It has come to my attention, while perusing my first dozen or so posts, that perhaps my blog has taken an overly cynical and negative tone. This was by no means my intention when I set out to document my thoughts on the graduate job market. While it is certainly demoralising to make so little tangible progress in my search for meaningful employment, I will in future endeavour not to let this frustration colour my writing. I certainly do not want anyone to feel sorry for me, there are many other graduates in far more testing circumstances than my own. And so, I feel I must write this short and positive assessment of my current situation.
When I look at the facts I am in a healthy position. I am living at home and so face no costs such as rent and bills, giving me a more than adequate disposable income. I also know deep down that I have good qualifications that will eventually land me a graduate job. In addition, as much as I may sometimes complain, I do enjoy my work and it is gaining me a degree of useful experience in managing a small team and dealing with the general public. Anyone who knows me will also realise that I have for a long time been a little bit of a theme park enthusiast (the shame!) and so operating a £12million rollercoaster is significantly better than stacking shelves! It bears absolutely no relevance to what I want to do in future but we can't have it all. In some very tough economic times you must take what you can get.
I'm generally of the opinion that if I'm still struggling to find a graduate job by the end of the year, I'll likely leave the country on an elaborate travel adventure to some far flung and exotic corner of the globe. With time, the economic climate will improve and jobs will be more plentiful. Moreover, by then I would hope to have attained a little more relevant experience. Incidentally, if anyone reading has managed to combine travelling with gaining something meaningful and relevant to put on your CV I'd very much like to hear your suggestions.
To summarise this post: in future I'll be ditching the cynicism and reigning in the sarcasm. I may be frustrated but I'm also happy: I have a job, a home, a lovely girlfriend, lots of mates and decent prospects for the future. I have no excuse to be a miserable sod. What is more, I'm off to Barcelona on Thursday to enjoy some 28 degree sunshine and more than a little sangria!
I shall return next week when I intend to discuss the complicated art of CV writing. Until then, thanks for reading and keep commenting.
Sunday 17 June 2012
Wednesday 13 June 2012
Work Experience
As every day of job searching passes by, it becomes an ever greater frustration that I didn't spend more of my time at university accumulating that all important 'experience', rather than focusing the majority of my attention on my academic work. I simply didn't have the dedication to take up the unpaid summer placements and internships that seem so highly valued by employers. Instead, I spent my summers gallivanting around Europe with my friends. Fun but not exactly much of a CV filler.
Today it seems students must be prepared to dedicate those long summer months to personal improvement rather than rest and relaxation (don't they know its tough working 30 weeks of the year!). However, while those like myself lack the motivation, many more simply can't devote 12 weeks to working and living for nothing. For employers, summer student placements are a great trick; they gain an eager and intelligent workforce with no addition to their overheads. What is more they can claim they are acting entirely selflessly, helping future graduates gain valuable experience! But enough of my cynicism for now, the point of this little diatribe is that, in short, I did not take the time to pursue these opportunities. I lack relevant experience.
My first taste of unpaid employment came in Year 10 when I sallied forth from my High School to find a placement for a week: I lazily opted to spend time at my local primary school, which was enjoyable but bore little relation to my future career plans. Skip forward to my graduation in July 2010 and this remained the only workplace experience I could draw on, bar a few months working in a local restaurant.
It was time to organise something more significant: using a couple of local contacts I managed to arrange some time working in several departments of Staffordshire County Council. I got off to an inauspicious start after being asked to review a policy brochure, which I diligently did finding a number of minor linguistic criticisms, only to discover my supervisor for the morning had written it. Not the greatest way to endear yourself! But from that point onwards, the experience was useful and interesting. I was not made to feel like a tea boy (an often heard complaint of interns) and gained a good overview of local government. However, the placement, by the standards of employers, was not long enough. I've seen many supposed 'graduate' job adverts demand upwards of one year's experience in a relevant field; this seems unfair.
