Last year I applied to just one graduate program and failed at the telephone interview stage. This was largely due to the fact I held many issues with graduate programs, the application, their design and the fact they were sold to us as the only viable option of finding employment.
One year on, well you know the story.
This post will outline a few of those issues and why I have to now simply ignore them
The Application Process-
Unlike other jobs, because of the sheer number of applicants, most programs consist of numerous stages. My first issue is with their application forms. A simple C.V and covering letter will not suffice for a graduate program, you have to go through pages of application to basically state what was on your C.V in the first place and answer a few generic questions. If you are succesful then you usually face a telephone interview.
I hate telephone interviews. I am not a telephone person. Talking when you can see the other person is much preferred. But to save time and money you are interrogated by phone first. Most telephone interviews I have heard people speak of are said to be very easy and friendly. My only one to date was frankly harrowing.
Should you pass this next stage you will be asked to complete verbal reasoning and numerical tests. Fail and its all over.
This just seems unfair. I am sure the skills needed to complete the tests may be important in the peripheral of the actual role but they are not usually key. The last time I really did any amount of numerical work was 2003. That is 7 year ago and you are going to assess on my ability to recall and answer mathemetical questions. I have an A at GCSE, surely that demonstrates when I need to I can work numerically.
Should you pass this round you are invited to an assessment centre. I have not attended one of these before so cannot really comment. Needless to say you repeat the verbal and numerical tests to prove you have not cheated. These are often sold as a friendly chance to meet the team and understand the job. I do not doubt of course that you are being assessed from the moment you enter to the moment you leave, whether you are presenting, taking tests or merely eating lunch.
After this in some cases there an interview. Usual rules apply.
At any of these stages the company can turn round and say "thanks but no thanks". All that time, all that effort totally wasted and as a student still not entirely intune with the real world just yet, it can be crushing. But its okay because there are others when you can do the exact same. Its not like a job application where you go for an interview, maybe a second interview and are then told whether you are successful or not. This process can take months, interfering with anything else in your life.
But that was not what put me off graduate programs. What put me off was what was involved in the programs themselves. In particular the suggestion you needed to work in each bit of the business to decide which suited you. The fact that HR was based in Dorset, Sales in Aberdeen and Marketing in Manchester was irrelevant. You were expected to complete 3 months in each. At least this was the case for many of the programs I looked at. There were many attractive qualities as well, the gradual training, mentorship, salaries and general attempt to make you feel like you belonged.
1 year on and here I am applying for two different graduate programs. One has a six part process and the other a three. Both have the dreaded tests, but the end result is more pleasing. A chance to train at one location, in one area. All the positive qualities and very few of the negative. One suggests that the process will take a maximum of four weeks, also agreeable.
Neither are anywhere near Southampton, but sadly you cant always have it all.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Cautious Optimism
Today I am fairly optimistic. Opportunities seem to be appearing left, right and centre some of which even carry the hallowed word "graduate" and ask for no experience. It could be too good to be true but hopefully one will pay off and I will be amongst the gainfully employed. The most impressive and attractive one is based in Abingdon. (not an easy place to get to) But learning to drive has been on my agenda for a while now and I have not ruled out moving away from Southampton in the summer, though I am tied to a contract until then.
A quick thanks to my friends for keeping their eye out for relevant opportunties. I appreciate the time, no matter how short, you take to think of me.
Tomorrow is the big job hunt day, I think I have found enough things to be working on applications from 9-5! But for today, relaxation, enjoyment and mabye a little gaming
A quick thanks to my friends for keeping their eye out for relevant opportunties. I appreciate the time, no matter how short, you take to think of me.
Tomorrow is the big job hunt day, I think I have found enough things to be working on applications from 9-5! But for today, relaxation, enjoyment and mabye a little gaming
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Conflicted
Today I made a difficult decision. It was an obvious one which arose from a conflict raging since last Wednesday. I decided to inform the recruitment company I would not be attending their assessment tomorrow.
I knew all along the role would basically be a sales one, calling prospective candidates, "selling" them a job, even making a commission from doing so. But what dawned on me whilst lying awake last night was this: I could not go from Recruitment to Marketing without starting back at the beginning and in all likelihood several years down the line I would not want to do that. Ultimately if I went for and got a job in recruitment that would be my career and another dream down the pan.
