Plan to prevent graduate career crisis

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls; final year is upon you. If you haven’t got your graduate career plans sorted then now is the hour for it. Drop the excuses and stop procrastinating. It’s better to do it now than to be bored and unemployed in one year’s time.

Make a plan

In order to secure a graduate job you need to build towards it. This isn’t a game of chance. Your roadmap should look something like this:

1. find your vocation
2. choose career sector
3. investigate the industry and employers
4. find vacancies
5. check job requirements
6. ensure you have skills and experience
7. start the application process.

Work out what you want to do and then refer to our sector-specific advice. This is important, because if you want to go into banking for example, you may need to undertake an internship as a graduate. This in turn will mean that you need to make plans for the year in between the internship and when the grad schemes start.

First steps for arts undergrads

Arts degrees can be a double edged sword. On one hand you may have trouble persuading recruiters that you are committed to a career in their field. This is especially true when you’re up against candidates from a more suitable background. However, the broad range of skills gained from arts degrees means that you can go into a range of different careers.

If you’re at a loss as to what you can do, check out our series of degree-specific guides. They will give you a bit of background on the specific skills you will have picked up from your degree. They also include some career ideas you might not have thought of, and lists of celebrities with your degree – you could be surprised. Alternatively, you can try our careers report, which you can tailor specifically to your interests.

Sort your timing out

You will also need to figure out when you’re going to do all this over the course of the year. Some of the stages may take longer than you think, so it’s a good idea to get it going before exam pressure builds up. Applications for many grad schemes open around September, and can close around Christmas. What’s more, many are run on a first-come, first-served basis, meaning that they may start filling up vacancies before applications have even closed.

While you shouldn’t rush your application, it would make your life a lot easier if you knew you had a graduate job offer which only depended on your results. To get details on specific employers and their recruitment practices, check out our Employer Insights guides.

Get sorted for work experience

For most undergrads there will be two month-long holidays and two week-long reading breaks this year. While you should undoubtedly be using this time to study and write dissertations, it is also a good space to arrange an internship or work shadowing. If you can arrange this with more than one employer in the same sector, you will be able to impress recruiters with your interest in the area.

Unfortunately, a lot of big employers tend to only take on interns in summer. They may run shorter introductory programmes at Christmas and Easter. Do your research and be prepared to take the initiative and approach organisations directly.

Work hard

You don’t need telling that it is important to knuckle down for the next year. However, recent research has suggested that degree classification is one of the most important factors employers take into consideration. With that in mind, make sure that you don’t neglect your studies when you’re researching your career. Career planning might not feel like procrastination, but it can be.

Job hunting isn’t a team sport, but this doesn’t mean you’re alone. Remember that your career services department is there to help. They don’t work magic, and you are still going to have to make all the effort. However, they can show you how to direct your effort for maximum effect.

Source: Targetjobs.co.uk, Thursday 30th August 2012