And so I reach the stage I am at today, having two degrees but very little 'real world' experience. It is not feasible for me to work and live for nothing so I must attempt to balance my minimum wage job with finding regular doses of more relevant (but unpaid) positions. This is easier said than done: while businesses are often prepared to take on someone for a week or two, or employ an intern for 12 weeks, it is more difficult to arrange one or two days per week over an indefinite period, which is ideally what I require. Given my personal interests, I have written to a number of local(ish) MPs of my particular political persuasion enquiring about any opportunities, but this is a very competitive field.
Work experience is the panacea that will cure my ills as a graduate job seeker. Nevertheless, who knew it could be this tricky to give away my services for nothing! If you're reading this and happen to have any work experience success/horror stories I'd love to hear them. Thanks for reading and keep commenting...
Today it seems students must be prepared to dedicate those long summer months to personal improvement rather than rest and relaxation (don't they know its tough working 30 weeks of the year!). However, while those like myself lack the motivation, many more simply can't devote 12 weeks to working and living for nothing. For employers, summer student placements are a great trick; they gain an eager and intelligent workforce with no addition to their overheads. What is more they can claim they are acting entirely selflessly, helping future graduates gain valuable experience! But enough of my cynicism for now, the point of this little diatribe is that, in short, I did not take the time to pursue these opportunities. I lack relevant experience.
My first taste of unpaid employment came in Year 10 when I sallied forth from my High School to find a placement for a week: I lazily opted to spend time at my local primary school, which was enjoyable but bore little relation to my future career plans. Skip forward to my graduation in July 2010 and this remained the only workplace experience I could draw on, bar a few months working in a local restaurant.
It was time to organise something more significant: using a couple of local contacts I managed to arrange some time working in several departments of Staffordshire County Council. I got off to an inauspicious start after being asked to review a policy brochure, which I diligently did finding a number of minor linguistic criticisms, only to discover my supervisor for the morning had written it. Not the greatest way to endear yourself! But from that point onwards, the experience was useful and interesting. I was not made to feel like a tea boy (an often heard complaint of interns) and gained a good overview of local government. However, the placement, by the standards of employers, was not long enough. I've seen many supposed 'graduate' job adverts demand upwards of one year's experience in a relevant field; this seems unfair.
And so I reach the stage I am at today, having two degrees but very little 'real world' experience. It is not feasible for me to work and live for nothing so I must attempt to balance my minimum wage job with finding regular doses of more relevant (but unpaid) positions. This is easier said than done: while businesses are often prepared to take on someone for a week or two, or employ an intern for 12 weeks, it is more difficult to arrange one or two days per week over an indefinite period, which is ideally what I require. Given my personal interests, I have written to a number of local(ish) MPs of my particular political persuasion enquiring about any opportunities, but this is a very competitive field.
Work experience is the panacea that will cure my ills as a graduate job seeker. Nevertheless, who knew it could be this tricky to give away my services for nothing! If you're reading this and happen to have any work experience success/horror stories I'd love to hear them. Thanks for reading and keep commenting...
Sunday 3 June 2012
(In)Competence
Its been almost a fortnight since my last instalment and in case any of you were wondering, I remain in search of graduate employment. However, despite my silence on the blogosphere, I have at least some positive news having had a telephone interview for the graduate scheme of an unnamed (cough) entertainments company. This being only the first stage in a long and arduous selection process, I'm not hugely optimistic of a positive outcome but at least they haven't thrown my application in the dustbin just yet...
The telephone interview took a very specific format and has prompted me to discuss a particular aspect of the graduate recruitment process: competene based questioning. With many large companies outsourcing the early stages of their selection process to recruitment consultants, the questions posed in initial telephone interviews are often vague and unspecific. They ask not about a candidate's suitability for a specific role, but instead ask for examples of certain key competencies, from leadership and teamwork to creativity and lateral thinking.
