Help and Support for Graduates Looking for Work University of Manchester Careers Blog

Help and Support for Graduates Looking for Work Guest Blogger Post Judi Roo, Senior Resume Writing Consultant, Roo Resumes.   Times are so tough. With so many graduates and so fewer jobs, graduates are facing a really challenging and very frustrating job market. Since the Global recession more and more businesses are limiting their graduate recruitment, and in today’s market having a Degree that you have worked so hard for by no means guarantees you finding a suitable job. At Roo Resumes we want to try and help our Graduates as best as possible. Below you will find advice on how to increase your chances in today’s ever challenging job market.   Learn to Develop your Employ-ability Skills Even being on target for a First-Class Honours Degree and have a strong commercial awareness is not enough to secure a graduate position. Find out what skills prospective employers want you to have, and take the lead in developing them as much as possible. Try volunteering at Companies to enhance your skills. More and more hiring managers advise us at Roo Resumes they tend to want to hire someone who gives back to the community as what they want more than anything is the right cultural fit. Hire an Expert to Develop your On Line Professional Profile Graduate recruiters and Hiring Managers are increasingly looking at social media as a way to source, target, and reach the best candidates. Make sure they find you by creating a professional online profile on Linked In that are in additional to your personal profile. Also, make sure what you post on Facebook, Instagram or any form of social media output is suitable and not damaging to you when looking for work or if you cannot do this then set your privacy and security settings so only connected friends can see your profile. Go out and Get some Customer Service Experience Work experience is so essential. It facilitates graduate employment and also builds valuable skills that support employ-ability more generally. Nearly two-thirds of recruiters warn that graduates with no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful during a screening process. Almost all leading UK and Australian graduate employers offer work experience programmes for students and recent graduates. The importance of work experience cannot be stressed upon enough. While it can be great if you have benefited from a formal program any customer service experience in a client facing role can prove to be extremely helpful. Get your Professional Resume completed by a Professional Take the time and hire an expert to do your Professional Resume for you so you can use this as a template as you go through your career. Your Resume is an important document as it represents you and could be the difference between you getting shortlisted for an interview or not. Practice the STAR/SOARA Technique Learn about how interviewees complete a behavioral interview using the STAR/SOARA graduate hire technique where you will be assessed and scored on your answers. STAR stands for situation, task, action and result. If you can deliver an answer using the STAR technique they will be really impressed and it will definitely increase your chances of getting hired.   Research the Business and the Key Selection Criteria When selected for an interview please do not forget to research the business, the role and why you want to work for them. If you cannot be bothered to do this then they won’t bother to hire you, especially when thy have another 400+ applicants that have bothered to do this. Practice with a family member or close friend to perfect your answers. Make sure you look at the key selection criteria advertised either on a job specification or the job advertisement as most interview questions will come from this set of information so it allows you time to prepare as best as possible. Good Luck Graduates! Judi | Senior Resume Writing Consultant |Roo Resumes For more information on Roo Resumes click the link Below:  www.rooresumes.com Graduate International career research commercial awareness Graduates job hunting