TARGETjobs career advice weekly roundup

Hi everyone,

Welcome back to TJBloggers for this week's weekly roundup post!  Like usual I have some great career advice for you.

To start of the weekly roundup here are the upcoming graduate job and internship deadlines: 

If you're keen to get cracking on your job hunt after the summer break then you're in the right place. This week we've got graduate jobs from Siemens and Network Rail and a range of other roles in areas such as management, sales and engineering. But if any of these vacancies catch your eye you'll have to be quick - they've all got deadlines coming up fast. Click here to apply today.

This week is your last chance to apply for a number of paid roles through ScotGrad. These work placements last between three months and a year and are a fantastic way to get some valuable work experience under your belt. Apply here today. 

Now, onto our weekly career advice

Female first year students are much less confident than their male peers about landing an internship or a place on a vacation programme, according to a survey of more than 1,500 undergraduates from 70 universities carried out by TARGETjobs. Have a read of our article 'Female first years less confident about work experience'.

All sorts of companies run HR graduate programmes, including the top employers in sectors such as retail, healthcare, construction and engineering. Find out here which employers offer HR graduate schemes.

Thinking about a career in logistics , supply chain or transport planning? Read our article 'Graduate employers in logistics, supply chain and transport planning' to find out who the leading graduate employers are within this field.

Do you aspire to teach? Have a look through our teaching sector on TARGETpostgrad to find out all you need to know about going into teaching. 

We've helped thousands of graduates apply for jobs and schemes. Now it's your turn! From your first CV to your career in teaching, we can help with every step. Check out our updated teaching and education graduate jobs, internships and expert careers advice.

Graduate schemes and internships at investment banks can all look pretty similar at first glance. How do you convince, say, Goldman Sachs that you'd prefer to work for them than J.P. Morgan or Deutsche Bank? Have a read of our article 'Why have you decided to apply to us?'. 

One of the best ways to launch your legal career is to speak to law firms’ representatives at your campus law fair – that’s what graduate recruiters consistently tell TARGETjobs Law when we interview them. During the autumn term, law fairs give you the chance to meet recruiters and trainees, and start your relationship with law firms. Let us share with you our six ways to impress those firms at your law fair.

That's all from me this week!

Good luck with your applications

Roxanne 

What to do when you don’t know what to do

Everyone has one of those friends. You know the type: you suspect they could debate the finer points of the law before they could walk, or their first words were ‘business and management internship’, or they probably used to sing ‘Your metatarsus is connected to your navicular bone’ as a child. They’ve known they wanted to be a doctor since they were 5 and ¾ and they’ve never looked back. They’re right on track for getting the exact career they want. 

And then there’s you and me. We’re reaching the critical moment of ‘Hang on a second – was I meant to have figured out a career path by now?’

The truth is, I think the ones who definitely and passionately know what career they want are the statistical anomaly; those of us who haven’t got a great master plan yet are probably the majority, so you’re not alone. Some of us have gathered together some sort of idea and direction, and some of us still haven’t got a clue. So what should we do when we don’t know what to do?

Step one: don’t panic. You’ve got (or are getting) a degree and you can get a job if you try hard enough. You are not going to starve/be forever unemployed/have to live in a ditch. If you end up in a job you don’t like, so what? It’s not the end of the world – you could (and should) try something different after a year or so.

Step two: think about what you might like to do. It sounds obvious but list all the careers you could potentially enjoy and consider what industries you’re interested in. Weigh up your strengths and weaknesses and what sort of job marries well with them. Ask your friends and family to tell you, with brutal honesty, what they think you’d be good at. Use our career planner tool. Think about whether there is any flexibility in the career you might be interested in. For example, if you reckon you might like retail management, you could always use it as a base for going into other retail careers, such as buying or merchandising, or other management careers if it turns out it’s not right for you. You don’t have to pigeonhole yourself just yet. Then, you need to actually write the whole lot down – it will make you realise you have a better idea than you thought you had.

