 | Headlines will always be negative: look beyond them. The market is tough – but there are always vacancies. |
| Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive, Association of Graduate Recruiters |
This chapter looks at how employers get their vacancies into the marketplace, which means we show you where the job opportunities are, and how you can find them. It is important to remember that employers are looking for the right person to fill their job with just as much commitment and concern as you show when you are looking for your brilliant job.
Supply and demand: it takes two
The basic principle of the graduate labour market is that two equally important elements must be in place for the market to work, namely: supply and demand (for an in-depth exploration of the graduate labour market, have a look at Chapter 2). In the graduate labour market you as the jobseeker are the supply, and the employer offering the job is the demand. Clearly, for the job market to function at all, both supply and demand each need to know of the other’s existence, which means that you (supply) have to make your presence in the marketplace known, and the employers (demand) equally have to make it known that they have a job that they want to fill.
You, the jobseeker, are the supply side of the graduate labour market; the employers are the demand side.
The employer’s perspective
For an employer, taking on a new person is a big deal. It is going to increase their payroll, it is probably going to cost them money just to get their vacancy publicised and, when they do find someone, they are going to have to allocate time (which is a valuable resource) to integrate the new employee into the workplace quickly, so that they can function well and be a valued addition to the organisation. Employers care a great deal about getting the right person for the job. They don’t want a huge range of applicants: what they want is to choose from a range of suitable candidates so that they recruit the right one for their job, which is why employers are keen to get their job out there where people can see it. They can use a range of media to do this: print, online and networking (sometimes called word of mouth) and also social media including both Twitter and LinkedIn. Instead of responding to job vacancies that are advertised, you can take the initiative and approach an employer to see if there is a possible vacancy; this is called a speculative application. You can also choose to work for yourself, rather than work for someone else, namely self-employment (more on this in Chapter 6). So let’s look at each of these in turn.
How employers get their jobs out there
Vacancies in print
Check the national quality newspapers to see what kind of job vacancies are advertised. This is particularly useful once you’ve got graduate work experience and want to change jobs.
Regional and local papers
You have plenty of choice when it comes to local and regional papers: over 1,000 titles are listed in the UK. Some publish daily, such as: the Manchester Evening News; the Evening Standard (London); the Belfast Telegraph and the Glasgow Evening Times. Others come out weekly, such as the Whitby Gazette, and many of them are freely accessible online. These newspapers will include the whole range of jobs on offer in the locality, not just graduate-only jobs. You’ll have to comb through all the ads to check for graduate or direct-entry jobs, but this will give you a good overview of the labour market conditions in that area. If you are keen to live in a particular location, this actually could work to your advantage, because it will make you look at non-graduate jobs as well, and tell you about jobs in that area. So you could always apply for that kind of job to get you to the place you want to be and, once there, start looking for the perfect job for you.
Quality newspapers offer very good student discounts; just go online and subscribe to daily downloads. Not only will you get regular access to job ads, you’ll also develop a good habit of serious reading.
Vacancy bulletins and directories
Periodically, vacancies are publicised together, typically in a bulletin or directory. There may be some hard copies of these available in your university careers centre but they are now pretty much only accessible online. The Prospects Student Career Guide has really great careers advice plus extensive vacancy information (www.prospects.ac.uk/prospects_publications.htm).
Specialist bulletins and directories
As well as these general publications, there are also specialist ones such as Prospects Law, which lists training contracts and law course vacancies for both law and non-law students. It is freely available online on the Prospects website (see above). Other sector guides include: Prospects Accountancy, Banking and Finance; Prospects Business, Consulting & Marketing; Prospects Engineering & Manufacturing; and Prospects Information Technology. All of the guides here are packed with useful information about working in that sector, complete with all the options for working or further study. Again, these are freely accessible online at the Prospects website.
