Why societies can help you get a graduate job in business

Although Laura has already left us she left us with this great blog on similiarities between societies and business and how being an exec for one could land you a job in business,

In my quest to land a graduate job, I’ve been trying quite hard to develop my commercial awareness. A few weeks ago I started thinking about what I learnt about business at university, and it struck me that taking part in a society can teach you a lot.

Most students take part in societies to make friends or develop a skill, but if you’re on the exec, running a society can be a lot like running a business. 

Firstly, it’s important to remember that every society and every business has a basic aim. For societies, this is to get people together with similar interests. For businesses, this is to provide a service or sell a product. Everyone in the society works towards this aim in the hope that more people will join and you’ll have more fun, or that you’ll make more money. 

This means that on a very simple level, societies and businesses have the same jobs to be done. For example, most business and societies needs someone who:

• is in charge (company director = society president)

• manages the money (chief financial officer = society treasurer)
• tells people about you (marketing manager = publicity officer)
• looks after everyone (HR manager = social sec)

This also means that every business or society has a target audience and must be able to cater to the needs of this target audience in order to be successful. A target audience would be the business’ customers or the society’s members. Businesses and societies are built around these people and without them they won’t work. Before you start a new society you usually need at least 30 members in order to prove that there is a demand for it and that the money the students’ union invests in the society won’t go to waste. Likewise, without market research and proof that there is a demand for a product, entrepreneurs will be unlikely to find investors for their business because there is no proof the product will make any money.

When it is finally up and running, all businesses and societies rely on hard work and efficiency of each of their departments or exec members. So if one part of the business or society doesn’t pull its weight, it’s likely that the rest will suffer. For example, you could have a great idea for a product but if your CFO doesn’t manage your finances well, you could end up spending too much money on the raw materials and not have enough left to produce it. Similarly, you could plan a fantastic society event but if your publicity officer doesn’t let people know about it, no-one will go to it.

As you can see, societies are simplified versions of businesses, and if you’ve ever wondered why graduate recruiters are so keen on people who’ve run them, that’s probably one of the reasons why.

Find more careers advice here. 

Communique' from an uncertain future

Something everyone has heard before: ‘You need to do what you enjoy. You spend the majority of your life working, so if you don’t enjoy it then you’ll not be happy.’

Something else everyone has heard before: ‘If I won the lottery…’

In life, the prominence given to money cannot be understated. People talk about it all the time. Parents complain about a lack of it. Some individuals are ruthlessly driven in the pursuit of it. The fruits of wealthy pockets are forever envied. Money must be quite important, then?

Our consumer-driven, capitalist society is propped up by self-perpetuating industries and organisations following the dangling carrot of profit, hence the credence given to commercial awareness by graduate employers. Publishing, which, broadly speaking is the sector in which I am currently employed, is not renowned for its generosity when it comes to financially rewarding employees for their hard work; yet it is still a commercial enterprise. Fiscal payback for employees is largely dependent on the amount of money that a business is able to accrue; so what of those job sectors that are more likely to supply their employees with kinder monetary gifts? Without having experienced graduate jobs in traditionally cash-soaked sectors such as banking, law or accountancy, for example, I can’t say that they are substantially more demanding than publishing. I also can’t say that they’re boring, soul destroying or grim, which is why I’m starting to wonder: should I choose to pursue a career in an area that could furnish me with sterling and hope that I might, as a bonus, even enjoy the job?

Here’s a surprise: I’m uncertain. As I discussed in a previous blog entry, the implications of pursuing a career that you haven’t experienced are many and various. If you opt for a path that you think you’ll enjoy, there’s every possibility that you may rue your choice when you find yourself struggling for money; if you follow pound signs, there’s a chance that you may curse your choice when you are battling for contentment.

There’s no way to accurately predict the future. Depending on the career choice you make and how things fall, anything could happen. So here’s a seemingly silly suggestion for skirting a mid-life crisis: get some hobbies. Colour your free time with activities that you enjoy so that in future, you can work to live instead of living to work. Play golf. Take up cycling. Buy a camera. Develop your interest in ornithology. Do whatever appeals to you and if you don’t know what you like, get thinking and try things out. This isn’t intended to be a doom-laden sentiment, merely a pragmatic means by which to exercise some control over a wild beast. At least then if things don’t go entirely to plan, you won’t be left feeling completely short changed.  

Thank you Ross. 

Maybe taking a gap year after university may also help clearing your mind, picking up hobbies and figuring out what to do with your career. If you have thought of this but worried about how employers may view it why not have a look at how you can market your gap year to employers. 

Or why not have a read of our 'Fun, prospects or money article' this may inspire you and give you some options. 

Just say yes: applying for work experience, the dreaded rejection and silver linings

Emma Williams, regular TARGETjobs blogger is back yet another insightful blog.