Step three: do your research. There are more jobs out there than you might think. Browse our list of job descriptions to see if there’s anything you haven’t considered yet. Do you really know about all the options that are open to you with your degree and experience? Do you know about all the job adverts out there that don’t specify a degree subject, such as jobs in management, sales, finance, admin or recruitment?

Step four: just try something. Once you’ve figured out what careers might interest you, if you can get some work experience, do it. You might find out it’s not for you but that’s part of the learning curve (and then you return to step two).

Step five: keep your chin up. Scrolling through listings of jobs you’re not interested in and feeling stranded in the career desert can be a real knock to your confidence. Don’t let it get the better of you. Look at your list of strengths again. Stop comparing yourself to your friend with the freakishly shiny CV and golden career path. You are worthy of a good job – you just have to find the right job that’s worthy of you.

TARGETjobs career advice weekly roundup

Hello everyone, I hope you're all enjoying your summer break! 

Welcome to this week’s weekly roundup post!

So, as always I am going to start off with the internship and graduate job deadlines.

Secure an internship: don’t miss next week’s work experience deadlines – Find out my here.

Don't miss out on this week's upcoming graduate job deadlines; find out how to apply here. 

Now, onto this week's career advice

CV and covering letter advice

If you’re working on your CV and covering letter to apply for a specific graduate position then take a look at our hints and tips on how to better your prospects by producing a great CV.

Have a browse through these articles: 

Writing CV’s for different types of graduate jobs 

Dealing with gaps in graduate CV's and applications

Hospitality

The hospitality, leisure and travel sector is full of employers who don’t require a 2.1. Relevant work experience is often much more important to employers in these industries. If this is the area you aspire to work in have a read of our article ‘ Graduate employers who recruit students with 2:2s: the hospitality,travel and leisure sector.

Finance

The application form for a graduate scheme or internship at Deutsche Bank isn't a 30 minute job, as the employer asks applicants to answer pretty big questions with pretty small word counts – either 50 or 100 words. Have a read of our article ‘Deutsche Bank application: don’t let the word count limit you’

Retail

Tejal Raichura, a merchandiser for womenswear jersey with Next, shares her insider knowhow with us. She explains everything from the application process to what it’s really like being a graduate in merchandising. Read her story ‘Inside story: how to get a job in merchandising’

Engineering

Don’t have a job lined up for when you graduate, or just want to take a gap year? Use the time out to boost your employability for civil and structural engineering, construction and surveying jobs, say our panel of construction graduate recruiters. Have a read of their article here: Can’t find a construction job?What graduates can do with a year out to become more employable.

TARGETpostgrad

Postgraduate study is a way of taking your subject to a new level and can also provide the skills, knowledge and contacts for your chosen career but one obstacle may stand in the way – money. Have a read of our article ‘What’s the difference between masters and PhD funding’

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Roxanne

Networking’s not so nerve-racking, promise...

I recently came across an article from the University of Manchester with the title ‘Networking? I’d rather eat my own shoes...’ Aside from being a very eye-catching headline, I think it sums up pretty neatly how most of us feel about networking: it doses us with feelings of dread, inadequacy, sweaty palms, eminent embarrassment and sometimes outright terror. 

If it’s meant to be the ‘key’ to finding a decent graduate job then why do we all seem to hate it?

I think it boils down to the fact that many of us have little self-confidence and approaching strangers to talk business is just too darn intimidating. University work is actually very solitary; you get an essay question via email or a virtual learning environment and you sit in front of a computer and get on with it. Later, you sit in silence in a big hall with an exam paper and you just get on with it. Professional social butterflies we are not.

So how can we boost our confidence and work up the nerve to network? Well there’s an amazing TED talk on body language by Amy Cuddy who gives some great advice: fake it until you make it. She explains it much better in the talk but the basic point is: if you’re not the confident go-getter, act the part of someone who is. So you could do this by thinking of someone you know who is chatty and confident and do what they would do. Eventually you’ll realise that you can do it, it’s not that scary and you’re a lot braver than you give yourself credit for.

