TARGETjobs career advice roundup

Good afternoon everybody, and welcome to the latest career advice roundup! We’ve got all the newest advice articles from our TARGETjobs editorial team here for you to browse, but if nothing grabs your attention then do take a look through our website. We’ve got a whole load more where these came from.

Before we move on to the advice, we’d like to thank everybody who participated in the trendence UK Graduate Barometer this year. This month the survey closed with over 27,000 responses, setting a new UK record. We couldn’t have done it without you, so thank you to everyone who took part.

If you want to see one of the many things that the trendence survey is used for, then take a look at The Guardian UK 300. This is the 2013/2014 edition. Your responses from this year will decide the results of the 2014/2015 edition.

In other news, we have the Scotland Postgraduate Study and Funding Fair coming up next week, so if you’re in or around Edinburgh on the 26^th February then come along. We’ll reimburse you for your transport, plus give you a free lunch if you pre-register.

Moving on to the career advice, do you remember when we mentioned the National Pupillage Fair last week? Well, we’ve got some more pupillage news for all you aspiring barristers this week: if you’re a final year law student aspiring to the Bar, you’re probably thinking about applying for pupillage. The Pupillage Gateway may not open until 1st April, but there are plenty of chambers managing their own applications. Here’s a handy list of places you can apply to.

How does investment banking in Asia sound? Nomura is a leading financial services group with a strong base in Tokyo, and here’s how to stand out at a Nomura internship, with tips from their head of recruitment, Antonia Choi. 

Even if you get an investment banking internship elsewhere, we’ve still got you covered. Here are four ways you can prepare for an internship at an investment bank.

When applying to the Capgemini graduate scheme, recruiters will be looking for three key skills: the ability to communicate, innovate and collaborate. 

As always, we have our exceptionally useful internships and work experience deadlines (if you’re a second or first year looking to boost your employability, don’t miss this one!).

And, of course, we finish off with our graduate jobs roundup. This week it’s bigger than usual – there are lots of schemes closing on the 28^th, so don’t miss any of them. 

Have a great weekend!

TARGETjobs career advice roundup

How was your Valentine’s Day? Chocolate? Teddy bears? Dinner with wine? I’m afraid the only gifts that we have for you are our career advice articles (but they’re very useful, we promise!)

But before we get into that, we’ve got a few announcements to make: this week there’s the Birmingham Postgraduate Study and Funding Fair coming up, organised by our very own TARGETcourses team. Come to Birmingham on the 19^th and not only will we pay for your transport and lunch, but you’ll also get to meet postgraduate course providers from across the UK. It’s really useful if you’re still trying to make up your mind about postgrad study.

In March we’ve got still more events that you should take a look at: for all you aspiring barristers out there, we’re holding the UK’s largest National Pupillage Fair on the 8^th March, so book and come along to Lincoln’s Inn. There’s also the Yorkshire and the Newcastle PG Fairs – sign up to those if you couldn’t make Birmingham!

And now on to the career advice articles:

It’s still interviews and assessment centre season at the moment for law students who applied for summer vacation schemes.  We’ve collected lots of useful, timely advice from recruiters on how to improve your interview technique, hints on what to ask interviewers at the end of your interview and tips from trainee solicitors on what they were asked when they were recruited.

Are you applying to National Grid? Then we’ve got a rundown of what to expect at their interviews. They ask three key types of questions, so you should be thinking them through. 

What do Shell look for in an employee? We know: here’s a list of the employee criteria that their recruiters will have in mind when interviewing you. 

If you know your Marmite from your Bovril, Unilever are always recruiting for their graduate future leaders programme. As the last round of applications have just come to an end, they’ll be phoning up with telephone interviews  soon. Get ahead of the game with this guide to Unilever’s telephone interview questions.  

As always, we’re finishing with the ever-useful internships and work experience deadlines, alongside the graduate jobs roundup. 

Have a great weekend!

Katherine came to both IT's not just for the boys! and Future Female Engineers - find out how she bagged herself a job with Vodafone!

Katherine Baines is currently in her final year at Queen Mary University studying Electronic Engineering. Having attended both IT's not just for the boys! and Future Female Engineers, she now has an offer from Vodafone for a place on their Discover graduate scheme for September! 

Studying electronic engineering as a girl can often leave me feeling rather outnumbered - but that has never stopped me aiming high and when the chance of attending Future Female Engineers arose I grabbed it with both hands. I had previously attended IT’s not just for the boys! which was a superb day leaving me further inspired about the endless career possibilities that lay ahead for me as well as meeting other girls in my position.

Arriving at the venue, I was feeling slightly apprehensive and nervous however as soon as I got there everyone was warm and they were all in the same position, so everybody relaxed a little. It was a great day, not only can you meet like-minded females but also there is valuable time to network with recruiters, employees and also recent graduates who are working in the graduate jobs and schemes at the companies which attended. They are all there to help you, give tips and pointers and of course try to persuade you to join them.

After attending Future Female Engineers at the Heritage Motor Museum, I began once again to send in application after application. One day I received an e-mail from Vodafone, who also attended the event, to ask if I would like to be considered for their Discover Technology Programme assessment centre. All I would have to do in order to attend was pass a number of tests as all the companies received my details and CV from TARGETjobs after the event,  removing a great deal of stress in applying!

Luckily I passed the tests, and a number of days later I found myself at their headquarters in Newbury for the assessment centre day. As this was still only mid-December, it was quite early on in the game so this was my first experience of an assessment centre so I really didn’t know what to expect! I was given a presentation topic a few days before to prepare, but apart from that I had no idea what the day would entail.

