Adzuna and Milkround’s Graduate of the Year Competition 2013

Graduates! It’s back! And this time it is bigger and better than ever before. Adzuna has teamed up with top graduate website Milkround to bring you “Graduate of the Year 2013.” Together we are offering you the chance to win a JOB, some CASH and a foot in the door.

The rest is up to you!

1.                An internship with a top UK company (including eBay, L’Oreal, Sony & Google)

2.                A cash prize of £1000

3.                A CV clinic with a top UK entrepreneur

4.                The Illustrious Crown of “Graduate of the Year”

 

The UK employment market is tougher than ever, especially for graduates fresh and eager from university. Competition for graduate positions continues to rise in the UK with over 50 applicants for every available graduate job. Unemployment among 18-25 year olds is the highest it’s been for decades and graduates are finding it tougher than ever to land an entry level position. But there are glimmers of hope in the market, with top employment companies Milkround and Adzuna teaming up to launch a nationwide campaign to find Britain’s “Graduate of the Year 2013”.
If you are a recent or soon-to-be graduate from a recognised UK university then we want to hear from you. We are looking for the brightest, sparkiest, gutsiest individual around.  Whether you excel in arts, music, sports, academia, languages or are an outstanding student union member, leader, or social contributor, we want to hear about you and why you deserve to win.
To enter go to Graduate of the Year 2013 and tell us briefly why you think you are worthy of this magnificent prize.  Deadline is 1st July 2013 and the overall winner will be announced at the Award Ceremony on the 1st August 2013.

Don’t believe us, check out the success of last year’s winner Leo Anthias. Following his internship at Passion Capital, Leo has since gone on to found his own company, Verse (making PowerPoint collaboration painless).

Remember not everyone can be a winner but that doesn’t mean you can’t land your dream job too.  Check out our blog for great interview tips, stellar advice for graduates, thousands of graduate jobs, internships and more vacancies than you can shake a stick at.

Join the chat on twitter: #graduateoftheyear

Can Things Only Get Better? The Futuretrack Survey

Following on from the broad brush but optimistic approach of the last couple of posts the Futuretrack survey reported in "Graduate Market Trends" offers some contrasting insights as it studies the development of a group of students who started University in 2006.  In other words, most of them graduated at the time when graduate unemployment was at its highest (8.9%).

Unenployment and Under-Employment

Over 30% of those studied were still in what is classed as non-graduate level employment by the time of the latest survey in February 2012, although with considerable variations according to degree subject.  Looking on the negative side men, those aged 21-25 on applying to University (interestingly) and those from ethnic minority groups were found to be at most risk of unemployment after graduation, whereas (unsurprisingly) graduates achieving First Class Honours were much less likely to be on the dole.

There are also clear suggestions that those students who got involved in extra curricular activities, and especially those who held roles as a student representative or official were more likely to be in 'graduate level' jobs by 2012.  The interesting point here is that first generation graduates from poorer backgrounds are far less likely to have found the opportunity to take on this kind of function.  The same group are also more likely to be put off considering postgraduate study, which the survey finds has become less popular following the introduction of tuition fees.

Job Satisfaction

One of the tables in the Stage 4 Futuretrack report provides an insight into the degree-related skills used by graduates in their current job.  This is a subjective measure but suggests that the - by employers - much vaunted skills of spoken communication, teamwork and time management came out bottom, whereas the more academic sounding skills of research and critical evaluation made up the top two.  It would be fascinating to compare this finding with the original adverts for the jobs these graduates were actually doing at the time!

As well as providing some of the highest levels of graduate employment, students of engineering technologies and subjects related to medicine also recorded the highest levels of job satisfaction in their current roles.  bottom of the pile were architecture, building and planning with creative arts and design - so perhaps it's only two cheers for hopes of creative satisfaction in the longer term.

From Futuretrack Stage 4 Report p. 92

Gender

It's also only two cheers for gender equality as research into the respective earnings of men and women show that they remain strikingly uneven, in that women were much more strongly represented than men in the £15 - £24,000 range. Men were far more likely to be earning more, even though there was no substantial gender difference in the UCAS points held by those surveyed.

Almost 40 years after the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act, there were only two silver linings for women in the research:

• In the not-for-profit sector alone, reported salary levels were roughly equal with those earned by men.
• The minority of women who were earning salaries of £40,000 plus actually recorded higher levels of job satisfaction than their male counterparts.

But the researchers reserved their most forthright comments on the subject for the Law sector: "Compared with the Education sector, female law graduates seeking a professional career should be aware that the profession remains some forty years behind the times with respect to the elimination of gendered career paths."

Strong words indeed!

But Are Things Getting Better?..

The work of Futuretrack shows some aspects of individual choice (degree subject, extra-curricular activity) that can affect future job prospects but you cannot unfortunately choose the year you graduate.

Since 2009, prospects for graduates have been getting better and more recently Careers Advisers are noticing an increasing number of vacancies, for example coming in to the University of Cumbria Jobshop

Even the public sector is starting to recover, with evidence of increasing numbers of vacancies for newly-qualified teachers and something of a shortage of qualified nurses.

More Jobs for Graduates!

A recent Skills and Employment Survey by researchers at the Institute of Education shows that graduate jobs are at a record high and unskilled jobs at a record low. The full results will be launched on 20 May and last week the BBC published the first report on this change in the UK labour market.

According to the report, more than a quarter of jobs are now available solely to graduates – this seems to indicate that many more employers in the UK are recognising the skills and qualities a Higher Education degree gives people the chance to develop.

The change is indicative of a shift in the country’s economy towards a more skills based economy and a move away from unskilled jobs. This is a major shift from the situation for example in the 1980s where only one in 10 jobs required a degree level qualification.

This change doesn’t only affect full time jobs, in fact part time workers have seen the proportion of jobs available to unqualified workers fall by more than half since the mid-1980s

The report also shows that the number of people who are ‘under-employed’ i.e. graduates in non-graduate level jobs is falling year on year, meaning that more people with degree who find employment are likely to find it at the right level.

What this report does not address is those who do not find employment in the first place. It only looks at those graduates who are in a job at the moment.

Overall this is good news for graduates, it means less chance of under-employment, it means employers understand the value of a degree better, it means that there is a growing availability in jobs for graduates, and it means that your degree put you in a great position for jobs that come up. What is doesn’t mean is that there are more jobs out there. It shows a positive development for the future of the UK economy, but competition is still fierce, therefore it’s very important to think about your skills from an employer’s perspective, what is it about you that makes you a good graduate? How have you made the most of your University experience? How can you demonstrate the skills that you have developed and how they transfer to this particular post?

Those are just a few of the question to ask yourself when starting an application process, and don’t forget if you need any help with applications, interviews, CV writing and making the most of developing your Employability during your degree, contact the Careers Team on careers@cumbria.ac.uk with your questions and we’ll be happy to help!

Graduate Jobs Market On The Turn?

According to the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services website a recent survey of Heads of University Careers Services showed some optimistic results on graduate job prospects. The vast majority (90%) of careers bosses surveyed in the last quarter of 2012 felt that the graduate labour market was either becoming more buoyant or at least getting no worse.  80% felt that the position was better or about the same as in the same quarter of 2011.

Finance, construction and engineering were all quoted as areas that were recruiting graduates heavily. Notably some IT and engineering firms starting to have difficulty filling vacancies, and smaller businesses were finding it hard to compete with the salaries and prospects offered by larger companies.

While this all fits in with the overall reduction in unemployment reported in the papers, less good news is that opportunities for graduates in the public sector, on which many University of Cumbria students are largely dependent, have continued to decline, while full-time vacancies are being replaced by part-time jobs and internships.

Any improvement in the graduate labour market must of course be good news but the sad truth is that it probably doesn't make a great deal of difference to many graduates from Cumbria, who are basically faced with the "Shall I stay or shall I go?" question.  Either they pursue attractive job adverts elsewhere, or put up with the more limited prospects available in their home area.

What Use Is (Made of) the University Careers Service?

Somewhat contrary to the views expressed by certain journalists, some recent research findings suggest that users of Higher Education Careers Services are increasingly happy with what they are offered.

Recently graduate research project Futuretrack found that, although 44.4% of final year students never visited their careers office, 84% of those that did said it was very or quite helpful (36.7% very; 47.3% quite) and only 3.1%  said it was not at all helpful.

Meanwhile GTI Media, looking at the networking efforts of students and graduates, found that 54% of those surveyed had networked with employers or professionals working in their area of career interest. Of these, 46% said that the contact had been arranged by their careers service.  This represents a rise of 23% of over the last six years.*

An Underused Resource?

The question would seem to be why less than half of final year students use the service in the first place. While Paul Redmond, current AGCAS President has justifiably pointed out that many students simply do not need to seek out detailed careers advice, there is still a feeling amongst Advisers that their services are underused.

Many graduates who received careers advice after completing their course wished they had done so earlier. But careers advice needs you to make a positive step to engage with it, and one that is surrounded by some uncertainty and not obviously enjoyable. Hence another great truism that the average person spends more time planning their annual holiday than their future career!

Misunderstandings also abound.  Some students are reportedly not aware that they can ask for careers advice.  Advisers note that some believed that they could not ask for help unless they had decided what job they wanted to do, whereas others said they thought the careers service could only help those who had not yet made a careers decision.

At this point, the debate clearly becomes absurd as all University Careers Services will work with both groupings.

Or is that terms like 'careers service', 'careers office', 'careers advice' are just too boring to catch the imagination? At the University of Cumbria we have found that our new Career Ahead Award - which talks more directly about the skills you can gain from engaging with careers has had a very enthusiastic reception from students and staff alike.

*Incidentally an interesting insight from the GTI survey, was that although 97% of respondents realised the importance of increasing their employability, they mainly looked to the internet and email as their main way of communicating with employers - suggesting that students still underestimate the value of social media as a source of employer contacts.

Careers in Marketing - Free Careers Talk at Carlisle

The Institute of Marketing is providing a free careers talk at University of Cumbria's Fusehill Street, Carlisle campus on Tuesday 4th December, 12 noon - 1.00 p.m. in the Learning Gateway (Room LG105).  Main speaker will be the Institute's Regional Director, Diane Earles.

Although recent graduate destination statistics (see recent post) suggest that Marketing graduates do well at finding relevant job opportunities, my contacts tell me that competition for graduate traineeships in marketing remains intense...  So it's advisable to be seriously clued-in if you are considering this area of work in the future.

You can get more information about the local Institute of Marketing branch from their dedicated webpage

Where Do Graduates Go?

"What Do Graduates Do" (see recent post) also contains a breakdown of the likely areas of the UK in which graduates are likely to find their first job, with some interesting analysis according to job sector.

Unsurprisingly, just over a third of all graduates ended up working in South East England and 21% went to jobs in London, although many were concentrated in the City of London and Westminster, a very small geographic area, whereas under 7% took up jobs in North East England and Northern Ireland.

But a look at destinations broken down by career sector showed up some other happy hunting grounds for graduates looking for jobs outside the centre of London:

• Marketing graduates also found work in the London Borough of Camden, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire and Manchester.
• Science graduates were most likely to start work in Oxfordshire or Cambridgeshire but Merseyside, Surrey, Norfolk and Aberdeen (also the main centre for oil and gas engineering) were popular destinations.
• Outside London, Surrey, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Belfast and Tyne and Wear took on IT graduates in considerable numbers.
• Similarly, graduates in Art and Design subjects also found opportunities in Merseyside, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Manchester, Kent, Glasgow and Edfinburgh.

Of course, many career areas (e.g. retail management, energy, public sector jobs) offer a wider geographic spread of opportunities but the overall message is that graduates in less affluent parts of the country will struggle to find graduate jobs locally - and of course none of the areas mentioned fall within Cumbria or North Lancashire.

Incidentally, you can find an online version of "What Do Graduates Do?" 2012 on the HECSU website

What Do Graduates Do?

Although graduate employment levels for 2010-11 were slightly down on the previous year, there were considerable variations between different subjects of study, according to "What Do Graduates Do?" (WDGD) 2012, based on the annual survey of Destinations of Higher Education Leavers that takes place each year.

One career area that clearly bucked the downward trend was Computer Science and IT which showed an 8.5% rise in graduate employment and e-skills UK have forecast that growth in IT employment will grow at twice the UK average until 2020.  Of course, not all entrants into the industry will have studied IT as a main subject at University.

Less good news came unexpectedly from the public sector with a big fall in entrants and the trend extended to include occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiographers, teachers and probation officers.  These areas each offered over 100 posts less than 2010-11 but the biggest drop was in the number of social work entrants, which fell by 420.  This is certainly not great news for the University of Cumbria, which offers courses in all the professions listed except probation.

The report once again showed the importance of self-employment to graduates from performance arts, media production and art and design. 64.6% or artists and 85.3% of musicians were recorded as being self employed or freelancers six months after graduation.

The Business Studies area is one that exemplifies the "mixed message" theme identified in the WDGD report.  Although it shows up with a higher level of unemployment than average (10.1%) and a sharp drop in the numbers going on to further study, each of the key disciplines of Accountancy, Business Management and Marketing showed high levels of graduates going straight into relevant employment.

They were also some of the subjects that produced less graduates working as Retail, Catering, Waiting and Bar staff, a denomination which covers a large number graduates yet to find a suitable career opportunity by the date of the survey - although longitudinal studies show that many succeed in doing so over a longer period of time.

Which Company Is The Biggest Recruiter of Graduates?

According to work done by The Complete University Guide based on the national graduate destination survey, the answer is a little surprising.

You might not have guessed that the biggest recruiter of 2011 graduates was Boots Pharmaceuticals of Nottingham who took on 520 across their various divisions. In second place was the NHS Graduate Management Scheme, accounting for just under 500 graduates.

Seven of the other top ten places were occupied by banking and financial concerns.  The exception was Tesco who came in sixth as the largest UK retail employer.

Incidentally, a recent survey of 2,000 employers by REED suggested that many did not feel that the 2.1 degree stipulation enforced by many top firms was a good criterion for successful recruitment.  96% said that they would prefer applicants who had the right skills and mindset than those with a 2.1.

Careers Advisers have often felt that the rigid insistence on an Upper Second by many companies was an artificial barrier that meant companies were indirectly favouring applicants from more privileged backgrounds. But whether many companies will abandon the 2.1 requirement in favour of more objective criteria in the foreseeable future remains to be seen.

Swings and Roundabouts of Graduate Labour Market

The latest AGCAS* Survey of University Careers Services shows that the overall number of graduate vacancies is holding up well in spite of continuing economic difficulties.

Careers Services reported continuing shortages of well-qualified candidates for IT and engineering positions  and the last quarter showed a noticeable increase in the number of advertising, marketing, sales and purchasing vacancies. Services also mentioned an increase in opportunities for hospitality, retail, leisure and sports managers, graphic designers and many roles in small businesses where flexibility and multiple skills are needed.

Although the continuing decline in public sector vacancies is affecting areas like podiatry, dietetics, education, social work and youth work, and the number of legal traineeships is down, increased activity in other areas has compensated for these losses nationally.

Comment: The University of Cumbria is however heavily dependent on local public sector vacancies for many of its graduates and restricted opportunities in education and social work mean that applicants will often need to widen their initial career aspirations and geographical target area to compete successfully. On the positive side, increased graduate recruitment activity by small businesses can only be good news in a region that has so few large employers.

*Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services

FAQ: Where can I get practice with numeracy, aptitude and personality tests?

We recently researched some Frequently Asked Questions for a forthcoming guideline to help our students and graduates.  Unfortunately there were so many, we couldn't include them all! So this is the first in a mini-series to cover at least some of the ones that got missed out.

The trouble with tests is that no employer will be able to show you exactly what test they will use because it would render the test invalid.  Obviously previous knowledge of the exact test will skew candidates' results.


So where can I get practice with numeracy, aptitude and personality tests?

Fortunately, the increase of careers materials on the internet has meant that a large number of sample tests have become freely available.  We have collected some of the links on our section of the Delicious website and in particular you could try http://www.delicious.com/skillzone/psychometric or
http://www.delicious.com/skillzone/tests

For an overview of the types of tests most commonly used in graduate recruitment, plus some further samples, start with  http://www.prospects.ac.uk/psychometric_tests.htm  Also useful for a broader overview of psychometric and personality tests used in a variety of different occupations is http://www.careergym.com/psychometric_glossary/psychometric_test_types

Even if you end up facing a test you've never heard of, don't press the panic button before you start.  There will invariably be one or two trial items at the very beginning of the test to make sure you understand what's required.

Employers' Use of Testing Alienates Graduates

Another recent article from "Graduate Recruiter" (view earlier post) quotes research by Talent Q UK to suggest that candidates for graduate posts are becoming alienated by employers' use of psychomentric and ability tests.

It all seems to come down an issue of poor communication.  According to the research, employers frequently make basic mistakes like:

•  not explaining why applicants are being asked to take a test and how the results relate to the job
•  not offering feedback on candidates' performance, which breaches requirements of the British Psychological Society
• not telling people why their application failed, which may or may not be down to a poor test result

An additional problem is poor record keeping, resulting in duplication and frustration for applicants.

I am sure many Careers Advisers can report meetings with students and graduates who have been fed up with the sometimes apparently random nature of the tests they were asked to take and the opaque, remote nature of the whole process. Online tests seem to be particularly loathed.  But is there much consistent evidence that candidates with superior test scores really do perform better in the workplace?

Yorkshire Graduate Recruitment Fair

Also on the Careers Fair trail, The Yorkshire Graduate Recruitment Fair takes place on Thursday 31st May between 11.00 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. at The Edge, University of Leeds and is open to graduates of all UK universities.

There will be over 90 employers, CV checks and a series of 10 minute workshops.

Find out more at http://careerfairs.leeds.ac.uk/ygrf/

Manchester Graduate Recruitment Fair

We have received the following reminder notice about the above event from Manchester University:

• Hundreds of graduate jobs (local and national) starting June onwards (mostly permanent and paid, but a handful of voluntary positions too) plus some postgrad course opportunities, all on offer at:  The Graduate Recruitment Fair, Manchester.
• Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 June 2012, 10.30am - 4.00pm, The Armitage Centre, Fallowfield, Manchester.  DIFFERENT EXHIBITORS EACH DAY .
• 160 companies and institutions - with graduate vacancies for this year. Attend on both days if you want to see all the exhibitors.  BRING COPIES OF YOUR CV.
• STUDENTS & GRADUATES FROM ANY UNIVERSITY WELCOME.
• FREE bus from Piccadilly Railway Station to the Armitage Centre and back.
• For details and to register to attend, see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/graduatefair

[ends]

The Manchester event is probably the biggest Graduate Fair within easy travelling of Cumbria, so it's well worth booking a place.

Using Social Media To Find Jobs - Start Now!

Recent articles in "Graduate Recruiter" magazine emphasise that it's never to early for students to start sussing out possible employers using social networks.

Employers are actively seeking to meet potential employees through the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in increasing numbers and increasingly early in your academic career.  There is even a new buzzword for this trend - Recruitment 4.0.

Statistics quoted in "Graduate Recruiter" show that:

• 89% of employers surveyed plan to recruit staff via social media - up massively from the current 8.2% who already do.
• 55% will increase spending on social recruiting while a third will cut back spending on more traditional methods (jobs boards, agencies, etc).

Fascinatingly, a separate survey indicates that 25% of employers using social media to find employees want to make contact with first year students and 14% even look to contact students who are still at school.

It's not quite a case of apply as soon as you start your studies, but clearly digging for employers on Facebook and elsewhere and following their tweets is a strategy that could pay off later on down the line.

Manchester Careers Fairs 2012

Manchester University have announced the details of their careers fairs for the coming year:

Wednesday 13 & Thursday 14 June 2012

Graduate Recruitment Fair for graduate jobs and courses commencing 2012 (different exhibitors each day) - see www.manchester.ac.uk/graduatefair

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Engineering, Science & Technology Fair (graduate jobs and student placements)

Thursday 18 October 2012

Finance, Business & Management Fair (graduate jobs and student placements)

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Law Fair (law firms offering training contracts and placements, course providers offering training courses, professional bodies such as the Bar offering advice)

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Postgraduate Study Fair (universities and training organisations promoting their postgraduate study places for 2013 - NOT a jobs fair for postgraduates)


Full details will soon be available at www.manchester.ac.uk/careers/fairs

It's Not All Doom and Gloom...

Further to the earlier post "What Do Graduates Do?", the AGCAS Quarterly Survey of Vacancies and Employer Activity suggests a positive trend during the summer of 2011.

Vacancies in IT, retail, marketing, advertising and PR all rose during that period, while the survey also reported increased vacancies from smaller companies, some of whom may have been recruiting graduates for the first time.

At the other end of the scale larger companies, who might have ceased recruitment altogether in earlier recessions, have continued taking on graduates - perhaps to avoid future shortages - although many have reduced numbers and are making more use of internships and temporary posts.

AGCAS reports that the overall picture is mixed as there are still plenty of graduates from previous years competing for posts, but there are some clear signs for optimism.

This will be the last post this year, so here's to wish all reading this a Merry Christmas and an Employable New Year!

NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme in Cumbria

The deadline for this year's applications closed last Friday but, for future applicants, some useful information was provided by reps from Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust at last week's Mini Careers Convention.

The Trust is keen to support future Management Trainee placements for all four streams of the programme - General Management, Financial Management, Health Informatics (ICT) and HR.

Management Accountant Simon Norbury tells me that Financial Trainees can chose to qualify with the following Accountancy professional bodies: CIMA, CIPFA or ACCA. I also gather that, separate from the Graduate Scheme, Simon is willing to receive CVs from applicants who hold the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) qualification and wish to become fully qualified accountants.

What Do Graduates Do?

The 2009-10 version of "What Do Graduates Do?", produced annually by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU) based on annual graduate destination surveys has recently become available. It shows some interesting trends in graduate employment as it follows nuances of the economic downturn.

While large numbers 2008 - 09 graduates entered the public sector in preference to previously glamorous opportunities in banking and finance, the trend was reversed in 2009-10 as public expenditure cutbacks started to bite. The financial services sector recovered to 2008 levels with some quite spectacular rises in specific areas, including a 45.9% rise in financial analysts and an 81% rise in personnel and recruitment consultants/advisers.

On the public sector side, the numbers of graduates becoming nurses and teachers did not fall markedly, but there was a general decline in administrative posts in public administration and defence, and there were considerable reductions in the numbers of social workers and physiotherapists recruited.

Overall, the private sector comeback lead to a slight decrease in the level of graduate unemployment (down to 8.5%) although there was little rise in the level of salaries offered.

This is a national survey which doesn't necessarily reflect local trends, but it is interesting to note that the University of Cumbria Jobshop has been receiving large numbers of vacancies for recruitment consultants over the past year. Other frequently advertised opportunities have included information technology, marketing and sales jobs.

For a more detailed look at the current employment situation as perceived by University Careers Services, see www.agcas.org.uk/articles/462-Mixed-picture-on-graduate-jobs-front-HE-careers-services

Do Employment Agencies Use Shady Practices?

A recent encounter with a disgruntled job seeker (who understandably wishes to remain anonymous) has drawn attention to a number of websites that suggest that some employment agencies are prone to using some rather iffy practices. The key accusations levelled are: mentioning spurious vacancies, knocking down clients' salary expectations in order to increase profits and elliciting unnecessary information from clients to promote the agency's own interests.

A quick google leads to web pages such as http://www.contractoruk.com/agencies/recruitment_agency_tricks.html http://www.it-training-advice.com/it-recruitment-agency-tricks.html or http://www.employmentking.co.uk/job-information/recruitment-agencies-a-bit-trickly/ which tell of similar tricks, and a few more besides.

But is it all true? Are some agencies simply disreputable 'bad apples' that let the responsible ones down, or are all agencies prone to using certain 'tricks of the trade'?

A look at the above websites will at least give you a good idea of things to watch out for when dealing with agencies. But how does this all tally with your own experience of employment agencies?

Comments welcome...