Job Hunting Woes

[m@rty]

I've recently graduated from university with a 2:1 in Business Management and currently finding it difficult to land myself a graduate position. However the difference being that I actually have real world employment experience having worked in a building services/engineering office for the past seven years while studying (I am 26 so have worked on and off beforehand)

I made the mistake of not spending quality time applying for graduate schemes before I finished my course so I have effectively missed out on those until they re-open towards the end of the year. Although I feel that I am now in the position that even if I do land a graduate role at the end of this year then it will most likely not start till the following September.

I've had a word with the MD and another Director in my current job but I just get the feeling they are leading me on and nothing will materialize (for instance they have scheduled a meeting to see if there are any graduate opportunities but this isn't until the middle of August!)

I just feel that I am stuck in limbo at the moment. I've been applying for normal jobs and also to the few grad schemes that are open year-round, however I am having very little success at the minute

I always assumed that as a recent graduate with a good deal of real life work experience that it would make me an appealing candidate for job roles compared to other graduates. I just get the feeling that most companies are overlooking my experience and simply looking at me as a fresh faced graduate or perhaps I am just applying for the wrong roles...

Has anyone been in a similar situation or would care to provide any advice?

 

[m@rty]

Does your current workplace have a 'grad scheme' so to speak, if not then it might not exactly be clear what you mean by 'graduate opportunities' within the context of your own workplace. Are there any particular roles that you'd now have a better skill set to fulfill that you didn't previously? In which case you probably ought to simply push for those roles.

My current workplace doesn't have a grad scheme, which is rather disappointing considering they employ about 15,000 people! The MD is going to look for potential roles that would suit a graduate, however I just get the feeling that it will be something made up to get me off his back and won't actually lead to anything with a chance to progress within the company.

*I was on a 'grad scheme' a few years ago and the departments people ended up in didn't make much sense, we had one young female consultant in professional services who got home sick 1 week into her first posting overseas and asked to come home! We had another guy with an arts degree sent to development... he'd managed to **** off the developers he was sat with on the first day and had been moved to marketing before the end of the year.

It's stuff like this I am trying to avoid, I have heard some horror stories about graduates just being placed anywhere and treated like crap really. I actually run my own team of about 9 staff in my current position and have decent managerial experience, although at a junior level. It's just a shame that it's not a long term sustainable job.

Look online and through this OcUK thread to make sure your CV is the best it can be. It can make a big difference.

Thanks will have a look at this, I've applied for quite a few jobs now so it might be my CV that's letting me down!

 

[m@rty]

So I took all of the above comments on board and decided I was getting nowhere with my current employer, so I started looking elsewhere for junior level experienced roles within the same industry but with better opportunities.

I secured a job as an assistant consultant working for a global engineering firm with a great salary and plenty of training/development which was what I was really looking for.

What was even better was that they recognised I had more experience than their typical grads so have given me a higher salary than I would have received on their grad scheme as well as the opportunity to progress quicker than if I were on the grad scheme

 

[m@rty]

Congrats on your news.

Jumping on the thread a bit late, but i was going to say that graduate schemes are not all that. In my industry (comp sci) a lot of the grad schemes were a way of graduates trying out different areas of the company - for example a 2 year grad scheme, and you would have four 6 month rotations.

This is really what I wanted to avoid if at all possible, while I admit the networking and other benefits of a grad scheme would have been good, I was well aware that quite a few grad schemes were rather poor and there is also no guarantee of a job at the end of it.

Luckily for me I have been offered a role with none of the restrictions of the grad scheme, a better salary and a permanent contract.

Congrats! Which consultancy out of interest ? (can email if you prefer, only so I know the players if I ever fancy a return to Glasgow)

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