As soon as I arrived I was put at ease as everyone was so friendly; I was given a buddy, a current graduate on the scheme who I could ask any questions to throughout the day. I then went through a range of interviews individually and within a group and gave my presentation too, which was rather nerve-racking but fun! All in all I enjoyed the day and felt that even if I didn’t get a job offer that I had had a great experience which I had learnt a lot from.

However, within less than 48 hours I received a phone call from them, assuming that it would be to say that unfortunately I hadn’t quite made the cut this time, but to my surprise they were offering me a place on their graduate programme. I couldn’t quite believe it, that I had just been offered a job for after finishing at Queen Mary, University of London that I hadn’t intentionally applied for but just seemed perfect for me! I instantly accepted, and was later sent a contract stating that I would join them in September as long as I gained a 2.1. This lifted a weight off of my mind and was the best Christmas present I could have asked for! Although I still have to achieve a 2.1 or above, it now means I can focus on my studies, giving me extra inspiration to achieve this excellent future waiting for me!

So I wanted to say that you should take every opportunity that you find available to you out there, and something as simple as attending an event may in fact change your entire future.

To find out more about both Future Female Engineers and IT's not just for the boys! visit the TARGETjobs Events website here!

TARGETjobs career advice roundup

Hello everybody, how’s your February going? With the second term in full swing and finalists everywhere turning their attention to life after graduation (before that final exam revision hits...), there’s no better time to take a good look through the TARGETjobs career advice roundup.

Before that though, how would you feel if I asked you to get me a cup of tea? We’re running a poll on the home page of TARGETjobs, and we’d like to know how you would feel if asked to make the tea when on work experience.

In other news, the graduate jobs market appears to be on the rise. A recent employer survey predicts that graduate jobs opportunities will increase by 10% compared to last year.

As if that wasn’t enough good news for one week, we’ve also just announced our latest and greatest career event: How to get hired Live! It’s the UK’s largest gathering of recruiters and students, and it’s taking place in April. Sign up and you’ll find yourself sitting on a table with recruiters from your sector for an entire day, with interactive seminars, lunch, and drinks in the bar afterwards. 100 recruiters, 600 students, and Wembley Stadium. It’s going to be huge.

Now, on to this week’s new advice articles.

Are you applying to Dixon Wilson? Unlike other firms, their applicants do not apply to a specific area of accountancy – such as audit or tax – because graduates work across several disciplines. Make sure you’re clued up on their unique quirks when you apply.

Corporate Value Associates (CVA) are looking for four particular skills in their applicants: a data-driven outlook, problem solving skills, communication skills, and interpersonal skills. Here’s how to demonstrate all of those qualities during the CVA case study.

If you’re looking for a career in retail banking, actuarial or insurance, then you’ll want to know all about your personal finances: how much does the financial sector pay a recent graduate?

If you’ve already got some investment banking locked down, then you’ve got a head start. Here’s how to make the most of your investment banking internship.

What's new in construction? Last week we mentioned that the industry has seen an upturn in the last few months, and recruiters are searching for new hires. They’re particularly struggling to fill quantity surveying vacancies, which means that this is the perfect opportunity for you to apply.

Moving onto the property world, who can you apply to, I hear you ask? How about Cushman & Wakefield? They have graduate programmes, business placements and summer internships on offer. Here’s how to impress them at interview and assessment day.

Alternatively, why not take a look at Gerald Eve? They are particularly secretive about their case studies and group exercises, so you’d best go in there with all the information you can gather. Here’s our advice on how to get hired by Gerald Eve.

And to finish off the career advice articles, here’s how to prepare for a graduate interview with BT.

This week we have three different sets of deadlines for you to browse. First up, here’s a rundown of the property deadlines for the top real estate firms. You’ll find summer internships, year placements and insight programmes here.

Following that, we have the usual work experience andinternship deadlines alongside the ever-useful graduate job deadlines.

Until next weekend, have a good one.

TARGETjobs career advice roundup

Good afternoon everybody, and welcome to the TARGETjobs career advice roundup. Here you’ll find all of the latest and greatest advice articles from our editorial team.

Kicking off with Clifford Chance, their interviews and assessment day are unusual in that their interviewers are instructed to interview “blind”, without seeing the candidates’ application form. This is a part of their diversity policy, and it means that your competency-based assessment will not be based on your application form answers.

If you’re interested in a training contract with Allen & Overy LLP, then here’s how to answer their application questions; how would you “describe a major recent challenge you have faced?”

The examples that Allen & Overy ask for in their application form for summer vacation schemes are also based around major challenges and personal responsibility.

The last few years have been tough for the construction industry, but now that the economy has started to look a little brighter so have the sector’s graduate job prospects. Now recruiters are looking to hire left right and centre, and we’ve got all the information for you here.

If you’re interested in construction then you should know all about Skanska. Do you want to impress them with your CV and cover letter? Here’s how.

If you’re still deciding whether to apply to Skanska, then we can help. Here is a rundown of all the qualifications and skills you need to apply for a graduate job with them.

Finally, here’s the lowdown on Skanska’s culture andvalues. Skanska are a company that won the Sunday Times Best Green Companies Awards in 2011, so knowing about their company values are an essential part of who they are.

Changing sectors, are you applying to IBM? Here’s how toanswer their interview questions. They’ll want to know why you want to work for IBM, your experience of past projects, and how technically competent you are.

If you’re applying to BP instead, then here is a comprehensive overview of their entire interview process.

Before we finish, we’d just like to remind anybody who missed last week’s career advice roundup that TARGETcourses are running five Postgraduate Study and Funding Fairs over the next couple of months. Are you near to Cardiff, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, or Edinburgh? Are you considering study at postgrad level? Then sign up, it’s completely free.

Finally, here are all the work experience and internship deadlines for the coming week, alongside the graduate jobs deadlines. 

Have a great weekend.