Recent news has suggested that available job vacancies are at their highest level in the UK since the late 1990’s. This is great news for those coming out of university – especially considering only a few years ago recent graduates were really up against it when it came to finding a job.
However, whilst prospects have improved, it certainly isn’t easy to find that all-important first job after university. In fact, it takes hard work and dedicated hours to get employment that you are happy with.
There are ways that you can improve your career prospects though whatever industry you are interested in working in, whether it is banking IT jobs, marketing or something else.
Careers Fair
If you are in final year of your course and will be finishing in the next couple of months then it is well worth planning ahead and visiting one of the careers fairs that the university will hold. Or, if you have already finished your course, it’s likely that you will be able to go back to your university to visit these or to use their careers service for a number of years after you have graduated. At the careers fair you will find a number of national and local employers who will run specialist graduate recruitment programmes – so dress up smart, bring along some CV’s and be prepared to talk to some recruiters and sell yourself.
Prospective Applications
Sending off prospective applications to companies that you are interested in working for can be surprisingly effective. This is a good method if you have tried some of the other avenues and not had too much luck. Others may only have particular companies or an industry that they want to work within, and therefore are willing to wait until the right openings become available. Try to be persistent without being annoying and burning your bridges – if you are especially keen it may even be worth asking the company if you can do some unpaid work experience for them to prove what you can do.
Use Social Media
There has been a massive increase in the use of social media by those looking for job roles, as well as recruiters and companies searching for the ideal candidate for the vacancy they are looking to fill. LinkedIn lead the way when it came to social job hunting, but now it is possible to use Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to look for roles and network with influential people within your chosen industry. For this reason, it is important that you are using social in the right way – make sure that your profiles are professional and reflect you in a positive light before you attempt to use them for such a purpose.
Newspapers
There’s still a place for newspapers when it comes to finding a job, especially if you are keen to work in your local area. Roles advertised in the paper will undoubtedly get a lot of applications and therefore be competitive, but if something appears which you feel is suited to your skills then this traditional method is still well worth exploring.