard course.

Don't worry, it has nothing to do with your degree choice.

It's just crazy out there, millions are unemployed by no fault of their own.

You can only keep looking.

hr100

lexilex wrote: »

Thanks everybody for taking the time to reply, I shall have a look at all the sites mentioned once I've finished this post.

I have tried the volunteering route, as I mentioned in my post yesterday. I applied for a few different roles last week through the Do It site but have heard nothing back, not sure if this is how long it normally takes? Also, in April I got into the Police Specials, but have had to keep postponing the training. Obviously at the moment I am jobseeking and have to take whatever I can get so can't commit to have evenings and weekends free.

I was told to take my CV along to the job centre on Wed for my first initial meeting, and was told somebody would go through it. The only time anybody even looked was so they could copy my A-Level/GCSE results on to the form they were filling in. The next time anybody there will be able to look is at an appointment at the end of next month.

Will have a look at the intern idea too, thanks.

I emailed some companies yesterday with my CV and a letter explaining I was seeking work and received some very rude responses. The lady at the job centre told us that a third of jobs go unadvertised, and many companies prefer to employ people who have sent in their info as it saves on advertising costs. That is not the impression I got from many of the companies I heard from. Some told me I had to just keep checking sites for vacancies, which I obviously I will do but if a vacancy isn't advertised how is this going to help :mad:

Hi

Can I reccomend a book to you? Its called what colour is your parachute? It teaches you that only about 10% of all jobs are ever advertised, most jobs are through people you know, networking and literally getting on the phone of companies you would like to work for and trying to speak to people.

It has some awesome advice, if you cant afford to buy a copy I am sure your local library will have a copy.

Finally, ever thought about working abroad, I worked as a rep for 3 years after my degree and got so many life skills (whilst having an amazing time) Ski season starts soon, go have fun and dont worry about your career too much yet - you have years to go that!

Running_On_Empty

The one place you should be in touch with is your University's careers advice centre!
Have you done this yet?
They will have online and face to face resources geared up for recent graduates. They may well also have an online jobs board which may well be only available to their own graduates.
Sorry to say this but you are really not listening to the advice you were given some time ago.

Have you registered on the Prospects website yet?
https://www.prospects.ac.uk
It is an absolute mine of information and jobs specifically for higher education students and graduates


To find a job as a Psychologist you would need to attain chartered status with the British Psychological Society but there are many careers where a degree in psychology is very helpful: HR, careers adviser, marketing just to name a few and then there are the careers where ANY degree is acceptable.
You are not too late to apply for a graduate scheme job for summer 2011. It is not true that graduate schemes require experience.

I urge you to :
1. contact your own university's careers advice centre
2. your local university's careers service if you are now in a different location from where you studied - they may ask you to wait for an interview in this busy autumn term period
3. register on prospects website and use the careers info to learn about how to find a job, what a good CV looks like, what careers psychology grads have entered.

UnderPressure

Hammyman wrote: »

Filling out applications in basic english correctly would be a start. It should be 'luck', not 'look'. Most employers get so many applications that the illiterate looking ones go straight in the bin.

:p:p:p:p

zenmaster wrote: »

My son finished his Masters a few weeks ago.

Last week he googled the kind of work he is looking for in this area and came up with a list of 20 or so companies. He drove round to all of them and personally told them he was looking for work and handed a CV in. Since many of these places were on industrial estates he also cruised the estate looking for similar companies and called in on them too. In all about 30 companies.

He got to meet and chat with 4 HR representatives and received encouraging responses (including his dream job). He had one refusal, but even they said to apply again next month as they have a graduate intake planned.

Time will tell as to whether he is successful but I was extremely proud and impressed by his proactive attitude and I'm sure prospective employers will be too.

So I would suggest something similar for you. If you can't visit, telephone. Personal contact is so much better, I'm sure, than an unsolicited CV in the post.

Thats the way to do it well done your son and this is exactly the kind of determination employers want to see, I bet he will have a decent job before he knows it

lexilex

Thanks for all the replies. Added all the sites mentioned to my favourites.

I have been looking into the intern route, and there really is nothing available here. I am guessing it is because I live in a relatively small city.