Sending out cover letters, query letters and endless CVs with a barren inbox of responses can be dismaying; and believe me, the rejection emails offer a breather of relief sometimes. Relief that you have actually been acknowledged, rather than dismissed, laughed at or deleted from their inbox or ‘in’ tray. But as an undergraduate, it sadly is process that you get accustomed to. With constant reminders that not even a 2:1 result is enough to guarantee a place on a graduate scheme, work placements and stint of work experience in every field are rife with competition amongst conscientious students.

I wouldn’t count myself as an overly-ambitious student or an outright competitive person, but I am one that worries about my prospects after graduating before I’ve even finished second year. Scouring the web for feasible sites offering media work placements, writing opportunities or anything remotely to do with fashion has been a task and a half, with many of my polite and borderline-desperate emails falling upon deaf, or most likely uninterested ears. Though I didn’t have responses from some attempts and applications, this didn’t quell my determination to get experience—any experience, really— that would be relevant and worthwhile for my CV.

I’m sure many students would agree how annoying and frustrating it can be to not hear back from an application or carefully compiled email that you sent to an employer you would crawl for a day’s work at, but I can vouch for such experiences where even when you do get a response, and it’s a dismaying ‘no’, it doesn’t always equate to the end of your correspondence from them.

I recently applied for a two-week placement for a media event placement, and though my long-winded and carefully thought-out answers were not what the corporation were looking for, my enthusiasm and determination was apparent through my application and they offered me a volunteering role at the event. Disappointment was overcome by sheer disbelief, and I jumped at the chance to volunteer, and it was one of the most rewarding “work” experiences I have had. I met a lot of good contacts, had the opportunity to prove myself doing a little of the work I would have done at the placement and had a great insight into a professional environment. An insight I never would have been able to experience if I hadn’t been given a chance, and as a result I have been added to the corporation’s pool of volunteer names to be notified of future events.

Impressing and presenting your willingness to partake in any opportunity as experience for your CV will get you somewhere; if not always, it will eventually. This experience proved me wrong that not every unsuccessful application or email is disregarded. If you really show the experience would be worthwhile for you as well as for them by how much you’d benefit from working hard and immersing yourself in that industry and environment, then you’ll make yourself memorable and a frontrunner in the choice of people for future endeavours.

 Whatever you do, just say yes: you won’t regret an experience you can learn or gain from!

A great post for Emma and I hope you join me in wishing her good luck in her future and in her third year at university. If this has inspired you to look for work experience visit our work experience pages:  

Routine

Alex Ward is back with this third guest post. Enjoy!

This week I'm taking note of the differences between university and work life.

After two months now working for TARGETjobs, I can safely say that in some ways I will consider going back to university to be more of a holiday. The prospect of reckless nights out, followed by lying in bed until I deem it necessary to crawl out from under the covers is, to me right now, a whole world away.

During my second year, a typical day would begin somewhere between 9:00am and 13:00pm. This was often subject to what I call the drunk equation, whereby units of alcohol consumed, plus hours spent partying, plus kebab topped pizza is directly proportional to the number of hours spent in bed the next day. Now however, during the holidays, the variance in the time I get up is significantly reduced – to about half an hour between quarter past seven and quarter to eight. This is dependent upon whether or not I decided to watch American Dad on BBC3 after the Family Guy double.

The thing is – I don’t mind. There were definitely times when I thought to myself late one afternoon at university ‘I could have gotten a lot more out of today’, and it’s true. Having such a routine now, my body is automatically ready to go by about eight in the morning. This means that come Saturday I’ve done all that pesky administration that us students have to occasionally tolerate, before the crack of noon when my peers emerge, dressed in joggers and shielded from the sun by large-framed sunglasses.

To this day I will not forget my friend’s confusion when he saw me up and about the morning after a particularly heavy session on the shandy.

This routine though, of working nine ‘til five (cue Dolly Parton) up until now has been more beneficial than I realised. Rising at a reasonable hour means that I get my ‘Three square meals a day young man’, meaning that my health is a lot better – I’ve had a lot less left over floor pizza to boot. I get a varied and balanced diet, something which I am positive has never occurred whilst studying.

Organisation too is something that, as soon as routine slips into place, is easier than expected. Making time to drunkenly see friends now comes on a Friday evening and at the weekend, with the more sober encounters occurring after work during those long summer afternoons. I admit, that I’m not completely organised – there is still a letter from the student loans company on my desk gathering dust. I’ve taken the attitude to it like I would a fine wine. Leave it for ages in a dark, cool spot and pretend it doesn’t exist for a few years before opening it and wondering what all the fuss was about.

TARGETjobs has opened my eyes in many ways this summer; from teaching me lessons in plain English and email etiquette, to content management and competency-based interview questions. But without a doubt, what I have woken up to the most (no pun intended) is the amount of time I have neglected when I could really have utilised it.