Postgraduate bulletins and directories
There are several specialist directories for postgraduate opportunities, including the Prospects Postgraduate Directory, which includes everything you could want to know about postgraduate courses and opportunities. This is a digital-only publication that is updated every year in September and is freely accessible online. The Postgrad Magazine covers the same ground, but is published three times a year, in autumn, spring and summer. Again, this is freely accessible, digital only. The Prospects MBA Guide, another digital publication, restricts itself to Master in Business Administration programmes; and finally, the Prospects Postgraduate Funding Guide (published annually in September, digital only) is definitely one you’ll need if you intend to continue your studies to postgraduate level.
Work experience and internships for non-finalists
No need to feel left out if you’re not yet in your final year. You can find lots of useful information on work experience and internships you can explore from the start of your degree in the ‘Employability’ section of the Prospects Student Career Guide, which is freely accessible as a digital-only publication online at www.prospects.ac.uk/prospects_publications.htm.
You can freely access all these digital editions online at www.prospects.ac.uk.
Vacancies online
Posting job vacancies online is pretty much standard practice now. To find them, you simply need to go online and start looking. You’ll find plenty of employers advertising direct to online jobsites. Or perhaps their newspaper advert is made accessible online by the newspaper in question. The official government jobsite (www.jobseekers.direct.gov.uk) is searchable by region, industry or company. There are also employment agencies that work on behalf of a range of employers, which means that they might be comprehensive (e.g. www.monster.co.uk) or specialised by: occupational sector, such as healthcare and medical jobs (e.g. www.healthcare.jobs.com); jobs in the financial sector (e.g. www.roberthalf.co.uk); by restricted entry (e.g. www.thegraduate.co.uk); or by geography. Certainly, if you are looking for a job outside the UK, online searches are probably the easiest way to access vacancies. Some big employers may have their own vacancy web pages such as the NHS (www.jobs.nhs.uk). Graduate Prospects is the best-known graduate careers website and is pretty comprehensive (www.prospects.ac.uk), but there are other websites that specialise in graduate recruitment, including www.milkround.com and www.graduate-jobs.com.
Include social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter in your jobsearch. Recruiters make use of any medium that is cost effective, so don’t rule any out.
Print vacancies accessible online
The distinction between print and online is increasingly blurred; most newspapers run their advertised vacancies online, and actually make this a selling point when persuading employers to advertise with them. As a jobseeker, this is useful if you forget to check a specific newspaper on a particular day or if you overlooked a specific vacancy.
Many of the Prospects publications listed earlier in this chapter (see ‘Vacancies in print’ (p. 6)) are also available online and are, in some cases, free to download.
Choose a handful of online sites and limit yourself to those for a couple of weeks. You can always change your choice of sites if you’re not getting the leads you want from the sites you have chosen.
Online vacancies: is more necessarily better?
There is no doubt that by advertising a vacancy online an employer can reach a far greater pool of potential applicants. What is more doubtful is whether the greater pool will necessarily have greater talent. The same goes for you as the jobseeker. By browsing online, you can easily access thousands of job vacancies. In one way, this is great, but you will need to narrow this choice down so you find the kind of job you want, and the kind of job you are a suitable candidate for. Without some kind of filtering mechanism, you could waste a lot of time looking at irrelevant jobs, and you could waste even more time applying for jobs without really thinking. You might even find that you are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of vacancies advertised online and that you become stuck, not knowing how to deal with them all. You do need to have a look at these websites and get a feel for what they offer and how they work. Then you need to make them work for you by being selective.
Actively manage your online jobsearch: set filters and review your website choices regularly. Allocate a specific, limited time for checking vacancies online.
Registering with a recruitment agency
Recruitment agencies work to an employer’s brief, taking on the task of finding a suitable person for a particular vacancy. It can often happen that they handle a vacancy that is not advertised anywhere else, so they are a really important part of your job search.
Agencies do a lot of the selection work, so will sift through application forms and CVs, and often run selection interviews either in person or at a distance, either on the phone or by video. They pride themselves on building up contacts so they can draw on a pool of applicants they know when putting forward candidates for the vacancy in question.
