This article about job seeking piqued my interest – it made some very good points, even in the title, where it mentioned the unrealistic expectations of graduates. My only issue with it is I felt the author absolved both companies and recruitment agencies of too much responsibility. I think the problem is divided equally between job-seekers, universities, recruitment agencies and companies.
Tips for Recruitment Agencies
- Be truthful about the job specs. If you represent a sales job as something else, you will be wasting everybody’s time with a candidate that isn’t interested & doesn’t have the requisite skills.
- Be clear about the offered salary. If you label annual renumeration as open to negotiation, give it a price range.
- Think long term. It may be tempting to get someone into a job for the commission but if they’re gone in six months, the company will think twice about working with you again.
Tips for Universities
- Encourage your students to attend job clubs. Teach them how to get published, how to write a CV, how to get an internship.
- Be realistic about their job and salary prospects. My generation were all told we’d be on £22,000 within a couple of years of graduation. The only one of my peers who managed that had an MBA.
- Give the students proper vocational training. Organise work placements and vocational training in addition to academic learning.
Tips for Companies
- Be realistic. If you offer a salary of £12,000 a year, you are going to have to train that person. They will probably be young (most people with responsibilities can’t afford to work for that kind of money) and need guidance.
- Along with recruitment agencies, be honest about the kind of work, salary and perks on offer. Otherwise you will quickly have a bitter, less than motivated employee on your hands.
- Offer internships, apprenticeships and work placements for students. After all, complaining that students don’t have the skills for the workplace is hypocritical if you aren’t willing to develop those skills.
- Don’t ask ridiculous psych questions. You’ll get much more of a picture of someone’s personality by engaging them in conversation, particularly en route to the interview room.
Tips for Jobseekers
- Again, be realistic. You aren’t going to have your own office, a company car or a 6 figure salary just out of uni. You will be surprised at how little you know and how much training you will need.
- Dress appropriately for interviews. Suit is good, shirt and tailored trousers / skirt is better. Look like you, but look smart & efficient.
- Word process your CV and application. I’ve literally seen an application filled in with felt tip pens. Run a spell checker and a wary eye over your text and email it over in plenty of time.
- Get as much work experience as you possibly can while at university. Most students will have to take on paid work while at uni anyway. Supplement this with vocation appropriate internships if you can afford to, or a job in an office if you can’t.
- Read job adverts carefully. Particularly scrutinise adverts that say ‘account manager’, ‘fun office’, ‘modelling’, ‘unlimited earnings potential’, etc.
- Be careful not to do too much work for free. This may seem paradoxical, but there’s a world of difference between getting to learn from a qualified and intelligent person in the field you want to work, and doing the filing for six months.
Job seekers and companies have the most responsibility for ensuring transparency and mutual respect. Misrepresenting yourself may seem like the best route if you’re desperate for a job, or are seriously understaffed, but there’s really no point. You’ll leave / have to sack the person within a few months, a year at best, unless they are particularly adaptable. That’s fine if the job is low skilled, but if training and development is involved, you have to be incredibly careful. Both parties should also remember that corporate culture is important – employees often find that being pleasant and non-disruptive can be more of a plus than being a competent high achiever – because if you are unpleasant to people, you will be disrupting the productivity of your company, and impacting the bottom line, no matter how skilled you are in other areas.