That said, the student union doesn’t start serving until noon anyway.

£27,000 is a lot to spend on a hangover

We've got another post from our intern Alex. Here he is going to tackle the complex issue of getting waaaaaasted.

I heard a person say that they’d fail a year of university so that they had one more year to go drinking all the time (Excuse me?). Yes, some view the university experience in a significantly different way to others. I’m not shedding light on any institution in particular, but I am commenting on the people.

With university fees now rising to an eye-watering/ soul-destroying £9,000 (yes I sound like your overbearing parent), it is more crucial than ever to graduate your course with a good class of degree. So does this mean that we should all pack away our DIY hooch (alcohol) kits replacing them with 'Writing a Dissertation for Dummies' (yes it exists, ironically)? In short, No.

It’s alright to go out and enjoy yourself, just do it in moderation (I’m really plugging the parental view this time around).

Personally, I will see myself as having wasted three, very valuable, years of my life if at the end of my degree I walk away with anything less than a 2.1. We all like to think we’re capable of achieving a first, but I would like this to being a bit like the childhood idea of being a fireman when you grow up. There comes a point when you’ve got to be realistic (and hang up those Velcro fireman’s trousers to boot). But then again, I would also consider myself wasting the university experience if I stayed locked inside my slowly decaying student house all the time.

Good ol’ time management is often the key for me. I don’t particularly venture (stumble) into town the night before a morning lecture. Instead, I would rather go out on a night where I am not required to be a functioning member of society the next day. I realise that this occasionally leads to going out at times that don’t correspond to others, but in fairness, it’s easier than getting the urge to vomit every time the lecturer mentions how ‘groups of men, circulate women among themselves, according to a rule known as the incest taboo.’

As the title of this post suggests, with all these expensive tuition fees, you are looking at investing a lot of money to stay in bed, developing an unhealthily high tolerance to paracetamol. Plus, despite popular belief, it is actually less humiliating when you socialise in and around lectures. You may think that girl was impressed last night when you opened that bottle with your teeth, but come the next day when your eyes are bloodshot she doesn’t give you a second look as you pass her on the way to the dentist for a missing molar.

I know for a fact that going out on ‘alternative’ (not the buttoned up, skinny jeans wearing type) night yields some great experiences. Where I’m at university, some of the best nights out have been on a Thursday. Tuesdays are also great. But then again maybe it’s because I can go out safe in the knowledge that I’m not going to throw up on my copy of Ulysses the next day – though I would hazard a guess that some people have.

Extra-curricular activities at University

Today we have Ali Matena writing a blog for us. We met Ali last month when she came down to the TARGETjobs HQ for a one-day work experience – hope she enjoyed it. Today she will write about the importance of getting yourself out there and taking part in extra-curricular activities. It may be the thing that makes you stand out from the rest of the competition.

University without extra-curricular activities is like tea without sugar, for me anyway. It’s not a complete necessity, but it adds something and sweetens up the experience.

I recall the headlines on my first day at university: ‘Loughborough University Rugby team consecutively clinches cup gold’ and ‘Students give back to the community through park cleaning efforts’. Apparently, university wasn’t just for studying.

If you think your group of friends and peers expands when you come to university, wait until you join a team, society or project… that network explodes.

I am a project leader of a volunteering scheme – something which helped me get to know a diverse range of people at university.

Organising for nearly one hundred students to go into local schools and assist children with their reading skills and confidence is no mean feat. On top of that my university work has forced me to manage my time in an adaptable way. Time management is important with employers; if you can’t get somewhere on time you may not really be serious about the job.

University life encompasses a plethora of opportunities. Being a keen netball player from a young age I knew I had to get involved with attempting some sort of netball, particularly at a university renowned for its sporting talent and consistent success. Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t wait to get started, but it is intimidating.

Through overcoming the fear of trialling in the midst of some of the UK’s best netballers, I learned something vital to help me through the employment process. In order to strive for what you want, you have to push yourself and venture out of your comfort zone. Participating in extra-curricular activities in the first place demonstrates a pro-active attitude.

I didn’t make the squad in my first year, making me question my strengths and myself. However, without this setback I wouldn’t have had something to build myself up from. I tried again in my second year and succeeded.

Knowing I had worked hard for something I was aiming for, and achieving it, erased the frustration of my first year. I could have just given up but I didn’t and through doing this, I subconsciously developed my employer-friendly skills displaying that I could bounce back from disappointment.

Extra-curricular activities are not for everyone, and balancing them with a full-time degree is challenging. However, consciously or not, they are moulding you into somebody an employer duly welcomes as well as assisting you in  making the most of that coveted time at university.

Check out how to write about your activities when it comes to putting together your CV.