Another thing to bear in mind is that ‘networking’ is just a buzzword and not as scary as it sounds. Really, all you have to do is have a chat with someone new and who’s never done that before? In the first seminars of your degree or when you joined that society, you managed to keep up a conversation with people you’d never met before – you were networking even if you didn't know it.

Top tips for networking success:

• Join LinkedIn and make connections with the people you meet.
• Keep in touch with lecturers – they usually know many people in their field.
• If you go to a guest lecture, go introduce yourself to the speaker afterwards.
• Talk to recruiters at careers fairs as well as graduates who are already employed at the company.
• Join a professional body for your career area and get involved in events and online discussions.
• Remember that it’s not about approaching someone and asking for a job outright – it’s about making yourself known so that when you do apply for a job, people already have a good impression.
• People love to talk about themselves so keep asking questions and listen to what people have to say and you’re already part of the way there.

Written by Jess Jennison 

Editorial Intern

TARGETjobs.co.uk

TARGETjobs career advice weekly roundup

Hello, hope you are all enjoying the lovely weather. If you are taking a break from the sunshine then you've come to the right place to catch up on all the career advice we have been writing this week. 

But don’t worry it’s going to be a quick round up today so you can rush off back outdoors and enjoy this beautiful weather we are having.

So, let me start off with career advice in the finance sector:

Most employers within the financial services sector will test your commercial awareness during your graduate interview. And your understanding of the bank, insurance broker, actuarial firm, consultancy or regulator to which you've applied, and the market in which it operates will be taken into account to decide whether you get the job. 

Have a read of our article 'Commercial awareness: what retail banking, actuarial and insurance employers want you to know'.     

Law

   

The training contract is closing in, with only 14 days left to apply it is time to organise yourself and beat the rush. Have a read of our article 'Don't miss the 31 July training contract deadline' for the list of law firms you can apply to. 

Whether you are interested in applying for training contracts, vacation schemes, insight days or open days, it’s likely you’ll need a law CV – even if you're just uploading it to your online application form. Use our top ten tips from graduate recruiters in law to help you.  

General 

Increasing numbers of students are setting up their own businesses after leaving university. Find tips on how to develop your entrepreneurial skills with our article 'How to become an entrepreneur when you graduate' and learn how this will help you whatever path you choose.  

Internships

We refreshed an old piece of career advice which is still very prevalent today. How can women turn their internship into a job and into a promotion? We were privileged to catch up with Dr Sue Black, a senior research associate at University College London and campaigner for women’s advancement in the workplace. Find out what suggestions she has regarding how you can progress in your career.

Deadlines

The World Cup and Wimbledon are over so there's no excuse to put off your job hunt any longer. Your friends might already have their graduate careers lined up but there are still jobs out there, you just need to search for them. To make your life easier, we have put together the latest opportunities 'Get them before they go: graduate jobs to apply for now'.

It's not too late to get yourself on an internship or work experience placement to boost your CV and your bank balance. There are still lots of great opportunities out there, many of which have an immediate start and are paid. Don't wait around for an opportunity to magically appear, apply now!

That's all from me this week.

Enjoy the warm weather and have a great weekend.

Roxanne

TARGETjobs career advice weekly roundup

Hello and welcome to this week’s graduate recruitment news roundup. Here we summarise what we have been covering on our site this week.  

As always I will start with next week's internship and graduate job deadlines:

Summer and graduate internships and placements to apply for now, with application deadlines coming up next week - apply here.

There are graduate job deadlines coming up fast in a range of career areas here on targetjobs.co.uk, from financial services and insurance to engineering, IT and sales. Click here to apply now!

As I mentioned last week we have a job opportunity available here at TARGETjobs, the deadline is on the 27 June 2014. 

Here is a reminder of the role in question

Job opportunity

Now, do you like what we do? Do you also have a passion for events? Then apply to be an Event Promotions Executive and join our team here at TARGETjobs!

