Students urged to join the hard sell before graduating

You still have the best part of a semester to go before graduating from university. That is plenty of time to get a job, right? Wrong.

As final-year university students reach the home straight in their pursuit of a degree, industry experts have urged them to actively pursue employment. If not, they risk missing the boat.

With some industries having completed much of their recruitment for next year, acting executive director of Graduate Careers Australia Bruce Guthrie says students should be doing everything they can to make themselves look employable.

That means getting their resumes in order, practising their interview techniques and – most importantly – sending out feelers to potential employers in their chosen fields.

”There is a lot that people can be doing and the sooner that process starts the better,” Mr Guthrie says.

”In fact, some of the recruiters are already done for the year. Some employers like to get in during the first half of the year.

”It doesn’t mean if somebody hasn’t done anything until now they’ve missed the bus.

”It just means that they’ve got to start to focus on what they’ll be doing next year.

”It’s never too late but it’s best to start sooner than later.”

Verity Kingsmill is the graduate skills development co-ordinator at the careers and employer liaison centre at Flinders University. She is responsible for helping students prepare for life after university.

Ms Kingsmill says graduating students rapidly should place themselves in the shop window if they have not done so.

With such areas as nursing, education and many government departments now actively pursuing graduates, Ms Kingsmill says the key is to know what is out there.

”They should be on the websites and having a look at what’s out there and looking at those programs that are closing in the next month or so,” she says.

”It’s a really good time if students are finishing this year to see if they can get to events where they’re talking to employers. It could also be that right now they join some professional associations and start to network with potential employers.”

Nursing student Bianca Hillier, of Hallett Cove, is on the hunt for a job five months out from her graduation. With plenty of competition for nursing placements, Ms Hillier, 20, says it is a nerve-racking experience.

”There are hundreds of us all applying at the moment from all the universities, so it’s pretty competitive,” she says. ”It’s very daunting.

”I haven’t worked full-time. I went straight out of school to university and I just want to make sure I get everything right so I can put my best foot forward. It is pretty scary.”

Accounting is one sector that already has completed much of its graduate recruitment. With most firms recruiting students as early as second year, Peg Miller, of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, says those graduates hoping to move straight into an accounting role desperately need to be seeking out employers.

”The biggest thing I find with graduates is that they say `I’ve sent off a resume’,” Ms Miller says.

”That’s terrific but if they went inside the employer’s agency, they’d see a pile of resumes 200-foot high.

”If an employer has got a job, they’re not going to go to them because they don’t even know if they’re current.

”They should see what employers are out there, go to their website and then ring up that person and have a chat with them because cultures are quite different and employers in the accounting profession are very keen to make sure you’ve got a cultural fit above everything else.”

While many of this year’s top-ranked graduates quickly will be snapped up by big firms, Mr Guthrie says those not at the top of their class need to show they are eager to enter the workforce in their chosen fields.

This means putting themselves in the market right now.

”There’s a desire right across the board from all employers to get the best graduates,” he says. ”That top 10 per cent doesn’t go very far when you’ve got a range of employers looking at them. That’s where those who aren’t maybe in the top 10 per cent have to really sharpen their approach to job applications and their CVs.”

FIND A JOB BEFORE GRADUATING

• Network with employers. This can be done simply by attending employer presentations arranged by a university career service on campus.
• Develop a list of target employers relevant to your discipline.
• Sign up for industry professional association newsletters.
• Develop your employability skills through part-time work relevant to your degree.
• Develop an awareness of the graduate labour market – what your employers want, who will recruit your program, what skills employers are looking for.
• Check your career service website for any vacancies.
• Start to work on your self marketing strategies, your written applications – the cover letter, the resume.
• Think about your interview techniques to prepare for eventual interview down the track.
• Discuss your graduate careers plans with your local career adviser.