Back when I was younger I wanted to be an actor. I come alive on stage and feel a real passion for peformance. As I grew older I realised that you either make it or you don't as an actor and as a career plan it was not all that realistic. Despite this, when I applied to University I applied for a mixture of drama and history, refusing to let the dream die. This was flawed, I know that now. I would have been better served to have applied just for History, but I got lucky and Uni of Southampton took me on. I got involved with the Theatre Group but studies came first and thus that dream petered away.
After History, which is not itself a career path. Marketing became my aim. I really enjoyed marketing, I found it a challenging, interesting and ultimately attractive area of business to go into. It became the new dream and one I am not ready to give up just yet.
I think what it comes down to is I want to have a career in Marketing. I am happy to do something else at first if it enhances my chances of eventually getting a job in marketing, almost regardless of what it involves me doing.
Yet despite all this I am conflicted, I filled out the pre assessment day forms and if they had paid travel expenses I might even of gone just to see. I think though, this time I have made the right call and will have to hope that I won't regret the decision
I knew all along the role would basically be a sales one, calling prospective candidates, "selling" them a job, even making a commission from doing so. But what dawned on me whilst lying awake last night was this: I could not go from Recruitment to Marketing without starting back at the beginning and in all likelihood several years down the line I would not want to do that. Ultimately if I went for and got a job in recruitment that would be my career and another dream down the pan.
Back when I was younger I wanted to be an actor. I come alive on stage and feel a real passion for peformance. As I grew older I realised that you either make it or you don't as an actor and as a career plan it was not all that realistic. Despite this, when I applied to University I applied for a mixture of drama and history, refusing to let the dream die. This was flawed, I know that now. I would have been better served to have applied just for History, but I got lucky and Uni of Southampton took me on. I got involved with the Theatre Group but studies came first and thus that dream petered away.
After History, which is not itself a career path. Marketing became my aim. I really enjoyed marketing, I found it a challenging, interesting and ultimately attractive area of business to go into. It became the new dream and one I am not ready to give up just yet.
I think what it comes down to is I want to have a career in Marketing. I am happy to do something else at first if it enhances my chances of eventually getting a job in marketing, almost regardless of what it involves me doing.
Yet despite all this I am conflicted, I filled out the pre assessment day forms and if they had paid travel expenses I might even of gone just to see. I think though, this time I have made the right call and will have to hope that I won't regret the decision
Monday, 11 January 2010
Square One
As I have discussed before, I am a man who likes to have a back plan. Not through lack of optimism but merely because it is better to play it safe.
When I emerged wide eyed and eager, fresh from my masters I thought, find a graduate marketing job, but should for any reason that prove too difficult, find agency work to get some of that much needed experience.
You can chronicle my back up plan to that, and then the next. The question I am asking today is just how many back up plans are needed?
After a plethora of options were exhausted I came to volunteering. Far from ideal but would provide me with that much coveted, impossible to achieve, experience. I contacted the volunteering website and was provided with the opportunity to meet with a charity with regards to aiding them with their marketing plan.
I mentioned last week that the meeting showed me how I lacked the practical in the marketing, but apparently it also highlighted to the charity how they didn't really know what they needed in way of a volunteer. Thus this morning I have received an email informing me they have decided to close the volunteering position until later in the year when they have laid the foundations of both the project and presumably therefore the role they wish the volunteer to carry out.
Square one
I could liken the hunt for jobs to snakes and ladders sometimes. (ignoring the fact that in snakes and ladders no snake actually goes back to square one) Firstly you roll the dice and advance tentatively along the board, there are different combinations you can roll to advance, each representing a different potential path. You may even get the chance at a second roll, avoiding the ladders unluckily of course. The fact is you always find the snake that returns to square one. If you could just get past the second row then even if you fall again the worst you can ever fall to is square 6, but as a graduate its square one, repeatedly and when on square one there is always that likelihood of finding that first looming snake with each roll of the dice.
I need to get past that snake. The easiest way is with ladders. One such ladder is contacts, and its possible that I may have just found one that will help me leave square one once and for bloody all. Until then I will just have to keep the rolling the dice and hope I find the right combination that gets me past the snakes and into the rows above.
