Worried about employment after college

numnumcake

Hi everyone I was wondering if anyone would be able to give me some advice.

I am going into my final year of college this September and I'm doing a degree in commerce and HR. My results are pretty average and I am expecting to graduate with around a 2.2 and if I'm lucky a 2.1.

I have very little work experience. I found it really hard to get any type of part time work where I live. I tried handing in CV's but I didn't get anywhere and me or my family don't have any contacts that could get me a summer job. I am currently on work placement at the moment and I'm getting really good experience and hopefully now that I have some experience I will find it easier to find part time employment next year.

Lately I'v started panicking about the future. When I look at some of my friends CV's they have really good grades, years of work experience and other achievements also. I just feel like I won't stand a chance next to everyone else and I will end up unemployed.

Could anyone give me advice on what graduate recruitment is based on? Is it all about grades and experience or more about personality etc. I am a hard worker and my supervisor has given me very positive feedback on my work experience. I'm just afraid that employers will see my lack of work experience as lazy and not take into account that I found it really hard to find work.

Any help at all would be appreciated! Thanks.

blindsider

See if you can volunteer in a company - in an are you're interested in. If not try a local charity - shop or centre. I imagine there are charities who would like some admin done etc - might not be glamorous, but it's experience and you'd be doing sth worthwhile.

If none of that works, try e.g. your local Tidy Towns Committee - they're usually busy this time of year. Or a sports club - someone to do up timetables, rosters, posters etc. You'd never know what contacts you'd make......

Employers won't expect you to have extensive experience - but a little always looks good.

InReality

Any sort of work experience is useful.
What I've found is that if you can show you learned something from it thats the key.

So say any shop job you could learn about dealing with the public in general , peoples expectations , emotions , complaints , how you normally react to people complaints , having a good boss , what they do , having a bad boss , going to work when you don't feel like.

Everything you learn in that job can be useful in another job.

When I was in college I thought getting a job would all be about the grade I got.
What an employeer actaully wants is someone who can do *their* job.
The more jobs you can learn from and bring to their job the better.
The grades are used as a cut-off but thats about it.

All IMO of course.

danthefan

If you've a year left - I would work really hard and try get the 2.1. In 5 or 10 years it's not going to matter a damn but the fact is grades are one major way companies differentiate between graduates.

Just on work experience, I've recently completely changed fields but I was able to draw on a huge amount from job A that would be relevant to job B, despite them ostensibly having nothing to do with each other.

Other than that, it's about how you perform in interviews imo. Know the company, know what they do, know the role you're applying for.

Tarzana

danthefan wrote: »

If you've a year left - I would work really hard and try get the 2.1. In 5 or 10 years it's not going to matter a damn but the fact is grades are one major way companies differentiate between graduates.

+1

OP, I had a third at end of 3rd year and went on to get a 2:1. Now it does depend on the course and college. My fourth year counted for 90% of the final degree grade with the final 10% going on third year, so I suppose I was lucky. I know it can be harder to achieve this on other courses.

Jim2007

numnumcake wrote: »

Could anyone give me advice on what graduate recruitment is based on? Is it all about grades and experience or more about personality etc.

Well there is not point in beating about the bush... Grades are the number one driver when it comes to graduate recruitment. It is the first filter that will be applied to narrow down the list for interviews. But as others have pointed out, you've got a year to go, work your ass of at getting a 2.1, so you have a fighting chance.

That said, the next best thing to grades is not work experience, but networking. As they say, it is not what you know, it's who you know! Make it your business to get involved in activities that will enable you to build up contacts that could help you in the job search. Look for volunteer projects, seminars, company open day activities and so on. If you don't know where to find these groups have a look at meetup.com, it may have something to offer in your area.

And the other ray of home is to keep in mind that you are an EU citizen and you have every right to live and work in any part of the EU or the EEA for that matter. There are plenty of opportunities out there for the taking, if you focus on it. The thing is that once you leave the British Isles, your degree becomes more valuable because college attendance in mainland Europe is much lower. For instance here in Switzerland only about 10 of secondary school kids get to go to college. And there are lots of European MNCs running graduate programs in English to follow up on. Here are a few examples of what is out there: Cargill, Commerzbank, EON, Ericsson....

So work hard to get the best results over the coming year and try to do a bit of networking.