While I feel I am perfectly capable of demonstrating the majority of these faculties in given situations, I am frankly terrible at thinking of impressive and original examples, especially when prompted on the spot. No matter how many of these competencies I attempt to identify in advance and try to prepare for, I am invariably stumped by one or two I have neglected. In my case, this usually results in me bumbling my way through a fallacious and long-winded story loosely based on a distant past experience. In a recent unsuccessful interview, I created a largely fictitious (but very dramatic) tale of a teammate breaking an ankle on my gold Duke of Edinburgh's expedition as an example of my exceptional teamwork skills! Otherwise, I invariably resort to generic, unspecific and thoroughly unimpressive examples from my academic career which seem to go down like a lead balloon. Employers want substance it seems.
There is very little to stop candidates from simply making up examples of particular competencies. I have an old friend (who I hope is reading) that shamelessly added a charity climb of Kilimanjaro to his CV! It seems highly unlikely that any employer would take the time and effort to identify the veracity of a candidate's claims. So what are employers actually testing? This kind of questioning is just another meaningless way of filtering out a few more candidates, specifically those that lack the creativity or sheer gumption of others.
It is particularly frustrating to pass an initial screening process only to fall at the first significant hurdle, before you are given an opportunity to talk about the job or even company for which you have applied to work. It's just another one of the many hoops that graduates must jump through to land that first job. While lying is likely to land you in hot water further down the line, we've all been tempted to use a little creative licence to bolster our chances. For many of us, the reality of our day to day existence isn't quite enough to spark the interest of an employer searching for that 'unique' and 'special' candidate. Selling yourself is the name of the game and unfortunately it is a shameless and cynical process.
If any of those reading would like to share some of the tales you've told at interview that demonstrate what a talented person you are then I'd love to hear them.
Thanks once again for reading and don't forget to comment below...
The telephone interview took a very specific format and has prompted me to discuss a particular aspect of the graduate recruitment process: competene based questioning. With many large companies outsourcing the early stages of their selection process to recruitment consultants, the questions posed in initial telephone interviews are often vague and unspecific. They ask not about a candidate's suitability for a specific role, but instead ask for examples of certain key competencies, from leadership and teamwork to creativity and lateral thinking.
While I feel I am perfectly capable of demonstrating the majority of these faculties in given situations, I am frankly terrible at thinking of impressive and original examples, especially when prompted on the spot. No matter how many of these competencies I attempt to identify in advance and try to prepare for, I am invariably stumped by one or two I have neglected. In my case, this usually results in me bumbling my way through a fallacious and long-winded story loosely based on a distant past experience. In a recent unsuccessful interview, I created a largely fictitious (but very dramatic) tale of a teammate breaking an ankle on my gold Duke of Edinburgh's expedition as an example of my exceptional teamwork skills! Otherwise, I invariably resort to generic, unspecific and thoroughly unimpressive examples from my academic career which seem to go down like a lead balloon. Employers want substance it seems.
There is very little to stop candidates from simply making up examples of particular competencies. I have an old friend (who I hope is reading) that shamelessly added a charity climb of Kilimanjaro to his CV! It seems highly unlikely that any employer would take the time and effort to identify the veracity of a candidate's claims. So what are employers actually testing? This kind of questioning is just another meaningless way of filtering out a few more candidates, specifically those that lack the creativity or sheer gumption of others.
It is particularly frustrating to pass an initial screening process only to fall at the first significant hurdle, before you are given an opportunity to talk about the job or even company for which you have applied to work. It's just another one of the many hoops that graduates must jump through to land that first job. While lying is likely to land you in hot water further down the line, we've all been tempted to use a little creative licence to bolster our chances. For many of us, the reality of our day to day existence isn't quite enough to spark the interest of an employer searching for that 'unique' and 'special' candidate. Selling yourself is the name of the game and unfortunately it is a shameless and cynical process.
If any of those reading would like to share some of the tales you've told at interview that demonstrate what a talented person you are then I'd love to hear them.
Thanks once again for reading and don't forget to comment below...
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