When I emerged wide eyed and eager, fresh from my masters I thought, find a graduate marketing job, but should for any reason that prove too difficult, find agency work to get some of that much needed experience.
You can chronicle my back up plan to that, and then the next. The question I am asking today is just how many back up plans are needed?
After a plethora of options were exhausted I came to volunteering. Far from ideal but would provide me with that much coveted, impossible to achieve, experience. I contacted the volunteering website and was provided with the opportunity to meet with a charity with regards to aiding them with their marketing plan.
I mentioned last week that the meeting showed me how I lacked the practical in the marketing, but apparently it also highlighted to the charity how they didn't really know what they needed in way of a volunteer. Thus this morning I have received an email informing me they have decided to close the volunteering position until later in the year when they have laid the foundations of both the project and presumably therefore the role they wish the volunteer to carry out.
Square one
I could liken the hunt for jobs to snakes and ladders sometimes. (ignoring the fact that in snakes and ladders no snake actually goes back to square one) Firstly you roll the dice and advance tentatively along the board, there are different combinations you can roll to advance, each representing a different potential path. You may even get the chance at a second roll, avoiding the ladders unluckily of course. The fact is you always find the snake that returns to square one. If you could just get past the second row then even if you fall again the worst you can ever fall to is square 6, but as a graduate its square one, repeatedly and when on square one there is always that likelihood of finding that first looming snake with each roll of the dice.
I need to get past that snake. The easiest way is with ladders. One such ladder is contacts, and its possible that I may have just found one that will help me leave square one once and for bloody all. Until then I will just have to keep the rolling the dice and hope I find the right combination that gets me past the snakes and into the rows above.
Friday, 8 January 2010
Crossroads
Yesterday was my meeting with the Wheatsheaf Charity with a view to me doing some volunteering for them primarily in the marketing area. It was a very relaxed laid back meeting but was a real eye opener.
The MSc I recently completed, although full of theory has not really prepared me to actually do marketing on a day to day basis. I dont even know entirely where to begin. We discussed a number of projects which they are working on and I was asked if I could design websites, promote young peoples ideas to people in power, help market an event and although I was able to give very basic ideas, giving a clear outline of what I would do if it was entirely my responsibility was impossible.
These past months I have been striving to find a marketing position but in reality having not experienced marketing on a day to day basis or any other business role for that issue I have no idea what I am doing or what I really want to do.
As I came back from the meeting I was called by ARM (Advanced Resource Managers) offering me the chance to attend an assessment centre for a trainee graduate position in their company. I didnt as such apply for the role and previously had not really considered recruitment as an area to get involved with. On the other hand it would train me from a grass roots level and just because I start in recruitment does not mean 2-4 years down the line I cannot change. The assessment centre is next Wednesday and I will attend.
The charity representatives said they would email me today about where I can start getting involved with their organisation, I have yet to recieve that email but fingers crossed it will arrive later and I wont have to chase them.
So it becomes a question, a choice. Recruitment job that pays vs Marketing job that doesnt. At the moment I am fortunate to be able to go after both
The MSc I recently completed, although full of theory has not really prepared me to actually do marketing on a day to day basis. I dont even know entirely where to begin. We discussed a number of projects which they are working on and I was asked if I could design websites, promote young peoples ideas to people in power, help market an event and although I was able to give very basic ideas, giving a clear outline of what I would do if it was entirely my responsibility was impossible.
These past months I have been striving to find a marketing position but in reality having not experienced marketing on a day to day basis or any other business role for that issue I have no idea what I am doing or what I really want to do.
As I came back from the meeting I was called by ARM (Advanced Resource Managers) offering me the chance to attend an assessment centre for a trainee graduate position in their company. I didnt as such apply for the role and previously had not really considered recruitment as an area to get involved with. On the other hand it would train me from a grass roots level and just because I start in recruitment does not mean 2-4 years down the line I cannot change. The assessment centre is next Wednesday and I will attend.
The charity representatives said they would email me today about where I can start getting involved with their organisation, I have yet to recieve that email but fingers crossed it will arrive later and I wont have to chase them.
