How to Land a Job After University
Applying for jobs can be an extremely stressful process. This is especially the case for university graduates. We've all heard the grim news about the oversupply of university graduates and the limited number of graduate positions up for grabs. This scarcity of employment is only being amplified by the global pandemic.
I've been to university twice in my lifetime. The first time, I graduated without a job in my field. To be honest, it sucked. I felt like I was floundering during the job application process and it was a real blow to my confidence. The second time I attended university, I made a promise to myself that I would do everything in my power to graduate my degree with a job offer in hand. I was fortunate enough to receive four separate employment offers relevant to my studies. The offers came from professional services firms, a government agency and a start-up.
Whilst I feel very lucky to receive multiple offers, the truth is, I worked my ass off to get them. This article contains the method to my madness during the chaos of the graduate recruitment process. For any students embarking on this process, I hope these tips are helpful.
Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels
Start Early
There are plenty of graduates who manage to score internships, clerkships or part-time positions during their studies that can lead to permanent positions upon graduation or lead to valuable experience that can help them land other graduate roles. It’s never too early in your studies to start looking and applying for these types of opportunities.
However, if you were unsuccessful in scoring one of these opportunities, or if the thought never crossed your mind in the earlier parts of your studies, there’s still time! I didn’t land any work experience until the final year of my degree. I also know of people without any prior industry experience gaining fantastic graduate positions.
Regardless of your prior experience, you can still start early. You can do this by applying for jobs well before you graduate. Some companies start their graduate recruitment processes 12 months prior to their graduate commencement dates. For my specific industry, applications for 2022 graduate roles opened as early as February 2021 even though I wasn’t graduating until the end of 2021.
It is true that some companies may offer multiple rounds of graduate hires throughout the year. However, it is usually the case that if they find a suitable candidate in their initial round of offers for a certain stream or division of the company, they may not advertise this stream in further rounds of hires. It’s best to be on the front foot and apply in the first round of recruitment. You may miss out on the chance to apply for certain streams or divisions if you leave it too late.
Get Prepared
You’ll want to make sure that you’ve updated your CV and/or resumé and that you’ve done some research about the types of industries, roles and organisations that you’d be interested in working in before they start recruiting. You may also want to look at organising a template for the cover letters you’ll need to write or at least draft some potential ideas. For the most part, I tailored my cover letters to each position I was applying for, so I don’t recommend having one generic cover letter that you send out with every application. But in saying that, the vast majority of my cover letters included the same information with a few adjustments to tailor my cover letter to the position’s job description.
Some of this advice might seem like a bit much, but graduate applications can be very time-consuming and it can all get pretty hectic. This is because you’ll most likely be submitting multiple applications where each graduate recruitment process involves multiple rounds. Upon completion of each round, the more-competitive applicants will progress through whilst the less-competitive applicants will be removed from the applicant pool. In addition to submitting the initial applications, you may also have to complete rounds of psychometric testing, submit video interviews, attend ‘assessment centres’ which are essentially large-scale group interviews as well as attend individual interviews. There are usually strict deadlines associated with each of these rounds so juggling these commitments in addition to your university studies, volunteering, part-time work etc can become increasingly challenging as you progress through these rounds for each of your applications.
Do Your Research
I repeat, it is essential that you research the types of industries, roles and organisations that you could work in once you graduate. From there, you can apply for jobs in the areas you’re interested in as well as jobs that match your skillset.
In saying that, it’s also important to keep an open mind and apply for multiple jobs to explore your options to some degree and maximise your chances of getting an offer. The main thing you shouldn’t do is apply for jobs willy-nilly.
As I said before, the process for each application can be extremely time-consuming, So it's better to divert your time, energy and attention into applications for roles that you’re genuinely interested in and/or match your skillset. Once you’ve completed those applications, you may wish to expand the scope of your applications to cover more bases. That’s totally fine as long as you’re comfortable with the extra workload that may be involved.
I’ve heard that recruiters don’t like candidates who apply for every single stream that a company is hiring in. It shows that you don’t know what you want. It also shows that you don’t have a vision of where you belong in the company and where your skills are best. I’m not saying you can’t apply for multiple positions within one company. But just make sure you’re being somewhat selective about doing so.
When it comes to interviews, researching the role and the company is essential to landing the job. Read the company’s website and any relevant publications or reports you can find. You’ll want to know the company’s values and their goals and you’ll want to be prepared to answer how your goals align with the company goals and how what you can contribute to helping achieve them.
Sometimes company websites can be a bit vague when it comes to the team and the role you’ve applied for. This is when a Google search can be handy to better understand what the role entails. You should also have a look at the company’s LinkedIn page. From there you may be able to find employees in the role you’re applying for or in the same team. Make sure to do this employee snooping on a friend or family member’s LinkedIn account if you’d like to retain your anonymity!
Job interviews can be quite an uncomfortable and nerve-wracking experience. I’d argue they are for most people. However, I found that doing the research made me feel much more prepared for what the interviewers were going to ask me which ultimately eased my nerves and boosted my confidence substantially.
Sit Down With Yourself
This piece of advice was actually given to me by a mentor during my studies. They recommended that when I was deciding what kind of career I wanted and what kind of graduate job I wanted, it was important to factor into that decision my personal goals, the lifestyle I wanted to live as well as the things I wanted for my future career.
Let’s start with some basic questions:
What subjects did you enjoy at uni?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
What kind of work do you like doing?
Where do you want to work?
What sort of hours would you prefer to work?
What does work-life balance look like to you?
Write down your answers. I’m sure many other wants and goals may come to mind during this process. Write these down too. It’s so important to take the time to reflect on your goals and the things that are important to you so that you can make decisions about your future job and career that align with these.
You are the person solely responsible for pursuing your own goals and ambitions. These include those related to your career. In my experience, I found it extremely empowering and liberating to ‘take control’ of my career in such a way by applying for jobs that were consistent with goals, beliefs and values. Ultimately, I was very happy (and relieved) with the job offer I accepted because it’s a role that is consistent with my career goals as well as the lifestyle that I would like to live.
At the end of the day, it’s your hard work and your decision so make sure that it’s truly what’s best for you!
You’ve got this!
Much love,
The Blazer Chronicles