Follow Friday: Graduate Recruitment on Twitter December 3, 2010
Posted by helencurry in networking.Tags: graduate recruitment, graduate schemes, job hunting, networking, Twitter
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Image by joelaz (Flickr)
Active UK graduate recruitment accounts on Twitter
- RPM Ltd – marketing – @rpmgrads
- Cushman & Wakefield – real estate – @cushwakegrads
- Mercer – consulting, outsourcing, investments – @mercergradrecuk
- Teach First – @TeachFirst
- Centrica Grads – energy – @centricagrads
- Jaguar Landrover – @jaguarlandrover
- Unilever – @unilevergradsuk
- Addleshaw Goddard LLP – law – @AGgrads
- Linklaters LLP – law – @linklatersgrads
- Mishcon de Reya LLP – law – @mishcongrads
- Vodafone – @graduaterecruit
- Xerox Europe - @xeroxstudents
See also Graduate Recruitment on Facebook
Follow Friday: Graduate recruitment on Facebook November 26, 2010
Posted by helencurry in networking.Tags: Facebook, graduate jobs, graduate recruitment, networking
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Image by columnfive (Flickr)
Active UK graduate recruitment pages and groups run by companies and organisations. In no particular order…
- National Audit Office
- Mercer
- TeachFirst
- Centrica
- Unilever
- Cobbetts LLP
- NHS Graduate Management
- KPMG
- PwC
- Reed
- Cisco – Global
- Cisco - European Markets – UK & Ireland
- Fujitsu
- IBM - UK Graduates & Students
Know of any more?
New careers guide for final year students October 22, 2010
Posted by tcginfo in careers guides, job hunting, applications and assessment.Tags: careers advice, employer presentations, employers, graduate, graduate recruitment, graduate schemes, London, student
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Click on the image for PDF
The Finalist Directory is a handy all-in-one careers guide for any student in their final year. It contains advice on:
- Career inspiration
- Job hunting
- Networking
- Personal statements
- Application letters
- Interviews
- Entrepreneurship
- Postgraduate study
It also has listings of upcoming employer presentations in London, and graduate schemes that are currently recruiting. Looking at these opportunities, some of them are closing quite soon in November, and others are ’rolling’ so they will take applications until places are filled (which might be sooner than you think) so my top tip is apply now, don’t wait for the closing dates!
The idea was to visualize the theme of guide as a helper. This guide answers questions that are asked by students when they’re choosing their own way in future career path, postgraduate education.
Well done Karina!
What employers want: what do careers advisers know about it anyway? August 26, 2010
Posted by tcginfo in job hunting, applications and assessment.Tags: bloomberg, careers, CHP consulting, graduate recruitment, graduate schemes, IT, Sainsbury's, what employers want
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The Careers Group‘s careers advisers are regularly out-and-about meeting employers, attending open days and interviewing recent graduates to find out what graduates need to do to get that job. For each visit they will write up a report and share it with colleagues across the group so everyone can stay up-to-date. Some of our advisers have even started to share these reports online on their blogs, so if you want to know what employers want too, check these out:
- Graduate Opportunities at Bloomberg – QM Jobs blog
- Some Application Tips – CHP Consulting (IT) – Getting into Development
- Sainsbury’s Graduate Recruitment 2011 – Getting into Development
- Top tips from recruiters – 5 posts including videos, from Unilever, Santander, FreshMinds, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Cushman and Wakefield - UCL Careers Service blog
- Returning home after graduation? 10 top tips to support your job-hunting! - Tips from almuni – UCL International Students blog
Returning home after graduation? 10 top tips to support your job-hunting!
Is your CV heading for the shredder? August 17, 2010
Posted by helencurry in CVs.Tags: applications, curriculum vitae, CV, CVs, graduate recruiters, graduate recruitment, graduates, linkedin, recruiters, students
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Photo by Matthijs Rouw
Recruiters are having their say about common CV mistakes to avoid in The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) LinkedIn discussion group – some useful tips here that I had to share.
Mistakes to avoid:
- Poor spelling and grammar (as ever – but they all say it!)
- Unusual formatting – it should be easy to scan.
- Hard-to-find contact details
- Targeting another company/job
- Too long – two pages is the standard for graduates in the UK, unless it is for an academic position. You can always put ‘references available on request’ instead of lengthy referee contact details
- Awkward copy and paste
- Not specifying the necessary grades when the position has minimum requirements
Stating they have four A-levels ranging from A* to C is of no help… I’ll cynically assume there were more Cs than A*s!
- Last-minute applications – tolerance levels go down when recruiters are swamped by a rush of applications at deadline-time
- Use of tiny fonts and slim margins to cram in more text – instead make strategic cuts to highlight the best, stand-out content.
- Cover letters that begin “Dear Recruiter”…
It is so easy to pick up the phone to find out the name of the lead recruiter – a personal approach is so much more powerful.
