Stage 1

Dream Job

Now, in your first year, is an ideal time to start thinking ahead, if you want to work in any high-quality, well-paid graduate job after your degree. The graduate training schemes with the Times Top 100 Employers are extremely competitive, and to land one of those positions, employers typically look for a 2:1 and relevant work experience. Smaller employers tend to place less emphasis on the grade, but will look for work experience.

Placements and internships tend to be regarded as the gold standard of work experience, as these provide opportunities to work on live projects and tend to offer high quality training. In addition, many employers use internships and placements as part of their graduate recruitment strategy and often tend to offer graduate jobs or fast tracks to assessment centres or final interviews for around 70%.

Insight and Spring Week programmes tend to be offered predominantly to Year 1 students, and internships and placements mostly for Year 2 or penultimate year students.

Job Shop – University of Kent

Jobshop is a recruitment service provided by Kent Union to help students studying at the University of Kent in Canterbury and Medway to find part-time employment.Jobshop’s mission is to ensure that as many students as possible gain valuable work experience and develop employability skills whilst at Kent. 
They are located next to the Essentials in the central part of campus and advertise part-time, temporary and seasonal work and some graduate jobs around Easter, which are both on and off campus.
Last year they advertised a staggering 5,746 vacancies. Make sure you subscribe to their weekly email newsletter, so you don’t miss out. The easiest way to do it is to:
1) Go to the Kent Union’s website (https://kentunion.co.uk/);
2) Click ‘Student Sign In’ at the very top of the page (right under the website address bar in your browser);
3) Press ‘Yes, continue’ for Kent Union to access your profile;
4) Click ‘My Profile’ at the very top of the page (exactly where ‘Student Sign In’ was located);
5) On the left-hand side, under Kent Union’s logo, choose ‘JobShop’ (located below ‘Activities’);
6) Tick alerts that apply (Make sure you tick ‘Weekly Newsletter’, otherwise you will not receive it);
7) Click ‘Save Changes’. If you followed all the steps correctly, you can expect a newsletter arriving straight in your inbox on Friday with all the latest jobs!
Also, follow them on our Facebook page (Jobshop@kent) where you can find ‘spotted in Canterbury & Medway’ posts with job offers from various employers.
If you have any questions, the JobShop is open Monday to Friday from 10:00 until 16:00 (term time).
Email: jobshop@kent.ac.uk
Phone: 01227 824251
Updates on Facebook: Jobshop@kent; Twitter: Jobshop_Kent; Instagram: jobshopkent

 

Information about different types of work experience and further resources

Graduate Prospects: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/work-experience-and-internships 

Target Jobs https://targetjobs.co.uk/internships

Insight Days for first year students

You may also like to know that many of the larger employers (accountancy/finance businesses, investment banks, FMCGs and management consultancies) offer Insight Days or Insight Programmes for Year 1 to provide some insights into these career areas.

These events are typically one or two days at the companies’ premises, often during the Easter holidays. Be aware – sign-up dates are very early, often at the latest end December/January. These are advertised on the companies’ own websites and through the usual graduate recruitment sites, or simply google Career Insight Days.

Deadlines for vary from November/December to January – apply early!

Employers who have advertised schemes for Year 1 students:

Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Bank of England
Barclays
BDO
BNP Paribas
BP
Credit Suisse
Daimler
Deutsche Bank
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Goldman Sachs
HSBC
J.P. Morgan
Lazard
Morgan Stanley
Rothschild
SEO London (for first year ethnic minority undergraduates; mostly investment banking and professional services)
Telefonica (O2)
Unilever
USB Warburg
Walt Disney World Resort