Agencies have a huge amount of up-to-the-minute insider information on their particular industry or sector specialism. So they can give you valuable insight on what an employer is looking for – and what you might need to develop in order to be successful.
Register with a recruitment agency for your chosen jobsearch area. They put jobseekeers in touch with employers and have valuable insight into their industries.
Networking or word of mouth
Why network?
You’ll hear a lot about networking within the context of jobsearch in particular and business in general. There is no doubt that networking is important and, in some occupational sectors, e.g. photography, creative arts, it is invaluable.
‘During my internship, I was invited to an event with the then Shadow Home Secretary (Chris Grayling). Quivering like a nervous wreck, I shook his hand, and could barely speak . . . I felt so inferior and out of my depth. I plucked up the courage to ask a question . . . but could literally barely speak I was that nervous. Six months on, we visited a local homeless charity. Chris Grayling arrived . . . he recalled my question from six months back. I realised afterwards the huge difference in my demeanour from our previous encounter.’
Kevin, BSc (Hons) Politics
Networking in principle
In essence, when you network you take a conscious decision to make the most of every new contact you make, and you treat every single encounter as a possible job lead. You aren’t asking them directly for a job, you are simply making them aware that you exist, and that you are the kind of person anyone would want to have working with them. So, no matter how unlikely it may seem, or how remote the chances are of getting a job opening from a random encounter, you work on the principle that every lead could be the one that takes you further towards your brilliant career. Unfortunately, there is no set formula that determines how many contacts equal a job lead. You simply have to be on the alert and be ready to present yourself as a possible employee at any time.
When you network, you aren’t asking directly for a job, you are simply making people aware that you exist, and are the kind of person anyone would like to work with. Just by introducing yourself you show that you are confident, so – go and say hello!
Networking in practice
Graduate job fairs
You may be invited to network in a formal, organised way: graduate job fairs, for example. A graduate fair brings together graduate recruiters, employment professionals and graduate jobseekers. A fair may be generalist (covering all aspects of graduate employment) or specialist (by region or occupational area). It gives you the chance to meet people, and for people to meet you. It makes sense to treat a job fair as a possible recruitment opportunity, so think about how you want to appear. For example, in thinking about what to wear, you might choose something that is more formal than informal. So, without going all out for the power suit, perhaps wear trousers rather than jeans, shirt rather than T-shirt, and go for something clean and ironed rather than something grubby and creased. You might also like to think about taking some copies of your CV, just in case the opportunity to give it to an employer arises. You may also want to take note of contact details; a notebook is fine for this, but if you do take notes on your phone, make sure you’ve turned the sound off and do not be tempted to make personal calls when you’re on display.
Make sure your mobile is switched off when you are at a job fair. Potential employers are interested in you, not your ringtone.
Alumni or invited speaker events
There may be alumni events at your university, to which you as a student may be invited. Alumni means people who have already graduated from your university. Sometimes the alumni events are social, but sometimes they are set up for students to make contacts. The big advantage of talking to alumni is that you already have something in common: your university! And, although they may not have a job opening right now, they may at some point in the future have a vacancy they need to fill, and they may remember meeting you. It may be hard for you to believe it when you meet them, but they too were once a student, just like you, so take the plunge and introduce yourself. Invited speaker events usually involve representatives of particular job areas. They may be in a position to recruit themselves, they may have their own story to share and to inspire you, or they may offer some useful advice. You’ll only know what you can get out of it by going to hear them.
‘I’m currently working for BBC Arabic in Cairo. I didn’t apply through formal means, I used the lesson I learnt when applying for my year abroad. I asked. I met someone who told me you don’t have to be a native speaker of Arabic to apply to BBC Arabic. So at a film screening of a documentary, when I saw that the Cairo Bureau Chief of BBC Arabic was there, I asked her if there were any jobs for native English speakers. She gave me her card, I emailed her a cover letter-style message and she said if I could start soon, she’d give me a month’s trial in Cairo. I rushed through my Master’s final project and now, following that month’s trial, I’m planning to stay for up to a year.’
