In the current job market gaining graduate level employment soon after graduation maybe more difficult than you think. In 2017 CIPD revealed that only 52% of graduates ended up in graduate level employment. This means that bagging an internship is paramount to getting noticed and gain the experience that employers are looking for, paving the way towards a successful graduate career.
Graduate level jobs- Recruitment international
In this post I am going to recommend a 4-step process to help you on your way to bagging an awesome internship and getting you on the right path to achieve your dreams.
Step 1- Search for a suitable employer
You may think this is the easiest step of the process but you are wrong. One way to find internships is through online resources, these include: Reed, Indeed, Milk round, Rate my placement and many others. Using these resources will allow you to sift out the employers you would like to be employed by. To be a successful applicant you should be looking to find an employer with similar core values to yourself, this will ensure that when you join the business you will know the expectations placed on you and that you know what kind of culture you are expecting from the organisation, you can find this information on your company of interests’ website.
Step 2- Invest time in applying
Now you have found the company that you want to apply to. You now need to make sure that you have done your research on the organisation, and yes, this does mean that you need to read the companies mission statement, values, services and blog. You need to do this so that when you write up your application you know about the business and how you fit into their recruitment needs. This will allow you to sell the organisation your skills and traits and tell them why they need you and relate it back to the organisation and their values. If you send off a generic application that is completely unrelated to the business they will see that you have put little effort into the application and select someone who has put hard work into applying to the organisation.
Step 3- Prepare for the interview
After putting on a great performance in the application stage of the process you now need to make sure you ace the interview. You will be able to do this through diligent research. You will do this by looking at what services and products the organisation provides, find out what your role will entail and look at what information the organisation post on social media. You will need to prepare questions to ask your interviewer, this could include asking about opportunities for full time work or progression within the organisation. Also, you must prepare examples of situations you have been in in the past in which to highlight your exceptional skills and abilities. This will enable you to answer questions put to you in depth and leave you looking like a competent candidate and ready to take on the responsibilities of the job upon becoming successful.
Step 4- Accept the offer
You have been selected, well done! But hold on, stop and think first, was the company definitely somewhere you want to work or do you have another offer from another job, and if so you are in a very fortunate position where you can select your favourite of the offers. Some key points you may want to consider before accepting a job should be; did the recruitment team portray the business in a positive light and did they make you feel welcome? If they did, great. All you have to do now is accept the offer and you have just bagged yourself an awesome internship. Congratulations best of luck and I hope you learn lots.
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