TARGETjobs News Roundup

Hello, good afternoon, and welcome to this afternoon’s TARGETjobs news roundup. It’s been a busy week this week. We have news and advice aplenty, and even a pretty awesome competition for you to get involved in.

Unlike most weeks, there is no sector that is clearly dominating the news this week. However, there has still been a strong batch of news from the sectors. Anyone interested in accountancy, engineering, insurance, marketing and PR, property or retail should cast a beady eye over this lot:

• First up, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) has announced that qualified management accountants are earning, on average, £58,434 a year. Anyone else hear early retirement calling?
• There is a call for new blood from the offshore oil and gas industry. The number of 24-29 year-olds in the industry has increased, but engineers, managers and scientists are still needed.
• Professional services firm Aon is replacing its financial benefits advisory scheme with a new health and benefits broking and consulting scheme. The new course will be based in Farnborough, Leeds and London.
• Those about to start a year at university may be interested to learn that you can get marketing and PR skills from ordinary student jobs. Everything from bar work to stacking shelves can be useful CV fodder if you know what to do with it.
• Property and surveying employer Jones Lang LaSalle has had a rethink of its graduate application form this year. Short essay questions are the order of the day, and candidates will have to present a decent argument if they want to stand a chance of success.
• And in retail news, Morrisons has announced that its drop in profits will not impact on graduate recruitment. While its pre-tax profits for the first two quarters were down £9m on the same period last year, this was a better result than the company was expecting.

However, if you aren’t interested in those sectors, there’s still plenty of news and advice available for you:

• Last week we explained how you can survive the first round of eliminations simply by avoiding a bunch of common mistakes. This week we’re giving you some handy tips on how to survive starting your first graduate job.
• Ernst & Young have conducted a survey into career barriers for women. The results suggest that the four most common barriers are age, lack of role models, motherhood, and qualifications and experience.
• The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey has just been released, and there is some interesting news involved. It suggests that UK businesses intend to hire more staff in the final quarter of 2012. If you’re still looking for a graduate job, this could be your hour.
• And if you do start your first job this autumn, you could be among the first to be affected by the new pension rule changes. Employees will now be enrolled on workplace pension schemes as a matter of course.
• In some major competition news, we are giving you the chance to win a holiday to New York City. We’ll send you and one other person on a fantastic trip to the Big Apple. All the instructions are listed on our Facebook page.

• And, as usual, we have the roundup of all next week’s deadlines. One company in particular is splurging on new staff. Travel agency Flight Centre is looking for graduate recruits across the country, so if this is your bag, make sure you get on board. Check out the latest jobs here.

To get graduate careers news as it happens, check out the TARGETjobs news feed. Alternatively, check out the roundup this time next week!

TARGETjobs offers the largest choice of graduate jobs, internships and placements. Independent reviews on top graduate employers and career planning tools and expert guidance. Become a TARGETjobs blogger by getting in touch with jackie.balchin2@targetjobs.co.uk.