Claire, BA (Hons) Modern Languages (Arabic and Spanish), MA International Journalism
Networking online
The Internet offers unprecedented possibilities of making yourself known to a very wide audience; and these possibilities can work for you or against you. It is possible to find job opportunities and useful leads through your online presence. However, once you have an online presence, it can be readily accessed by your employer or potential employer – who could think the less of you for having seen uncensored comments or images on your page.
You can establish a presence online by: creating a website or a blog; opening a Twitter account; or joining a social network such as LinkedIn. You may be asking yourself whether you need to go online to network but, before we address that question, let’s run through the online options.
Websites and blogs
Setting up your own web page allows you to showcase who you are and what you can do. In some sectors it is a very good idea to have a web page. The creative industries, for example: if you are looking for a job in design, it is really important that an employer can view your work. This applies as much to a web designer as to a jewellery designer. The web page then functions as a sort of portfolio that can be accessed by anyone at any time.
A blog (the term is a contracted form of web log) is also a type of web page, but with the explicit intention of charting what has been happening. It allows you to update easily, and should really be updated regularly as an out-of-date blog creates a bad impression. Again, a blog can show what you are capable of, and what you have been doing.
Forums
A forum may be set up on a website or blog so that the online readers can share responses and ideas on a particular theme. They allow you to express your opinions without necessarily committing to regular input. They also allow you to see what other people are thinking, which might help you to work through a particular issue or challenge. You yourself can use a forum to pose a question and this can be a good way to get into a challenge or problem when you feel really stuck and don’t have any clear idea of the way forward. Examples might include: what’s a telephone interview like? or, what should I wear to the evening meal at an assessment centre? In this way, you are learning from the collective experience and wisdom of others.
Social networks
Social networks are, at heart, online communities. Just like a real community, you join as a newcomer, make friends and then make friends with your friends’ friends. You can then chat, share photos, set up meetings, seek advice and do all the things you would do in real time, but online. There is, however, a clear distinction between different types of social network, what they are used for, and how they are viewed.
Drawing the line between personal and business networks
Broadly speaking, the distinction is between social networking for personal reasons (having fun, gossiping, showing off even) and social networking for professional reasons (getting a job, making business contacts, showing off even). The trick is never to confuse the two. This distinction shows up in the way different social networking sites have developed. Facebook, for example, is definitely for having fun and is therefore a personal space. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is a social network that is clearly aimed at the professional and business side. Keep this distinction clear by making LinkedIn your professional presence and keeping Facebook strictly for friends – double-check your privacy settings to ensure this.
Facebook is for fun, LinkedIn is for business. Keep personal and professional quite separate.
Looking at your personal pages from the employer perspective
While your friends might find it funny and endearing to hear about you embarrassing yourself at a party, your employer (or potential employer) may take a very different view. There are more and more cases of employers seeing material that their workers have posted and, as a consequence, taking disciplinary action including dismissal; and this is where the material has been posted in a personal capacity. If you are on Facebook, go through your pages and take down anything that would put you in a bad light if seen by an employer. And before you post anything from now on, ask yourself if you would be happy to put the post in your window, where it could be seen by passersby, friends of the family or people who know you but aren’t necessarily your friends. Then check your privacy settings to keep Facebook private. Make sure that you have a LinkedIn profile because employers do use this for recruiting. Look at other profiles in your chosen sector to ensure you set the right tone for your own profile.
Review any social network presence you have set up. Ask yourself this: is my online behaviour how I would behave if a potential employer was in the same room?
Twitter is also another online social network, but it has the unique selling point of microblogging. As with a blog (or indeed the status aspect of a social network page), people post an update on their page to show what they are doing, what they are thinking, what is happening in their life right now. On Twitter, however, these posts are restricted to a maximum of 140 characters: this makes for microblogs or tweets.