- Crazy fonts and colour schemes – often inappropriate for traditional corporate roles, though it can be good for creatives…
- Obvious template CVs – recruiters do get familiar with some of them!
Practice psychometric and aptitude tests – update August 12, 2010
Posted by helencurry in psychometric and personality testing.Tags: aptitude tests, e-tray, graduate recruitment, personality test, problem-solving, psychometric tests, reasoning
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Image by http://www.emiliogarcia.org/
Prepare for an assessment centre, or learn more about yourself and your abilities, by using these resources to try out graduate-level aptitude tests.
Since my blog post last year, University of London careers services have now subscribed to an online testing service so students can practice numerical and verbal tests that will be just like the tests recruiters use, and get detailed feedback - get in touch with your careers service to request an account. The careers service may also run workshops, or appointments with a careers adviser where you can discuss your results and approaches to the tests.
Books
Our latest acquisition
Your careers service library will have plenty of books where you can work through examples of specific kinds of tests - we have these in our collection if you are looking for recommendations. Recruiters will usually be happy to tell you exactly which kinds of tests you will be sitting – numerical and verbal reasoning are typical, but you might also get personality, diagrammatic, abstract reasoning or profession-related tests that are quite different.
Tip – check out the practice test supplied by the recruiter before doing too much practice, there is quite a bit of variability in difficulty level and current graduate tests can be at a more challenging level than some books.
Online tests
There are a lot of websites out there that offer practice psychometric tests, if you do decide to buy a product, as I mentioned before, check sample questions carefully first. The following is a slightly different version of the last list, this time with a focus on free tests supplied by graduate recruiters.
Disclaimer: Please use your own judgement and be especially wary of any service which asks you to pay! No responsibility will be taken by, the Unversity of London, or The Careers Group, for loss or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from the use of services or information provided by the maintainers of these links.
Multiple tests available
These suppliers are used by recruiters, so are an excellent first choice for preparation.
- SHL – practice numerical, verbal, mechanical, inductive reasoning and an online interview test. Each takes 20-25 minutes. SHL are a major supplier of aptitude tests, so these ones are particularly good to practice.
- Kenexa – practice numerical, verbal and logical reasoning tests.
(Also worth a look are these pages on the University of Kent Careers Service site that include a wide range of practice questions)
Problem solving
- McKinsey – practice problem-solving test for consulting
Reasoning
- P&G Careers – Practice reasoning test for Procter & Gamble – available in a number of languages.
e-Tray
- Civil Service fast stream – example e-tray exercise
- PWC – interactive challenges – a week-in-the-life exercise, somewhat similar to e-tray
Strengths
- Ernst & Young – discover your strengths – useful if you are more interested in choosing your career than preparing for specific assessment centre tests
Let me know what you make of them, and leave a comment if you know of any more you recommend.
The Guardian London Graduate Fair from The Careers Group June 16, 2010
Posted by helencurry in careers fairs.Tags: careers fairs, graduate fair, graduate recruiters, graduate recruitment, job hunting, London, networking, The Careers Group
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Don’t forget, our big graduate recruitment fair is coming soon! Put the 23rd and 24th of June in your diary, and sign-up online to get in first (and enter the draw for a 737 flight simulator experience – want!).
The fair is free to any and all comers, whether you are a current student or a graduate, a University of London alumnus or from further afield.
We have 96 exhibitors booked and confirmed, so there will be plenty of options to explore, including the Civil Service, KPMG, Waitrose, Haymarket Media Group, The Army, IBM, London Fire Brigade, Teach First, The Body Shop, Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET scheme)… need I go on? Plus, many more further study, training, recruitment agencies and gap year organisations. This makes the fair even bigger and better than last year, so if you are worrying about getting a job this summer, it’s all happening here!
For more information see the fair website – http://www.londongradfair.co.uk/summer/ Where you can also sign up for workshops, and check out the schedule of career sector talks and employer presentations.
For the latest news on exhibitors, follow:
- Twitter – http://twitter.com/londongradfair
- Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/londongradfair
And before you go, remember to check out these previous posts for top tips about how to make the most of the fair and impress those recruiters!
Five things to do before The Guardian London Graduate Fair June 10, 2009
Posted by helencurry in careers fairs.Tags: careers, careers fair, careers fairs, fair, graduate recruitment, graduates, London, recruitment, The Guardian London Graduate Fair, tips
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- Check out what is going on. The fair runs over two days, 16th-17th June, and there’s more than just employer stands. There are talks from our careers advisers on the job market in various sectors (very useful at the moment), plenty of exhibitor presentations, as well as careers workshops. Check out the presentations programme so you can plan your visit to fit.
- Prepare yourself for some networking. Many people find networking intimidating, but the fair is all about making a connection with an employer and finding out more. Here are some examples of questions to ask well as links to further resources.