So it becomes a question, a choice. Recruitment job that pays vs Marketing job that doesnt. At the moment I am fortunate to be able to go after both
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Increased efficiency or Unnecessary Bureaucracy
Yesterday was another visit to the job centre. It has become routine now, walk through the door, hand your cellophane wrapped booklet to the man leading to the doors upstairs, go to the first floor, hand booklet to another man, go to zone C, wait for your name to be called.
Except not anymore. For reasons I can only assume have been shown to increase the efficiency of the practice/staff the job centre has made some minor changes to the process.
1. Instead of just going to the door and handing the booklet, you now have to queue at the front desk with anyone else with a general enquiry so you can be handed a small yellow card, which must be handed in to allow you access to upstairs.
2. Zones A-D are now Zones 1-4. Zones 3-4 have moved upstairs. This took me a while to figure out as I sat in my usual place since no-one had informed me. I waited 10 minutes for my appointment till someone called my name only to send me upstairs.
3. Zones 1-2 are for 25+, Zones 3-4 are for 16-24. This I suppose is to counter the growing number of unemployed young individuals. Ridiculously however people were clearly ending up in the wrong place. Despite the apparent obvious difference the people at the door were not informing them. This led me to be sitting upstairs across from a young guy with two children and a man with a long grey beard. Which one seems the odd one out? Surely the man at the door could have told him he was in the wrong place, thus saving him time. Instead it took until his name was called for him to be told he was on the wrong floor.
Overall the experience took 10 minutes longer than it used to. There is an oft used saying which might need to applied here: Don't fix it if it isn't broken!
Except not anymore. For reasons I can only assume have been shown to increase the efficiency of the practice/staff the job centre has made some minor changes to the process.
1. Instead of just going to the door and handing the booklet, you now have to queue at the front desk with anyone else with a general enquiry so you can be handed a small yellow card, which must be handed in to allow you access to upstairs.
2. Zones A-D are now Zones 1-4. Zones 3-4 have moved upstairs. This took me a while to figure out as I sat in my usual place since no-one had informed me. I waited 10 minutes for my appointment till someone called my name only to send me upstairs.
3. Zones 1-2 are for 25+, Zones 3-4 are for 16-24. This I suppose is to counter the growing number of unemployed young individuals. Ridiculously however people were clearly ending up in the wrong place. Despite the apparent obvious difference the people at the door were not informing them. This led me to be sitting upstairs across from a young guy with two children and a man with a long grey beard. Which one seems the odd one out? Surely the man at the door could have told him he was in the wrong place, thus saving him time. Instead it took until his name was called for him to be told he was on the wrong floor.
Overall the experience took 10 minutes longer than it used to. There is an oft used saying which might need to applied here: Don't fix it if it isn't broken!
Monday, 4 January 2010
Back to it
It has always been difficult finding your rhythm after the Christmas Break. The world stops, opens some presents and eats some Turkey and then there is just under a week till they stay up late, drink champagne and see in the New Year. As a student I struggled to get any meaningful amount of work done over this period, as a job hunter I didnt stand a chance.
I looked anyway, but who would post a job the week after Christmas, the answer as expected was no-one.
So now it is the 4th, normal life resumes. People go back to work, students go back to University, Kids are back at school. Jobs still have not been posted yet, it is after all for most the first day back at work although I expect a trickle to follow later in the week.
Back to the job centre tomorrow to explain why I have not applied to any jobs the last two weeks. Hopefully they will be understanding and not complain that my booklet information on the agreed applications.
Then on Thursday I have the meeting with the Wheatsheaf Trust, hopefully the turning point. For now though I do not see much I can do, and I was bought Assassins Creed 2 for Christmas!
I looked anyway, but who would post a job the week after Christmas, the answer as expected was no-one.
So now it is the 4th, normal life resumes. People go back to work, students go back to University, Kids are back at school. Jobs still have not been posted yet, it is after all for most the first day back at work although I expect a trickle to follow later in the week.
Back to the job centre tomorrow to explain why I have not applied to any jobs the last two weeks. Hopefully they will be understanding and not complain that my booklet information on the agreed applications.
Then on Thursday I have the meeting with the Wheatsheaf Trust, hopefully the turning point. For now though I do not see much I can do, and I was bought Assassins Creed 2 for Christmas!
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