After a decade of supporting students into graduate jobs, our in-house careers expert Nicola Urquhart offers up her top tips for getting hired after University.
- Star employees use the STAR Approach
The specification is one of the most important parts of a job application. It asks for evidence of how to meet the attributes, skills and knowledge required for a role, not just the duties as listed in the job description.
STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action and Result. When writing about why you fit the brief, describe the situation and task, the actions you took and importantly what the result or outcome was, where possible try to quantify the outcome.
- Know your top skills
Top skills that employers are looking for tend to centre around the same things:
Communication, teamworking, being proactive and resilience.
Make sure you have your examples ready for these commonly requested skills and attributes and choose from a variety of situations and activities you have undertaken that spans university study, extracurricular activity, and work experience.
- Employment is a two-way street
The recruitment process should be something that will help you to decide if a company or role is right for you. You’re also interviewing them to see if you want to work for the company.
Reframing the experience in such a way can also help alleviate a few nerves.
- Any experience is good experience
There are many ways to make your experience relevant to employers. Taking working part time in a shop as an example, instead of focusing on tasks such as stocking the shelves explain how you adhered to company policies and procedures, covered for colleagues when necessary and demonstrated great customer service.
- Check, check and check again!
A surprisingly high number of applications are rejected because of simple mistakes, for example, the employer’s name being spelt incorrectly, the application being incomplete and grammatical errors. This is why it’s important to get someone else to read over your application before you send it.
- Do your research
Demonstrating passion and commercial awareness for the company and sector you are applying to goes a long way to making your application stand out. Make sure you tailor each application to the job you are applying for and where possible reference the company’s values and mission, which you can usually find on their website. Another tip is to mirror the language used by the employer in person specification and job description.
- Graduate schemes are not the only way!
Alternative routes into companies via their jobs page can be just as good as specific graduate ones. Excellent opportunities also exist in small and medium size enterprises, the majority of whom will not run a graduate scheme.
- Use your networks
Talk to people, including alumni from your university who have already been through the recruitment process for the company or sector you are applying to. This is a great way to gain valuable insights that will help you to shine at interview. LinkedIn provides a great platform for you to contact alumni from your university
- Rejection isn’t always a negative
Applying for graduate roles is a series of people saying No and then someone saying YES. Dealing with rejection is a key part of the recruitment process so make sure you don’t give up and instead reframe rejection as an opportunity to learn. Stay positive and know that the all-important YES will come.
- Don’t compare and despair
It’s all too easy when applying for graduate roles to compare yourself with others. Instead, focus on all you have already achieved including successfully studying for a degree during a pandemic.
Do you know what is available to you via the Careers and Employability Service? See here for more information and advice https://www.kent.ac.uk/ces