Using Twitter for job opportunities
Twitter can be useful for following people who lead the way in particular industries as you can see what their thinking is and in what direction they, and by extension their work domain, are heading. Twitter can also be a practical source of job vacancies, and employment agencies do post tweets about new vacancies even before the adverts are posted online. Of course, you’ll only get a very brief sense of what the vacancy is (because of the restricted length of the tweet) but that might be enough for you to decide whether to follow it up or leave it alone.
If you don’t want to commit to a permanent online presence, just contribute to a one-off forum or follow someone on Twitter. Come out of your comfort zone and show you can take on a new challenge.
Do I really need an online presence?
We know that not all undergraduates are the same; many will be familiar and happy with virtual communities in an online world, others might feel less comfortable, confident or convinced. There is no clear-cut answer about the need to have an online presence. In some industries, it is vital. In others, it is of little consequence. The important thing to know is that you are always in control of what you post. You can choose to have only a professional presence online and you can closely monitor what you post. You could perhaps limit your commitment, by joining a specific forum to add your voice to a particular debate, or using Twitter just to follow a particular person in a field that interests you. It is probably wise to use online networking, even to a limited extent, and for a limited time, because it does show that you are willing to embrace the new and maybe even to come out of your comfort zone.
Do
treat every encounter as a possible lead;
be polite and pleasant to everyone at all times;
be prepared to ask questions as much as answering them;
follow up any leads promptly: send a message or email the next day at the very latest.
Don’t
be intimidated: even if it is a disaster the first time, you’ll get better with practice;
be casual: don’t chew gum, swear or make phone calls;
get disheartened: if you have nothing concrete to show for an hour of networking, at the very least you have made an effort;
monopolise a contact: let other people get access too.
Speculative applications
Speculative applications (sometimes called applying on spec.) are where you take the initiative and approach an employer to see if there is a possible vacancy, rather than responding to a vacancy once it is advertised. You can of course make speculative applications in a range of media: in person; by email; online; by post. You can waste a lot of time (both yours and also the employer’s time) in sending off speculative applications that have no chance of success. And you can feel a lot of rejection if the speculative applications you send out get you nowhere, not even a response. But speculative applications do work, especially in very niche areas. Take a look at our brilliant example, in which Oliver’s first job as a junior engineer pays very little, but gives him valuable experience which he uses to secure a better job not once but twice in a row: a brilliant example of leverage in the labour market, as well as speculative applications.
‘When a new Formula One team was starting up for the following season, I saw an opportunity and speculatively applied for a position. Luckily they saw potential in me, and recognised my experience and qualifications. I spent two-and-a-half years at this Formula One team as a systems engineer on the race team, until they had to withdraw from racing due to financial reasons . . . due to contacts I had gained in the industry, I quickly secured employment with a motorsports electronics company, providing hardware and services to the governing body of motorsport.’
Oliver, MEng (Civil), MSc Motorsport Engineering and Management
Focusing your speculative approach
It is important to invest time before you send a speculative application. You’ll need to know the market, be clear who are the relevant employers, and have a very good understanding of what their business needs. With a speculative application, you are basically offering your blend of skills and know-how as the solution to a staffing problem the employer hasn’t really worked out yet. Online research can really help you here: to look at the individual employer and to put that employer in the overall context of the current market. Networking also plays a strong part, as you identify who to approach, and you approach people who may have some idea of who you are either from a previous encounter or by recommendation.
‘I started off looking for a job on the Mediterranean coast because I’d got the chance of accommodation there. So basically I got a load of CVs and went round pretty much every restaurant, because that was where I had most experience . . . it was horrible, really scary because I didn’t really know what I was saying (in French). One place phoned back, invited me for an interview, and gave me a job as a runner.’
Hannah, (undergraduate) Economics and Politics with International Studies
Self-employment
You might like to consider creating your own job vacancy by working for yourself. Self-employment is quite common in some sectors, notably the creative industries. However, it can also work in less obvious occupational areas: for example, counselling or computer programming. It will involve a lot of hard work, but it can be very rewarding to shape your own destiny, and to make your first million. Have a look at Chapter 6 for more about self-employment.
