Struggling To Find A Job After University? How To Find A Job Fast Guide
So, you complete your degree, head out into the job hunting world and… nothing. If you are struggling to find a job after university, you are not alone. This ‘How To Find A Job Fast Guide’ will show you what you need to do to find a job after university.
About The Author Of This Article On Struggling To Find A Job After University
Just by way of background, the author for this job never had to use a recruitment company for his many jobs before running his own business.
It is not that he was particularly gifted or sought after, just that, as a marketing person, he understood people.
He used this knowledge to obtain jobs fast and easily, often with better pay than expected.
In this article he shares with you how to land your perfect job fast.
If you are serious about getting your first job after university, you should apply what you learn from this guide.
Why Is It So Hard To Get A Job After University?
Most university students complete their university courses at the same time, meaning that thousands of new job entrants appear on the scene together.
Employers have so many applicants to choose from that they can afford to dismiss around 80-90% of them just from looking at their CV. You don’t even get a chance to impress them in a face to face meeting, so that CV has to be perfect, does it not?
More on the CV later, but for now, let’s look at the first tactic for finding your first job after university.
Make Yourself The Lead Candidate In A Race Of Only One
If you were asked how to beat Usain Bolt in a 100m race, unless you are very gifted, you would probably ask only to race him when both of his legs were in plaster casts.
However, what if you could race him and he wasn’t racing? Then you could beat him, couldn’t you?
Of course you could.
You need to do the same thing when it comes to finding your perfect job.
Rather than be one of 1,000 people applying for your dream job, be one of only one person applying.
How do you do this?
Don’t apply for posted jobs, contact companies directly seeking employment.
If you wait for a company to post a job, the chances of you even making an interview are one to many thousands.
However, if you approach a company that you would love to work for, before they even advertise a position (or realise that they need to hire someone new), your chances of being asked in or onto a Zoom increase exponentially.
We have spoken with dozens of former university students and none of them has ever considered this.
Why?
Because they have not been trained that this is a sensible thing to do because no one trains it!
Instead, how people are trained to obtain jobs after university is to do what all university students are taught:
- Trail all of the recruitment job boards, Indeed etc.
- Find jobs you like the look of.
- Apply for them.
You, along with the other thousands of university students do this and miss out on landing your perfect job.
Won’t An Employer Be Annoyed If I Apply For A Job When They Haven’t Advertised One?
Absolutely not!
They will be delighted for several reasons:
- It shows that you have initiative. Employers don’t want someone who just does what everyone else does, they want someone who can think for themselves (just as you have shown by finding this article and doing some research). Applying to them when they are not even advertising a job shows that you have this initiative.
- It makes their recruitment process easier. Instead of trawling through thousands of CV’s, they have time to properly consider yours on its own. It will be given much more time than if you wait until they advertise a job. Wouldn’t you rather the employer who has your perfect job had time on their hands to consider your amazing CV?
- Perhaps, most importantly, if you apply direct and they recruit you, it saves them thousands of pounds that they would usually pay to a recruitment company. As a university student, you probably do not realise this, but a recruitment company will usually charge around 25% of YOUR FIRST YEAR’S SALARY as their fee. If you are looking for a £30,000 per annum job, by applying directly, you save them as much as £7,500 in fees. When you know that, it gives you a little more wiggle room when negotiating your starting salary, does it not? Please just remember where you found this advice when it works (as it will) and share this article with your friends from University.
Which Company Should You Apply To?
If you are struggling to find a job after university, the first thing to do is to make a list of all of the companies that could use your skills. If you want to work for a financial services one, do you want to work for a large one or a small one? If you don’t mind, make a list of all of them, but start with what you want to do and the type of company you want to work for.
Now that you have found a proven method for finding a job after university, don’t waste these skills on getting a job that you don’t actually want, or worse still, will end up hating.
Once you have your list of potential employers, you need to find the right person to apply to.
There are three ways to do this:
- Their website (find the careers page); or
- LinkedIn. If you have the name of the person, this is easy, if not, a quick Google for the company name will usually lead you to their key employees on LinkedIn.
- Call the company and ask for the name of the HR manager or recruitment manager.
The reason that you MUST do this is that applying to one person, the right person will increase your chances of success further still.
Your Job Application To Land Your First Job After University
This next part is crucial. Whilst you are now likely to be in a race of only one of one (or two or three if others adopt the same approach) you still need to go the extra mile to give yourself the maximum chance of success.
Your letter and CV must show that you have done the necessary research to learn something about the business that you are applying to a job for.
With company websites now usually containing so much information, there is no excuse for not personalising your approach to each company.
Once you have scoured LinkedIn and their website, here is a little trick to find any documents that they have published which might give you information not so easily findable to other applicants:
Open a new tab in your browser and search for “Google Advanced Search”.
Click onto it, and when offered, add the website URL and also, as marked in yellow below, select that you only want to see PDF documents:
Once you click on “Advanced Search” you will be presented with any PDF documents on your potential employer’s website.
These can contain incredibly valuable information which you can reference in your application letter or email and again will make you stand out as an applicant who is prepared to go the extra mile – you can clearly think outside of the box.
Your CV
As with your application, you really should personalise your CV for every application that you make. It will only take a few minutes, but if you find previous job advertisements from your potential employer which consistently mentions that they want candidates who are real ‘team players’, or ‘lateral thinkers’ you can now personalise your CV to confirm that you have those skills and provide examples of when you have shown them.
You won’t mention that you know that they like these boxes ticked, but ticked they will be, all due to your extra research!
Struggling To Find A Job After University
You have just been provided with a very simple but proven, successful, formula which will allow you to find your perfect job fast.
Do not think that because you have not paid for it, it is not valuable.
The writer has used these skills himself and also for his family.
They work.
As stated, when they work for you, please remember where you heard them first and come back and share this article with your friends and colleagues.
It is not just about how to find your dream job after university, but how to find your dream job at any time.
For more reading, here are some more resources that will help you to find your dream job.
This first book is the Go To Book for how to get anything you want, from making a sale to landing a dream job. Whilst not written for the job market, if you apply the training in here it will lead to you landing your dream job and quickly too: