How to get a job? Top recruiters reveal industry secrets

Because I've been feeling a little fed up with getting nowhere at all on the job application front, I decided to do a little bit of interviewing for graduate advice. I asked three top recruiting agencies what their advice was when it came to graduates who were just trying to get their feet in the doors.

"You find a lot of graduates with lots of experience in one area, be it university events or sport organisation blindly applying for sales jobs. They think they have the skills, but if they aren't passionate about earning money and reaching targets then they'll never get that job. Transferable skills aren't really valued any more. Instead, you need blind, focused experience."

What about for those grads who just aren't sure what they want and are trying to make their minds up in a difficult job market?

"Those sorts of grads won't get jobs in today's market. The market is so competitive these days that you won't get a job if you just want to 'try it out'. I advise all grads who aren't sure what they want to do to complete some kind of internship or unpaid work placement so they can get a real taste for the field they want to go into".

On average, how many job applications do you get per job? 

"Well, obviously it completely depends, but often no fewer than 800 per job. Often the numbers push into the thousands for the more popular jobs."

And how do recruiters whittle down 1000 to 1?

"By reading and evaluating applications carefully and eradicating ones with silly mistakes or those with not enough experience." 

Are you sure that they don't just throw half in the bin to reduce numbers, I jokingly asked?

"Of course not." Icy silence.

So how do people get that elusive job then?

"By having exceptional amounts of experience, a CV that stands out, and an excellent degree result."

How do graduates get lots of experience?

"By doing unpaid work experience."

And how do they afford that when they come out of university with lots of debt?

"I know, the job market is incredibly tough right now. But graduates will just have to take a further loan out, or ask their parents for more help to get the experience."

What's the most common mistake graduates make on applications?

"Apart from strange punctuation sometimes, it's sending out the same generic CV and covering letter to every employer. More time needs to be spent on these CVs. If you're going to be competing against 1000 other applicants, it really has to be top notch. Also, graduates often apply for events assistants after working in events at university. It just isn't the same. You need more experience."

Any tips or advice?

"Don't forget, in this market, you're often competing against people who have been made redundant in these areas. A lot of the time senior events managers are applying for junior jobs, editors are applying for editorial assistantships. You have to be very, very good to stand out.".

I thanked them all for their time. 

JobHungryGrad says enough when...

...When I get rejected from a job I didn't even apply for. For some reason I had an email in my inbox telling me that Deutsche Bank were unable to continue my application for the position of Analyst.

Well, er great?

How has it come to this?

Are companies actively seeking me out just to send me rejection letters for kicks?

Deutsche Bank: at least let me spend three days writing and perfecting my application to you before you reject me next time!

JobHungryGrad is hungry...

...for a job

If you know of one that doesn't include the words 'recruitment' or 'media sales' in the title, it will probably be good enough for me.

Unfortunately in 2013, you don't get to choose your career, just the way you cope with what's dealt to you.

Bisous and thanks all

x

Pret: Just be thankful...

Thankful though I am to be allowed to nest in the corner of Pret a Manger eating Sea Salt and Cider Vinegar hand cooked crisps and drinking Americanos, one thing the JobHungryGrad is very grateful for is not having to work at Pret.

Here is some insane job related information about Pret:

• Apparently Pret employs 1 in 14 applicants, which is an insanely small number. 
• Pret employees have to demonstrate that they are 'inwardly happy with themselves'. 
• Mystery shoppers use Pret once a week. When I worked at a very well known restaurant chain we were threatened with mystery shoppers all the time but we never got one once, because we never had any feedback from them.

Nobody who works at Pret can be inwardly happy. Is anybody really inwardly happy? Am I being a miserable JHG whose just jealous of people who work at Pret because they're employed?

 Maybe. 

Graduates: Are these even real jobs?

Just a quick question. Everyone is always telling me that there are millions of jobs available. Log on to www.guardian.co.uk/jobs and you'll see that there are hundreds for graduates.

You know the ones, the ones that say base salary £18000, potential OTE £80k!!

But are they real? Are they good? Are they all essentially advertising the same jobs? To become cold callers?

Did all of us JobHungryGrads out there really get a first from Hertford College. Oxford to cold call people? Or a Masters from Newcastle to ask people whether they want froth on their cappuccino  Of course we did, now quit complaining, and here, below are a selection of jobs that are *always* available.

Are they even real? If you do one of these jobs, what on earth do you do? And do you ever earn the promised £100k OTE? Do you heck.

• Social Media Sales role, £25K -£50K

  • London (City of)
  • Very Competitive
  Very fast paced environment which rewards those who work hard

• Social Media Specialist - London - £35k - International In-house Wine Company

  • Greater London
  • Up to £35k (DOE) with Great Benefits
  My client, a international Wine company, seek a Social Media Specialist/Online Community Manager to join their sociable and talented team. 

  Because all the graduates I know are specialists in Social Media, after completing a 3 year philosophy degree

Why it's important not to isolate yourself

Pret a Manger provides comfortable seats, ample plug sockets and an environment of white noise. At this Pret in Victoria, I'm starting to recognise the people around me. A teacher to my left, who comes to Pret to mark his papers in his free lesson periods. The server who knows what coffee I want in the morning (although the real coffee I want here is 'None Pret, your coffee tastes like grit') and the two girls who have more work coffee breaks than I'm sure their company allows.

It's nowhere near as sociable and friendly as a real workplace, but at least JobHungryGrad doesn't feel isolated and stuck at home.

I think isolation is the most danger that an unemployed graduate looking for work can put themselves in. There is a feeling that its totally possible to disappear from society and that nobody would notice. You, locked alone in your house, in a London suburb, could very easily disappear from the network and no-one would know. Of course, it's not true, but full days of having to converse with your mind, your fingers, and whoever might email you during the working day can leave you with a sense of solitude to the extent that you  start to feel as though you might be auditioning for the leading role in Gabriel Garcia Marquez' seminal tome.

If you're one of these filthy job-hunting scroungers, get to a coffee shop, zone into your work for the week and get on it. Hint number two: dress up. I'm wearing formal clothes because it makes me feel as though I'm 'really' working. Wear a hoody and gym leggings and chances are people won't take you quite as seriously.

Plus, good things come from working in coffee shops looking nice:

• On friday I got asked out on a date by a hot Danish guy 
• I've been given business cards from people after we've got chatting and they've heard my sad and desperate JobHungrySadGrad situation
• I got free coffee in Pret last week. I KNOW. 

Plus be courteous with your table/laptop space, or if you want to annoy telegraph readers, go crazy:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9254698/Wi-fi-lingerers-in-coffee-shops-are-causing-territorial-disputes-academic-research-finds.html

It has been six days...

It has been 6 days since I last posted in this blog. Congratulations, JobHungryGrad must be busy with her new, high-powered 9-5 executive graduate position! Well done JobHungryGrad!

*Cue hollow laugh

Instead I have been writing. Writing won't get me a high powered 9-5 but it has brought me a sense of fulfillment and happiness. But that's not as important as money, is it? Because when we die, after a short average of 78 years on this beautiful, wonderful planet we call home, whether or not we achieved enlightenment will be ignored: instead what will count is the financial legacy that we will leave to our children and grandchildren.

Isn't it?

Recently, I watched all three (long story) of my grandmothers die or grow old while losing all the money they had managed to put away for a 'rainy day' because they had money, so they had to pay full fees for their nursing homes or house-care. Those who had less, were given grants or their 'fees' for these NHS services were subsidized.

This is not me, at 23, throwing down my towel and declaring that from now on, I will forgo work because I don't want to pay my nursing home fees. That would be ridiculous. But my generation now has a painful and lengthy period of financial woe ahead of us: in my graduate job I worked my ass off. And for what? My current housemates get in at 10pm and leave at 6am. Why? And for what?

For money? To survive? To achieve? To fulfill their ambition?

Or because we are expected to?

What is the right thing to do?

My generation has many questions, and perhaps, Messrs Cameron and Clegg, we'd like them answered. Where will all this lead, and when will this stupidity, this waste of human resources cease? 

Life cannot continue like this.