First day jitters: what not to do in a new grad role
In eight years in PR I have interviewed around 80 grads and hired 12. While some have been über-impressive from day one, others have left me underwhelmed. Below is a list of the 10 things I have identified that can make your employer question whether hiring you was the right decision: 1. Not engage with [...]
Getting over job rejections: A word of advice from a graduate
Job hunting can be an intimidating process that affects our morale, overall confidence and the perceptions we have of ourselves. After searching for a graduate job for 3 months, I have to admit that I have found more questions than answers about myself and my subsequent role in the graduate job market. Those 3 months, [...]
Top Ten Unusual Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships have been around since the dawn of civilisation. Four thousand years ago, artisans were required by law to pass on their craft to youngsters in ancient Babylonia. Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome all had formal trainees. Apprenticeships are still alive and kicking in the UK today, and, to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week, we’ve searched [...]
Education Council boosts graduate jobs
Graduate employment is given a boost as an increased number of businesses work with universities and more people are participating in internships says report. 15/07/2011 The report by The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), said 31% of graduates involved in the scheme had been offered long-term or permanent positions by their employer, while [...]
You get what you pay for – why unpaid internships fail
Guest blog post by Heather Baker, Managing Director, Topline Communications Any small business owner knows that the key to success (or at least the key to not failing) is to keep costs low while building the company’s name and growing its client base. In the PR industry, this is especially tough because our ability to [...]
The new graduate job ethos: flexibility is the key to Gen Y careers
Recent graduates have a tendency to form an increasingly transient workforce, demanding flexibility and shifting careers more than any generation before them. There are vast differences between recent graduates’ innate abilities and attitudes towards work compared to previous generations. Current graduates tend to be more financially and technically savvy, have a greater focus earlier on [...]
Want more graduate jobs? Here’s an idea
A new survey has revealed that there are now 83 applicants for every graduate job – but industry experts have stunned Graduate Fog by insisting the new figures are not cause for concern, with one even saying he is “cautiously optimistic” about today’s findings. Accoding to the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), the number of [...]
We must grow talent for tomorrow
It used to be commonplace for students to be sponsored through university. The most affluent students by far in my day were the medics who had contracted to join the army for a few years on graduation, and in return drew a junior officer’s pay for the six years of their training. Less well-off but [...]
Graduate jobs ‘rise despite record applicants per post’
Graduate job opportunities in the UK are set to rise by 2.6% this year, despite record application numbers for each vacancy, a survey has suggested. Average applications per job have risen to 83 in 2011, from 69 in 2010, 49 in 2009 and 31 in 2008, the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) said. Its bi-annual [...]
What can I do with an English degree?
English students have a lot to offer prospective employers, with more experience working in an inter-disciplinary capacity than colleagues from some other degree backgrounds. While they may worry that their degree will be seen as a vague choice, in practice it will have given them a broad understanding of how to interpret texts that is [...]