I have been looking through the leaflets I got from the job centre and noticed one about a work trial, I am going start offering that alongside applications, hopefully it give me a better chance.

Running_On_Empty wrote: »

The one place you should be in touch with is your University's careers advice centre!
Have you done this yet?
They will have online and face to face resources geared up for recent graduates. They may well also have an online jobs board which may well be only available to their own graduates.
Sorry to say this but you are really not listening to the advice you were given some time ago.

I have actually been in contact with the careers services at University, I emailed them last week asking if it would be possible to make an appointment so they could look through my CV and for help with speculative letters so for you to say I am not listening seems very rude, I would not have come on here if I did not want advice, and I am greatful for all the advice I have received.

As I posted previously, I had been working full-time up until just one week ago so could not fit in an appointment with careers until last Monday. To make out that I am ignoring advice is just completely ridiculous.

vaporate

There's not much the careers office at uni can do except offer basic advice. What they will tell you you can easily find online anyway.

Been there myself years ago.

I would evne offer voluntary work at random companies, just to get as much experience as possible.

A biochemistry graduate with no experience would experience the same trouble as you are OP.

Conclusively, you can only keep applying.

Savvy_Sue

If you're interested in working in the voluntary / charity sector, it would be worth googling CVS plus your local area to find your local volunteer 'umbrella body'. Ours advertises jobs on their website and the new ones are highlighted in a weekly email which anyone can subscribe to. This includes volunteer and paid roles.

I think (could be wrong) that the volunteer sites you've been looking at so far are on a national not local level.

Some organisations / employers advertise all jobs, even if they have someone who looks 'obvious' in mind for the role. If you sent your cv to me 'on spec', I'd tell you where we always advertise, but I wouldn't keep your details on file: it's up to you to apply when we actually have a vacancy.

DS1's found a job through his former Uni friends: the company he's working for has a base here and in his Uni city, so he's hoping to transfer back there in a while. But make sure all your friends know, they may hear of things which would suit you.

Running_On_Empty

lexilex wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. Added all the sites mentioned to my favourites.

I have been looking into the intern route, and there really is nothing available here. I am guessing it is because I live in a relatively small city.

I have been looking through the leaflets I got from the job centre and noticed one about a work trial, I am going start offering that alongside applications, hopefully it give me a better chance.



I have actually been in contact with the careers services at University, I emailed them last week asking if it would be possible to make an appointment so they could look through my CV and for help with speculative letters so for you to say I am not listening seems very rude, I would not have come on here if I did not want advice, and I am greatful for all the advice I have received.

As I posted previously, I had been working full-time up until just one week ago so could not fit in an appointment with careers until last Monday. To make out that I am ignoring advice is just completely ridiculous.

No intention of being rude and I'm sorry that you interpreted my post in that way.
I remembered that you asked about your CV back in August and another poster on that thread mentioned contacting your university's careers service at that time.
FYI, I too have a degree in psychology and was director of a university careers service.

Tankrizzo_2

Lexi, seems to me that you don't really know what you want to do at the moment. Your degree, without being rude, isn't a "core" subject and won't open many doors for you on its own, especially nowadays where graduates are ten a penny. You need to figure out what you want to do and then start ringing as many firms as you can, making a total nuisance of yourself.

When I left university with a German degree, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I'd taken German because I wanted to go to uni but didn't know what to do. In hindsight, really, I shouldn't have gone at all, because I was going for the wrong reasons; just simply to experience university rather than dedicate myself to my degree.

After leaving, I sat down with my friends and family and asked them to describe what sort of job they saw me going into, based on my interests and hobbies. Sometimes you need an external point of view to give you some clarity. My parents pointed out that I'd always been "tech savvy" and interested in computers, technology etc; after some reflection I realised that they were right, and started to look for work based on this direction. I got a job a few months later via a graduate scheme with a large blue-chip American corporation in software development and I'm still in the industry nine years later with a successful and profitable career which I really enjoy.

Think long and hard about what you really want to do because everything will become much clearer after that. Don't take this the wrong way but I personally would not take a "careers advisor" seriously who had gone straight into that job from uni, with no real post-degree employment experience to draw on.