The Graduate Job Search: Where To Start

Looking for a new job is never easy, but it is particularly difficult in the current employment market. If you are a new graduate with limited experience, it is even harder. When your experience of the workplace is limited to jobs in shops and pubs at weekends and in the holidays the idea of applying for high level management jobs can be intimidating. University careers services are generally very helpful and able to advise on many issues but they are not able to actually get the job for you. Employers themselves can be helpful too but will naturally have a strong and vested interest in their own business and can often mislead or offer biased information, help and advice. A middle ground that is often overlooked by job-hunting graduates is recruitment consultants.

Recruitment consultants are able to provide a graduate with a reasonably impartial view of the employment market, as they deal with a large number of different employers on a daily basis. They know what the employment situation really is, without having an interest in getting you to work for one specific employer Of course, they need to match people with vacancies, but it is in their interests to match the right people, with the right vacancies.
There are all sorts of recruitment agencies, some of which specialise in working with graduates, others of which have a graduate division. Some specialise in a particular industry and will be able to find clients jobs at all levels within that industry. Others may not take on graduates so it is important to research properly which might be able to help you and which will not. When you go to see a consultant, you need to impress them as you would an employer, but you can also ask them questions about what kind of jobs they think would fit your skills. You need to make them see that you are ‘job ready’, but you do not necessarily have to prove that you are ready for one particular job.
That is up to them to determine. Using recruitment consultants to help you in your job search might also help you widen it. There are many jobs that could be the springboard to a fantastic career, but that you will never see in the ‘milkround’. In some industries, such as parts of the media, the norm is to get a temporary jobs through an agency, that turn into higher level permanent jobs once you’ve proved yourself. Essentially, using consultants to help you find a graduate job, helps you open doors you never knew existed.

Assured Recruitment Solutions are specialist recruitment consultants for the sales, technology, retail and finance sectors within the UK. With vast experience in placing senior appointments and acting as consultants for the UK’s largest private organisations Assured is leading the way in offering more bespoke and integrated recruitment processes. For more information on Assured Recruitment