Make the most of help on offer for a business start-up. This includes help targeted at graduates. Banks can offer useful information, as can jobcentres.
Dimensions: of time, of geography, of chance
The time dimension: watch out for closing dates
A daily newspaper will carry vacancies for which the closing date is likely to be a couple of weeks later; in a magazine published less frequently, the vacancies will be around for longer; and in the annual directories, the publication of the directory may happen some months before the closing date. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security here: although there may well be a rolling programme of recruitment, it is nearly always better to apply sooner rather than later.
The geographical dimension: working where you want to work
The geographical reach of jobsearch can also vary from local through regional and national to European or global. This applies equally to both sides of the market: you might be looking very widely, and the employer may also be putting a vacancy out into the marketplace at different levels. At the most local level, they can simply put up a notice in the workplace. Typically, this would be in a shop window, just saying something like: VACANCY – ENQUIRE WITHIN. A wider local search would be through local newspapers, the weekly paid or freesheets. Regional search would use daily regional newspapers or local radio. There could even be a regional website advertising, for example, jobs in the North West of England, or a job fair that also covers a regional area. A nationwide approach would use national daily or weekend papers, or websites: these could also be used for global search.
If you are keen to work in a particular location, try looking at a local paper or vacancy publication in that area. You could even walk around the area and see what kind of employers there are, and then send speculative applications to them.
The chance dimension (sometimes called serendipity)
Sometimes it looks like some people just get lucky: everything comes together and they are in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills for the right job. It can happen like that and, without making any great effort, somebody gets lucky and a job falls into their lap. If you see that happen for someone else, you might be tempted to wait around in the hope that the job fairy will come to your rescue. Or you can start to create your own luck. Because often, much, much more often, things come together after a lot of hard work.
Creating your own luck
So what can you do to get everything in place? Well, you need to ensure that you have developed the necessary skills and know-how. ‘The graduate labour market’ (Chapter 2) takes you through the skills employers are looking for, and ‘Work experience; making it purposeful’ (Chapter 9) shows you how to develop your range of desirable skills through purposeful work experience. You also need to ensure that you are ready to respond quickly to a job possibility, by having your CV up to date, perhaps having a completed job application form you can adapt to a new vacancy. ‘Making applications: getting past the first post’ (Chapter 11) takes you through all these processes and more. Fundamentally, to get a job you have to be in the job market, and employers have to know that you are in the market for their job. It goes right back to the opening of this chapter: for the market to work, supply (you) and demand (employers) have to know about each other.
- Look at vacancies from the employer’s perspective.
- Use printed media: directories, newspapers, magazines.
- Use online media: online newspapers and websites.
- Look widely to check what’s out there, then narrow your search so you aren’t wasting your (or the employer’s) time with unfocused applications.
- Use timesaving devices: filters, alerts, Twitter.
- Get networking: job fairs, alumni events, contacts – treat every encounter as a possible step forward towards your job.
- Use social networks, but review your online presence to ensure you present online at all times as a serious contender for a job opening.
- Consider the option of self-employment: take up any help on offer.
- Give the Job Fairy a helping hand by doing everything you can to create your own luck.
What to do next
Check out the demand side of the labour market
If you are thinking about what to do next, you could take one step towards checking out what is in demand in the job market by checking out a quality newspaper (Guardian, Independent, Daily Telegraph, The Times) to look at the job vacancies advertised there. Go online, visit a few of the job websites we have included in this chapter.
Make your presence known in the supply side of the labour market
You could take one step towards making your presence (as a jobseeker) known in the job market, by checking if your university is running a job fair – and, if they are, go along to it. Tell people that you are actively seeking work. Think about posting your CV online on one of the job websites. Ideally, you should cover both sides of the job market: checking out the demand side, and making your presence known on the supply side.