- Get your CV checked at your university careers service in advance of the fair. It is worth bringing a number of copies of your CV for employers who ask for them. These CVs should be the real deal – spell-checked, polished, and printed on good quality paper. You can get a CV check at the fair, but the queue does get very long (over 30 mins) and you don’t want to waste time standing around. It’s much easier to get it done beforehand!
- Research. You can see who is exhibiting at the fair here and who they are looking for. Do some research on the companies you are interested in beforehand so you can impress the employers with informed questions.
- Plan to get there early and get to the front of the queue so you can get the attention of employers first. It is easier to make an impression at the beginning, and the employers will still be ‘fresh’ – by the end of the day everyone gets tired from talking to so many people in a busy environment. Pre-register and you can get in an hour before everyone else.
There are many more tips in the recruitment fairs podcast from The Guardian.
Interview questions: real-life examples February 26, 2009
Posted by tcginfo in interviews.Tags: graduate, graduate recruitment, interview, Interviews, job interviews, questions
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As my previous posts on interview questions have proved very popular, I thought I’d just put up a short list of some websites where you can find real-life interview questions that candidates have reported being asked.
- eFinancialCareers.co.uk – interview questions for graduate programmes and internships in financial institutions
- WikiJob – covers major employers in a range of sectors. Check out both the employer pages and the forums where students report their experiences.
- Whatwilltheyask.co.uk – covers a range of sectors, with personal reports on specific jobs. There aren’t as many on here, but it is still useful if you can find just what you want.
- Prospects – the student forums are quite active, so it might be worth posting details of the interview you have coming up in the Applications and Interviews forum, and seeing what information or support people can offer.
All these sites are dependent on students sharing their experiences every year, so if you use them do submit your experiences to them afterwards. eFinancialCareers are even offering a draw for an iPod nano as an incentive
And just a word of caution, recruiters can change questions and indeed whole recruitment strategies without warning, so check the dates of these student reports, and use these as guidance rather than a definitive programme.
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Practice graduate recruitment selection tests February 24, 2009
Posted by helencurry in selection tests.Tags: ability, aptitude, aptitude tests, graduate, graduate recruitment, numeracy, personality test, Personality Testing, psychometric tests, selection, selection tests, tests
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To start with, I have to mention our excellent information sheet on psychometric tests available here. Prepared by a group of careers advisers, this leaflet provides the best introduction to different types of selection tests: aptitude, numeracy, verbal and personality tests. At the end of the sheet there is also a list of books to help you prepare and a few websites, so I definitely recommend you take a look at that first. This Prospects page also provides a good overview of the tests with examples.
In this post I just wanted to list a few more online practice tests and websites, to highlight the fact that there are plenty of opportunities for free practice.
The tests can be fun to do (well maybe the personality ones more than the rest…) and quite revealing, so even if you haven’t got any assessment centres lined up, they may help you with your career choices.
Multiple tests available
- SHL – practice numerical, verbal, personality, motivation and inductive reasoning tests, and online interviews. SHL are a major supplier of aptitude tests, so these ones are particularly good to practice. Complete a practice ability test by the 31st March 09 and as well as getting free feedback, you will be entered into a draw for a 120GB iPod!
- ASE – practice numerical, verbal, non-verbal, abstract, spatial and mechanical reasoning tests. Practice test no longer available – 18/05/09
- Kenexa – practice numerical, verbal and logical reasoning tests.
- Psychometric Success - practice numerical, verbal and abstract reasoning, spatial, technical and clerical aptitude tests. More information on different types of test is available on their website.
- TimesOnline - practice personality, verbal and numerical tests.
Numeracy
- Top Employers - Graduate Jobs Numeracy Game. Written by investment bankers, this test includes graphs, charts and data interpretation questions based on a pool of 200 questions.
- eFinancialCareers – numerical tests, similar to those used by investment banks. Optional timer to increase the pressure and simulate real test conditions.
Reasoning
- P&G Careers – Practice reasoning test for Procter & Gamble – available in a number of languages.
Personality
- Keirsey temperament sorter - Personality test – the basic report is free, just note there is a scale of prices for more detailed results. The questions here are a similar style to the MBTI testing we do through University of London careers services. MBTI workshops for non-students are available through C2 Careers.
Computer programming
- Berger aptitude for programming test- sample questions
Many firms who use aptitude and psychometric tests will provide details and sample questions on their own recruitment sites, like Procter & Gamble above, so it is worth checking their website. If they don’t and you have been invited to an assessment centre, you could try emailing your contact there to see if they will tell you which tests are being used. They might not want to give too much information (sometimes recruiters prefer candidates to be unprepared so the tests are more ‘honest’), but it won’t do any harm to send a short, polite query. You can also check WikiJob to see if there is an entry for that company, as they often outline which tests have been used.
For more resources to help you prepare, including lots of relevant books, try browsing the Careers Tagged listings for psychometric and aptitude tests.
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