Balancing act: University v Job Applications

The graduate scheme system is such that a university student would have to apply for the scheme one year in advance of start date. Naturally, this creates a number of problems for the student that has to balance time between attending lectures, writing assignments, group meetings, researching employers, writing application forms and constructing the final year dissertation.

Here are a number of things you could try:

1. Allocate a certain amount of time (1 hour a day/4 hours a week) on completing graduate scheme application forms.

2. Only pick 5 or 6 graduate schemes with December/January deadlines that you are really interested in and focus your allocated time on making sure each one of these are completed fully and without mistakes. (It would be a waste to spread your time over so many applications that they become half-efforts)

3. Attend only the graduate careers events you feel would be convenient, useful and with the opportunity for networking. Most of the time you will find similar employers attending these events, and a repetition of news - you do not have time for this. Pick wisely.

My personal solution to this problem was incredibly simple. I did not apply to one single graduate scheme. Looking back, this may have been a mistake but I'm not sure of it. I managed to attain a first at university, but I can almost guarantee that would not have been possible if I had been spending hours (and that is what you need to spend) completing application forms. Some of the applications ask ridiculous questions that require research of the company, different subjects, industries, concepts etc. Ultimately I stand by my decision to not pursue the graduate scheme during my final year of study. It is too distracting to be checking your email waiting for your responses, whether successful or unsuccessful.

I graduated this year, started my job hunt in September 2010 and I'm still jobless. I have had a number of prospects but they have not really ended up with anything solid. I have not taken the graduate scheme route, and I have no regrets. I do not like being treated like a number.

Please comment if you have experience with the balancing act of managing university work at the same time as making graduate scheme applications! It would be great to hear other opinions.

The Guardian London Graduate Fair

I decided, for want of better things to do, to attend the Guardian London Graduate fair last Tuesday (19th October). I really shouldn’t have bothered. Ok so although I sort of already knew that this fair was really targetted towards final year undergraduates I thought I might learn something by attending. But let me tell you I was horrified.

I arrived at the Business Design Centre with my printed email confirmation so I could get fast-track entry from 12pm. Get ahead of the crowd right? Wrong! I arrived to find a queue, one of those that gets so long it has to double back on itself. Young, aspiring and enthusiastic the hopeful undergraduates, professionally dressed, waited patiently in line (and in the freezing cold might I add). Well I wasn’t having it, I was already starving so decided to grab some lunch first.

1.15pm and there is still a queue. Shorter this time and manageable. So my boyfriend and I get in line and eventually through the doors. We are welcomed with the sight of hoards of students, scrambling to get to the front of each employer’s stall. Desperate to impress would be the best description. I actually got stuck in a crowd of people, the type of stuck where you are utterly squashed on all sides with no means of escaping.

The employers stalls were tiny and the representatives simply drummed out the same old information, more easily found using a little thing called the Internet! My boyfriend asked a white-faced representative from GCHQ ‘What if I wanted to do a graduate programme that crossed the boundaries between Management and Linguistics’. The answer was basically no, said in a few more words.

So we come to my conclusion. Some of the grad schemes out there are just too inflexible. They create ready-made schemes with a development plan, career path, progression etc. They do all this before they have even met you. ‘We don’t care if you want to do Management with Linguistics you can only do EITHER Management OR Linguistics, don’t confuse us!’. I urge all you undergraduates out there to make sure that you are accepting a grad scheme that is right for you, not right for them! Overall, as I stood at the Guardian Graduate Fair I realised I was staring my competition in the face. When you’re submitting that application, you know they’re there submitting one too. But I actually saw them, in their thousands... How can anyone possibly stand out?