As an Event Promotions Executive, you will

• Develop your communication skills
• Gain hiring and management experience
• Be responsible for planning and executing your own event attendance
• Demonstrate you can exceed targets
• Learn from a hands-on marketing team
• Get you own company car!

If this sounds interesting to you then why not apply now! We currently have four opportunities available so don't miss out on working for a fun, inspiring and prestigious company.

On to our latest career advice articles..

With so many graduates now on the market, employers will look for evidence of skills and work experience which will make you stand out from the crowd. Have a read of our article 'Top 10 skills that'll get you a job when you graduate'  we have also created a video which you may be interested in watching, the video highlights the skills you need and how to showcase those skills.

Internships are a crucial stepping-stone to graduate schemes. Have a read of our article to get application tips, find out about industrial placements and browse through the opportunities we have a available.

Whether you fancy yourself the next Robert Fisk reporting on world - changing issues or you're more of a Tyler Shields poised to photograph the stars, everyone has to start somewhere. It's best to be thinking about it while you're at university, so kick-start your fledgling media career by taking a peek at some of TARGETjobs media, journalism and publishing guides to getting a foot in the door. Have a read of our articles on this topic below: 

'Entry - level routes into journalism and writing for the web'

'Entry-level routes into photography'

'Entry-level routes into editorial'

Clifford Chance won the 2014 Graduate Employer of the Year Award at the TARGETjobs National Graduate Recruitment awards in April. In our article 'Four tips for getting a training contract of vac scheme with Clifford Chance' we explain why the firm were recognised at the Awards and how keeping this information in mind can help you get a training contract with this global giant of a law firm.

Did you know that there are only three ways to get a placement or work experience with Laing O’Rourke? Get sponsored through university by the company, apply to the Institution of Civil Engineers’ QUEST scheme – or win the TARGETjobs Undergraduate of the Year competition. If you're interested in hearing more why not read our article 'How to WIN a summer placement with Laing O'Rourke'.

Are you interested in a career in forensic accounting? Well I have some great news for you, 20 new graduate positions will be available in September 2014 on EY’s new specialised trainee scheme – fraud investigations and disputes. It’s exciting news for those with an interest in forensic accounting. Read more on the topic here and find out how to apply.

That's all from me this week! 

Best of luck with any applications that you make this week.

Have a great weekend.

Roxanne

TARGETjobs career advice weekly 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. http://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice 

General news

Before we move on to the advice, we’d like to thank everybody who participated in the trendence survey this year, we collected over 27,000 responses and your answers have been used to put together this year’s Guardian UK 300! 

Click here for The Guardian UK 300 barometer 2014 findings.

If you want to read The Guardian UK 300 then please look out for the physical publication coming out in September 2014!

In other news, we would like to thank everyone who came along to How to get hired Live 2014. We are proud to say that it was a success!  Here is the video below.

Have a read of our news story ‘Students soak up secrets of job huntsuccess at How to get hired Live’. 

Also last but certainly not least Meet the undergraduates of the year 2014 – Congratulations to all who won and thank you to all those that participated! We wish you the best of luck in the future.

Career advice

Moving on to career advice, calling all aspiring solicitors, most commercial law firms expect training contract applications in by 31 July.  We list the firms that use this deadline to make sure you don’t miss the boat. Click here.

Career tactics for women: from internship to job to promotion - whether you're trying to turn your internship into a graduate job offer or climb the career ladder in a permanent job, have a read of our article to find out how to increase your chances of success.

Are you struggling to write a winning CV? Why not download our CV and Covering letter examples here to give you a better chance of being successful in your job hunt.

Are you interested in working in investment banking? Have a read of our article 'How to network your way into an investment banking job'. The infamous 'British reserve' means that networking is one of the most underused skills when it comes to graduate job hunting. Put those social skills to the test and network your way to a job!

Good luck in your job applications!

Have a great weekend.

Roxanne